"At its best, work provides us the ability to support ourselves and our loved ones, and can also provide us with a sense of meaning, opportunities for growth, and community." So says the Surgeon General's Framework for Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being.

As many of us know, however, work often doesn't function "at its best."

Work burnout

According to the World Health Organisation, work burnout is characterised by being depleted or exhausted at work; feeling distant from one's job, including feeling cynical about it; and reduced professional effectiveness.

This appears to be increasingly common. For example, in a recent national survey of American workers, more than half (57 percent) reported they were experiencing at least a moderate amount of work burnout.

Oftentimes, work stress and burnout stem from factors beyond our control. But, is there anything we can do that would help us cope with work-related difficulties? Is there anything we can do to thrive?

Incorporating spirituality

Something many of us haven't really considered is how the spiritual part of our lives might relate to our work lives.

Approximately 86 percent of American adults report being at least somewhat spiritual, and for those who have integrated spirituality into their work, studies suggests significant benefits.

In a recent review of research, for example, workplace spirituality was said to have "significant potential to influence workers and organisations in meaningful ways, fostering integrated (rather than segmented) lives and giving rise to personal and organisational well-being."

Below are four suggestions for how we might meaningfully incorporate spirituality into work. Read more

• Andy Tix, Ph.D., is a professor, writer, and consultant with expertise in the psychology of well-being, religion, and spirituality.

We're experiencing this at Microsoft, and today we shared how we're evolving our own hybrid work strategy for our 160,000+ employees around the world.

We're all learning as we go, but we know two things for sure: flexible work is here to stay, and the talent landscape has fundamentally shifted.

Remote work has created new job opportunities for some, offered more family time, and provided options for whether or when to commute. But there are also challenges ahead.

Teams have become more siloed this year and digital exhaustion is a real and unsustainable threat.

With over 40 percent of the global workforce considering leaving their employer this year, a thoughtful approach to hybrid work will be critical for attracting and retaining diverse talent.

To help organizations through the transition, the 2021 Work Trend Index outlines findings from a study of more than 30,000 people in 31 countries and an analysis of trillions of productivity and labour signals across Microsoft 365 and LinkedIn.

It also includes perspectives from experts who have spent decades studying collaboration, social capital, and space design at work for decades.

Read on to explore how the year 2020 created lasting changes to the way we work, and the seven trends that will shape the future of a hybrid work world.

Flexible work is here to stay

Employees want the best of both worlds: over 70 percent of workers want flexible remote work options to continue, while over 65 percent are craving more in-person time with their teams.

To prepare, 66 per cent of business decision-makers are considering redesigning physical spaces to better accommodate hybrid work environments.

The data is clear: extreme flexibility and hybrid work will define the post-pandemic workplace.

It's equally important to note, however, that leaders may be too narrowly focused on where to invest.

Even after a year of working from home, 42 per cent of employees say they lack essential office supplies at home, and one in 10 don't have an adequate internet connection to do their job.

Yet, over 46 percent say their employer does not help them with remote work expenses.

Last year's move to remote work boosted feelings of inclusion for workers because everyone was in the same virtual room.

The move to hybrid will break that mold and it will be a new and important objective to ensure employees are given the flexibility to work when and where they want, as well as the tools they need to equally contribute from wherever they happen to be.

6 more trends

• Leaders are out of touch with employees and need a wake-up call
• High productivity is masking an exhausted workforce
• Gen Z is at risk and will need to be re-energised
• Shrinking networks are endangering innovation
• Authenticity will spur productivity and wellbeing
• Talent is everywhere in a hybrid world

Continue reading

She gets up at 6.30am every morning to prepare breakfast for her employer's children, sets out their clothes, makes their lunches and then gets them off to school.

The baby needs changing and needs to be bathed and then, when she has a few minutes to herself, she prepares a simple meal for herself before she tackles the other jobs that her employer has set out for her.

Her working day can end anywhere between 7.00am and 11 at night depending on whether the employer decides to go out socialising, which is often.

By the time 7pm comes around she is feeling the effects of her long day but the dishes still have to be done, as do the other chores that have been allocated to her.

She is shouted at or abused and sometimes prodded or hit. She has had things thrown at her if her employer feels in a bad mood or when things are not going well for her employer.

She has to bear the brunt of her employer's poor behaviour, poor communication skills and because of tiredness.

The dream of lifting herself from her poverty trap in her native country is quickly turning into a nightmare in this so-called island paradise.

