Boris. Burnout, and Bloody Britain. And why does this matter for your work?

Posted July 8, 2022

Many of my readers are not from Britain. But many are. And so they will know that this week our news has mainly been about one thing: our (ex?) Prime Minister, our government imploding and the debacle of his leaving (or not leaving office.)

Whether you like him or his party or not . This week has had a record number of resignations. The likes of which a UK government has NEVER seen. And in the most spectacular way. So many people left. That TV companies made a resignation counter in the top of their commentaries…

If / when so many senior people leave. More than ever before. Be you a government or a company. You have to realise something is UP. You don’t need a team engagement platform like Your FLOCK to know this…

No S$%^ Sherlock.

But surely this is just politics and nothing to do with work? Well… Obviously if your job is politics then it has something to do with work. But even for the millions of us (none politicians) what our leaders DO. Makes a BIG difference to our lives.

And what Boris did was create a pretty toxic workplace culture. And this is why this HAS to have something to do with the future of work.

For example, Not communicating properly or keeping us in the dark is a BIG work problem. With

“Employees who say their manager is not good at communicating are 23% more likely to experience mental health declines.”

This was one of the facts that came up at the IoIC festival I was lucky enough to keynote at this week. And then be part of the write up from the amazing Helen Deverell. In which she said…

“The brilliant Dan Sodergren, co-founder of YourFlock, made the case for world-class communication in a changing world full of uncertainty, hybrid working, and the implementation of AI.”

Which was very kind of her. It was a cracking speech and the use of AI is something that I truly believe will HELP the world become a better place. Especially the world of work. And for many of us in the professional services sectors. And even in marketing. Just not yet in recruitment and HR – for reasons I talked about a while ago.

The festival was a breath of fresh air for me. And it was lovely to get down to Nottingham. And into a field, and a festival, and the open spaces. And finally meet people I have wanted to meet for ages. And talk about the future of work.

And one thing we were all pretty sure about. Was the need for a national holiday or two. And the worrying rise of burnout around the great resignation and the great reset piece. One of the reasons for this is the lack of “psychological safety” in our workplaces. And even communities and lives. To this I would add the need for some more psychological sunshine too.

Psychological sunshine.

Don’t get me wrong. I truly believe the whole world deserves to take the whole of August off and have a BIG old think. Which one company is reported to be doing. And I have a feeling more might follow as people threaten to leave. And we take those OWED holiday days which we never took during the pandemic. Anyone remember that? The lockdowns, the uncertainty, the working all hours as there was nothing else to do.

No wonder productivity went up. But that leap in productivity has come at a cost. As I chatted about with business psychologist Lisa Lloyd. On her lovely podcast Beyond The Water Cooler.

Where amongst other things we talked about…

Employees in the UK need recognition more than other countries; a fact we can’t ignore
The role of quality data and tech to improve employee engagement and retention
Feedback to inform employee needs and priorities that are straight forward to action

As in the UK – we are presently craving recognition more than any other European country. Which means…

“Nearly three in four UK employees feel they deserve more recognition for the work they do”

And yet many UK bosses do not give it. This is a real danger as without it people leave. Remember we don’t leave bad jobs, we tend to leave bad BOSSES.

On that note…

Burnout and Boris and the quickest government jobs ever

This newsletter is about the future of work. And the future of work for Boris Johnson (real name is…..) is looking more and more uncertain. What is certain is that he appointed people who then resigned from their jobs. At a rate that has NEVER been seen before in UK politics.

For example Michelle Donelan.

Who spent just one full day in the role of education secretary for the UK Government.

But what might surprise you is that under UK law for politicians.

The Ministerial and Other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991 that those resigning from office.

Are entitled to 25% of the annual salaries they were paid when holding that office.

The annual salary!

I kid you not.

Analysis by the Liberal Democrats says that as well as the outgoing Prime Minister himself receiving £18,860. For pretty much being fired. There will be a total bill to the taxpayer of £423,000 for those that resigned in the 24 hours.

Michelle Donelan, mentioned previously, will be entitled to a redundancy payment of almost £17,000, the Lib Dem party claims.

WOW.

SO …. IS IT JUST FOR THE CASH?

This is not a dig at Tory politicians. That’s for a different newsletter. BUT it’s interesting to see if they give that money back. The money which is public purse. Or they instead keep £17,000 for doing ONE DAYS WORK.

Which I can guess was only onboarding and I also think she might not have even set foot in parliament for her new role.

So would it be right for her to keep the money? Some people believe so. So its interesting to see that not ALL people are motivated just by money. As more and more studies are showing we don’t need or even WANT more money. And yet employers are increasing wages. In a vain attempt to keep people (which I understand is more about inflation) but…

A really interesting new study explores the connections between money and happiness. Suggesting that up to a certain point, greater wealth is associated with greater happiness.

“Studies have also shown that there’s a cutoff point after which, for the average person, more money no longer seems to increase life satisfaction.

(In the US, that cutoff point is an annual household income of $105,000.)”

Working this out in pounds. (If you need to) that’s about £85,000. If the pound keeps going up. As it is doing after the world has heard that Boris is leaving…

And remember this is for the household, not the individual.

Which means that most politicians would be there already. So would most lawyers and small law firms – which Your FLOCK work with.

“As of 2022 the annual salary for Members of Parliament in the United Kingdom was £84,144.”

And remember many of them have (and are allowed to have) second jobs too. And many of them have very successful partners as well. Often for reasons connected with their positions in government (See…. Michelle Donelan)

So what’s my point here for the future of work?

It might be to become a politician. Or at least get connected into one as quickly as possible. For easy money.

But it’s not that cynical.

It’s that more and more studies are showing us. For the average person. (Their words not mine.) That keeping employees happy and keeping ourselves happy is NOT about more money.

In fact, giving people more money might instead make them less likely to remember the WHY of why they do what they do. Unless that is simply to get money.

Those that work ONLY for the money are in a dangerous position. And sadly one sometimes enforced upon them. But not always.

As I concluded in my keynote for the IoIC – that the future of work is not what you think. It’s what you LOVE doing. As loving their work is what the machines CANNOT do.

Believe you me…

Machines and computers can and will do more of your work in the very near future. Does this mean you will be paid more? I very much doubt it.

But perhaps you don’t need to be. To be happy. However In April 2021 the median gross annual pay in the UK was £25,971. With this rising in Inner London to £33,327.

And so a household would need at least two wage earners to be “Happy”

Something that doesn’t make me happy. But at least I am happy at work. The question is … Are you?

And if not – what can your boss or team leader do about it? One scary fact is that 35% of them don’t even consider employee engagement to something they should worry about.