Busy as a…

An executive director once told me employees don’t have to be happy at work. I didn’t believe him, until I did.

I had believed that a happy employee meant an engaged employee. Everyone wants engaged employees. They bring it: the A game, the passion, the commitment to the organization. They’ll take on any project they can because the organization matters to them that much. Happiness and engagement, they’re not the same thing.

A former colleague of mine knows everything there is to know about the content for which he is responsible. He deals with everyone with good cheer. He comes to work on time, leaves on time, and is pleasant to be around. If anyone needs help, he makes sure to get the answer. And he couldn’t give a second thought to joining in the office get-togethers, large team meetings, or any of the activities we’ve come to know as employee engagement.

The guy is happy. He gets his work done well. He has not aspired to a more senior level. Losing him would be a challenge for the organization. Does it matter if the typical engagement tactics fail to reach him?

The perils of passion

He might just have the right idea. My nerd crush Dr. Adam Grant recently posted about how managers tend to stack the work weight on those employees who show more initiative¹. The more eagerness (re: engagement) an employee shows, the more likely their direct supervisors are to give them more work, seeing it as a reward. The authors call this “motive oversimplification,” which, in fairness, sounds like eating too much pasta at a buffet. Being recognized as someone who can take on more work might feel like a reward. When it keeps happening, it takes more out of an employee than it gives back, making the extra tasks feel like a punishment. After all, employees in this situation are carrying a heavier workload without tangible rewards, like extra time off or more pay. They may instead end up being taken for granted. <—that’s going to be a future post.

But engagement!

Yes to engagement. It really does matter, but in a different context than in trying to squeeze the most we can out of every person. Engagement keeps people with an organization. It can lower stress and create a more satisfying culture. As a communicator, I naturally gravitate to thinking about how to unclog internal communications channels as one effective way to bolster engagement. After all, knowing enough about what is going on in an organization has real merit for everyone involved:

• Staff can avoid duplicating work that another group is doing
• They may have ideas about how to connect projects happening with other teams, creating greater efficiencies or improvements
• Understanding the direction an organization is going and knowing what is important can shape how employees approach their work

Want to create an excellent workplace? Focus more on removing barriers than providing regular cake and ping pong tournies. Our teams are not clones of each other, or of us as leaders. We have to do the work of putting the right structures in place, so our teams can thrive as themselves. If we want them to be busy like bees, we need to be sure they know how to tell each other where the pollen is. They need to be able to fly around of their own. They need to know the rules of the hive, too. But they don’t need to be overproducing to be valued and valuable. They just need to bee.

Engagement is more about making sure our teams feel safe, included, and capable than it is about making them feel happy or that they need to take on more work to get noticed. Beelieve it.