She, like thousands and thousands of her people, are desperate to get out of their country to better themselves and their families left behind and they will work any job independent of whether they can do it or not, such is their desperation.

Many of her people pose as employment agents for workers like her either in her own country or in other countries that need foreign workers.

There are also many like her who have married locals and because of their language skills, knowledge of theirs and the local culture use these skills to bring in more like themselves and one would think that they treat them as family.

A recent article in a New Zealand publication shows that often as not, they are preyed upon by the very people you might think would protect and look after them in a foreign country.

The exorbitant fees are just the tip of the iceberg for those in the feeding chain, cashing in on the plight of these foreign workers.

What they charge could feed a family for many years, but workers apply by the thousands and sign up for huge loan fees to work in a myriad of jobs that are on offer in overseas countries.

The money she earns will pay off these loan sharks and provide her and her family with a lifestyle and education they can only dream about back in their cash-strapped economies and overcrowded cities and rural poverty.

They are sold on a dream and because many of them do not speak English sufficiently or understand legal documents, they are prey to the unscrupulous actions of some agents who are in collusion with Rarotongan employers.

Some Rarotongan employers do not carry out due diligence with these agents and get sold a crock and this can lead to abuse of the foreign worker through no particular fault of their own.

Employers fudge the contracts of employment by changing conditions of the contract at a whim to suit their own selfish needs and in total disregard of the worker's needs or the fact that their foreign worker may have other plans.

Sometimes the employer deducts money at source for spurious reasons and does not pay overtime rates even when the law states they must.

No PAYE, no CINSF deducted or matched by the employer.

They disregard her day off by forcing or coercing her to return to work.

By the time Joanne looks at her pay slip (if she gets one), she has been working for less than $2 per hour.

Joanne has not seen her passport since she arrived as her employer has kept it for ‘safe keeping' and she does not know if she has a bona fide work permit, despite asking her employer for it.

If she wants to leave her employer, the passport is withheld to keep her here and there are frightening scenes of this happening in industry not just in home employment.

People like Joanne may or may not be getting the award wage and they may or may not be working a 40-hour week.

It depends on the contract and the way it is written, which is often aimed at extracting the most benefit for the employer.

However, the employer is only able to get away with these draconian contracts because there is very little oversight once people like her come into the country.

A 40 hour working week for Joanne is a nonsense because she works six days a week from sunup to sundown and sometimes more.

Her average working hours are between 72 and 90, with only the 40 hours being paid.

There is no overtime.

These are conditions that are akin to modern day slavery and it is quite a common scenario in this Christian country we call the Cook Islands.

Immigration struggles with foreign worker complaints and does not have the resources or budget or capacity to follow up on each and every employer who has a foreign worker.

The only time that they do act is when an employer wants their foreign worker to be repatriated and spins a yarn to Immigration to get them out of the country, claiming they are bad employees and should be blacklisted.

Immigration does not have the capacity to follow up on the employer's allegations and thus only hears one side of the story and in many cases an injustice is perpetrated on a foreign worker.

In its defence, Immigraiton has been collaborating with the internal affairs ministry to provide an inter-agency response to allegations against foreign workers by Rarotongan employers.

But it is a challenge getting some immigration officials to accept that in many cases the foreign employee may be the aggrieved party and not the employer.

Joanne, like many of the workers from her country, only wants a fair go from her Cook Islands employers.

These people want to be treated with dignity and fairness, but they are not getting this from some employers.

They don't want to be treated like slaves or children, or abused or coerced, or work or live in slave-like conditions, they want what you and I want.

Is it too hard to be provided with a roof over your head, be paid what you are worth, to have food in your kopu, to be able to educate your children and to be able to take rest and recreation and to socialise without fear of being told off?

These are basic human rights which are being abused and or manipulated by some local employers.

A final story: A traveller was left beaten and robbed by the wayside.

People of means and status in the community walked by and paid him no heed. A person of little means stopped and gave aid and support to this traveller despite them being of different cultures and faith.

This is what you/we need to be doing.

Regardless of who the people of means and status in our community are, we, like the Good Samaritan, need to step up and take these local employers aside and tell them this is not the Cook Islands way.

Workers, if they abuse you, that tells you what sort of people they are: greedy, seedy and definitely not needy. And most importantly, not what you would consider as a friend.

First published by Cook Islands News.
Republished with permission.

We had spent the past several hours huddled together as Hurricane Andrew battered our South Florida neighborhood with torrential rain and winds near 170 miles per hour.

We saw pieces of homes strewn across the landscape, power lines flung about like pieces of string, and sea creatures stranded in trees, having been blown far inland by the storm.

