We are emotional creatures

The workplace is not an emotion-free environment. There are high and lows, joys and frustrations. Friendships and estrangements, entanglements and abandonments. The place is full of people, after all.

During a recent conflict-resolution training session, I heard several participants describe their goal for the day to learn how to remove emotion from the workplace. This concerns me.

First of all, it’s not realistic. Emotion is an integral part of human experience, and it will be part of our reality whether we want it there or not. Second, even if it were possible, I don’t consider it desirable. Workers are people, not machines. Unlike machines, people have needs: for fulfillment, accomplishment, connection, excitement, validation, hope. Today’s public service worker is increasingly involved in knowledge work, which requires them to bring their full attention to the proverbial table. In order to be fully present, to have their ‘head in the game’, our workers need their hearts taken care of. Their emotional needs matter.

An emotionally healthy workplace has positive effects on business outcomes: decreased turnover, increased discretionary effort, decreased absenteeism (and presenteeism).

It’s also a better place to work.

None of this means that we should all be friends, or hold hands, or tiptoe around issues, or avoid accountability. What does mean is that emotional human considerations need to be part of our decision making, and part of the picture when we are attempting to lead. We must understand that people, being people, bring their whole messy selves to the table. The goal ought not be to remove that dimension, but to find ways to work with it.