Worried about workplace wellbeing?
Continuing our series, ‘Is work a social problem?’, Sarah Hutt asks, how can generosity contribute to better wellbeing at work?
I jumped in a taxi last week and got chatting with my driver beyond just the uber ban.
He moved from Bangladesh to Britain 14 years ago but what surprised me was that he pinpointed this move as the start of a complete shift towards generosity. He had stopped living for himself, and had started focussing on what he could do for others: “Even something as simple as giving someone a cup of water — that gives me such joy, to see their joy.”
As my taxi driver’s story illustrates, we often don’t instinctively think that generosity is something to prioritise. It can seem like a cost to our progress rather than a fundamental element to our wellbeing.
Yet evidence on wellbeing points towards the reality we have probably all experienced anecdotally: it feels good to help others!
The New Economics Foundation was commissioned by the UK Government to develop a set of evidence based actions to improve personal well-being (defined as “feeling good” and “functioning well”). They cut the list down to 5. Number 5? Giving.
They write: “Helping, sharing, giving and team-orientated behaviours are likely to be associated with an increased sense of self-worth and positive feelings…..By contrast, a set of actions that focuses only on narrow, more-inward looking activities is unlikely to be wholly effective in promoting well-being.”
This is something we should all think about when considering the our working lives.
The up-side is that businesses benefit too: how do you increase your employee’s wellbeing? Open up opportunities for them to give. As Adam Grant’s insightful Ted Talk explores, people who give are incredibly valuable for organisations and we need to make it culturally OK for them to do so.
At BeyondMe, we have the pleasure of seeing the impact that our teams make for others, and the impact that it has on how they view themselves and their work.
But if you personally are sceptical, why not test the theory? Try giving and see whether you’ll be catching an taxi in a couple of weeks’ time talking about how generosity is the world’s best kept secret to happiness.