Like thousands of others, we survived the storm and the many dark days that followed because of the kindness of strangers who brought food, water, and comfort.

Hurricane Andrew forged a deep sense of connection and community in South Florida as the nation rallied around us and as we supported each other.

But slowly, as normal life resumed, the distance between people returned. We went back to our homes, our work, our schools, and our lives, and once again we grew apart.

Looking today at so many other places around the world ravaged by disasters of all kinds, I think about how often tragedy brings us together — and how fleeting that connection often is.

There is good reason to be concerned about social connection in our current world. Loneliness is a growing health epidemic.

We live in the most technologically connected age in the history of civilization, yet rates of loneliness have doubled since the 1980s. Today, over 40% of adults in America report feeling lonely, and research suggests that the real number may well be higher.

Additionally, the number of people who report having a close confidante in their lives has been declining over the past few decades. In the workplace, many employees — and half of CEOs — report feeling lonely in their roles. Continue reading

Sources

• Harvard Business Review article by Vice Admiral Vivek H. Murthy, who served as the 19th Surgeon General of the United States, from 2014 to 2017.
• Image: Woman's Day

First, the panellists interviewed a washed-up pop star. Then, a demonstration of how to cook spaghetti in your microwave (hint: don't).

But it was the next segment that made an old bloke shuffle over and stab the off button.

Look. I can hardly throw stones at cheap daytime filler.

I spent the 1990s not in a haze of teenage drug experimentation, but in a television-induced state of catatonia. School holidays were spent glued to shows like Oprah.

"You're not respecting my authentic self," I told my startled father - parroting an Oprah "life expert" - when he ordered me to switch off the damn television and get some exercise.

It's one thing to defile the food of my ancestors. But when commercial TV proffers comically bad "self-care tips" - tone-deaf to its own viewers - it can no longer wonder why those viewers are disappearing.

Back in the waiting room, incredulity turned to anger as a guest on the show explained how to "beat work stress".

A former corporate executive, she'd become burned out after 20 years of highly-paid employment. So she took stock in the south of France, then reinvented herself as a "work-life balance consultant".

When you become overwhelmed by meetings, she urged viewers, take 10 minutes to meditate. Brew a pot of peppermint tea. "Centre yourself" with a walk in the sun. Book a day spa treatment.

Have the "courage" to ask for a raise. Above all, "learn" to leave the office by 6pm - and don't answer if your boss calls at night. You know, just work less.

This was not well-received by the patients.

"Actually," a 60-something woman snapped at the screen, "I need to work more."

A man in a chain store uniform suggested the advice-giver stick her tips (and her teapot) in an anatomically improbable place. Then the old guy got up and hit the power button, prompting sighs of relief. Continue reading

• Michael Lallo is an entertainment reporter for The Age.

Maybe it's because the great Patrick Lencioni will be on campus next week.

Maybe it's because my desk is a pile of papers each facing a different direction … but I have been thinking a lot about work recently.

I looked up saintly advice on how to do it better.

Here is what I found.

1. Clean Your Desk (At Least Once a Week.)

I say this with great trepidation, because of the aforesaid condition of my desk, but I think you're supposed to keep your desk clean.

I even once confessed my messy desk to a priest.

For my penance he told me to organize my desk.

I said, No, that was impossible, and he gave me a different penance.

Pope Benedict spoke about both confession and cleaning your desk when he said:

"It is very helpful to confess with a certain regularity.

"It is true our sins are always the same; but we clean our homes, our rooms, at least once a week even if the dirt is always the same, in order to live in cleanliness, in order to start again.

"Otherwise, the dirt might not be seen, but it builds up."

This is a powerful quote for me because it suggests that I am neither cleaning my desk often enough nor going to confession enough.

But I am going to start, so that the clutter might not build up until it is not seen.

2. Ignore your email when you get home.

I have always admired people who do not respond to my frantic weekend work e-mails until Monday.

By leaving their work at work, they are following the advice of two recent popes.

Pope John Paul said it with his philosophical profundity: "Work is for man and not man for work." —St. John Paul II.

… and Pope Francis said it with his slightly snarky directness. Modern work habits are "slave labor, work that enslaves." Continue reading

Source

• Tom Hoopes in Catholic Vote

Tom Hoopes is writer in residence at Benedictine College, in Atchison, Kansas, where he teaches in the Journalism and Mass Communications Department.

The Institute targets school leavers over 15 and mature people looking for jobs, according to Pulotu Arthur Solomon, one of the founders and directors of the Institute.

He says "jobs" are at the heart of the institute's programmes.

In comparison with other tertiary institutes, M.H.I.'s point of difference is that they incorporate a work experience component into their programme with a view to employment at the successful completion of their certificates or diplomas.

The Martin Hautus Institute, The Pacific Peoples Learning Institute, was established by Pulotu Arthur and Maretta Solomon in 1990. They saw the divide in education for school leavers (who did not gain university entrance) and also mature learners.

They started with five students in Mangere, South Auckland just over 23 years ago and today have two campuses (Mangere and Onehunga) and a student body, which annually numbers over 300. MHI is a category 1 establishment and in 2011 was given a "highly confident" rating by the New Zealand Qualifications Authority (NZQA) for both self assessment and education outcomes during their Education Evaluation

Martin Hautus is named after two of Mr Solomon's close colleagues during his 21 years of teaching at De La Salle College. John Martin was a disciplinarian who was meant to spend two terms at the college but stayed for 10.

Brother Matthew Hautus was a Lasallian Brother who was keen on education and a scholar.

Source

• Samoa Observer
• Image: Samoa Observer

Meaningful work for the young worker is the theme of this year

Members of the Transport and Industrial Relations Select Committee considering the Employment Relations Amendment Bill were handed copies of Caritas' Social Justice Week booklet Walk Alongside.

‘We're inviting Church members, and indeed the whole community, to consider ways to accompany young people struggling to find secure and meaningful work,' said Caritas Director Julianne Hickey.

Social Justice week is run annually by the Catholic Church to highlight a topical social justice issue. Continue reading

• Oral Submission
• Written Submission

Summary of written submission:

• The dignity of work and those who work is a core message of Catholic social teaching.
• Workers, direct employers and indirect employers are all called on to achieve the common good in workplaces. This includes fair and just wages and working conditions, and the right and duty to work in solidarity to protect the most vulnerable.
• The Bill does not achieve the Government's stated aim to ensure a ‘balance of fairness' for employers and employees.
• Most changes in the Bill increase the weighting in favour of the more powerful bargaining side. In most cases this will be at the expense of the most vulnerable workers.
• Caritas opposes changes in the Bill which increase the vulnerability of workers.
• In particular we oppose the changes to ‘good faith' bargaining, the 30-day collective agreement provision for new employees, and the Section 6A protection of vulnerable workers.
• We support the extension to employees who can seek flexibility in employment arrangements, but wish to see this strengthened.
• We have concerns about time expectations for Employment Relations Authority determinations, and support the submission of the Employment Court seeking the flexibility to deliver written determinations where appropriate.
• Caritas would like to speak to the Select Committee in support of our submission.

The Australian research, published in the international Journal of Family Studies, challenges the conventional wisdom that stay-at-home mums bond better with their babies.

The findings suggest mothers who miss their babies or feel guilty about heading back to work may try to compensate through affection and attention.

Mothers who stay at home with their babies for more than six months become more "distant" parents than those who return to work sooner, the research shows.

"Distant parenting means less warmth and affection towards the child," one of the authors, Nina Lucas, said yesterday.

Ms Lucas, of Melbourne's Parenting Research Centre, said these mothers felt less close to their child. She suggested mothers who had to rush back into the workplace might be more "intense" parents during their time at home.

"Mothers who took a short period of leave felt more warm and affectionate towards their child than those who took longer," she said. "This . . . might be because women parent more intensely when they know they have limited time."

The researchers also have good news for mothers who spend longer at home with their newborns before returning to work - they become calmer parents. The research - based on interviews with nearly 10,000 mothers - reveals those who take more maternity leave have less "psychological distress" two or three years later. Continue reading

Image: The Australian

"Without daily prayer," Pope Benedict said in his Wednesday morning general audience in St. Peter's Square, "our action is empty" and "loses its deep soul, resulting in a simple activism that eventually leaves (us) unsatisfied."

For the Church, Pope Benedict said, "charity and justice are not only social actions," but also "spiritual actions" done "in light of the Holy Spirit." Continue reading

Researchers found a link between how happy someone was in their personal life and how satisfied they were in their job - especially among the main earners in households.

But this did not extend to anyone attempting to use work to compensate for unhappiness in their personal life.

One of the researchers, Professor Yannis Georgellis from Kingston University in London, said: "The life and work domains are definitely correlated. Happiness at home affects your job and vice versa."

Continue reading 'Unhappy at home? Work won't make up for it.'

Sources

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Dubai 92