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INTRODUCTION

Work can take up many hours in our lives. So if work makes us feel unwell or unhappy, it can have a big impact. In this episode, Phil and Pippa talk about how the way you feel affects the way you work, with Zofia Bajorek from the institute for Employment Studies.

TRANSCRIPT

Pippa
What does it mean to feel well at work?

Zofia Bajorek
But it's about giving them meaning, purpose, enjoyment, satisfaction, and to somewhere to thrive at work.

Phil
In today's episode of Learning English for Work, we're talking about how the way you feel affects the way you work.

Pippa
Hello and welcome to Learning English for Work, our podcast to help you improve your business English. I'm Pippa.

Phil
And I'm Phil. You can find a transcript for this episode to read along on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Pippa
Phil, do you think it's important to have good wellbeing at work?

Phil
Yeah, I think it's really important because, we spend so much time at work and if you don't feel well at work, it can, it can really affect the rest of your life, I think. So, yeah. It's really important, I think.

Pippa
Yeah, absolutely. As you say, we spend many hours of our week at work, and I think it's really hard if things aren't going well at work, to leave those problems at work and go home and just be fine. And businesses try lots of things to try and help us feel good at work. So in recent years, lots of companies have introduced a lot of wellbeing perks. So things like yoga or meditation or even free breakfast in the office to try and help people feel good at work. But do these kinds of things actually make us feel better?

Phil
Yes. Today we're going to be talking all about wellbeing at work. How do companies try to keep employees happy at work? And how can we thrive in our jobs?

Pippa
To help us with these questions. I spoke to Zofia Bajorek from the Institute for Employment Studies. Zofia researches the things employers can do to keep their employees healthy and happy.

How are you?

Zofia Bajorek
Yeah. I'm good. How are you, Pippa?

Pippa
I'm great. Could you introduce yourself in terms of who you are and what you do, please?

Zofia Bajorek
Of course. So I'm Doctor Zofia Bajorek and I'm a senior research fellow at the Institute for Employment Studies. And so what that means is that I do a lot of research and evaluations into the world of work, workplace policy, and I specifically very much look at the work of health and wellbeing in the workplace, good line managerial practice and essentially how we can make work good for people.

Pippa
OK. So what do we mean by sort of wellbeing and all of those things that you mentioned about work being kind of good for us? I think on a really, really basic fundamental level, it's about not making people ill at work or maintaining somebody's health at work. If you take that up, I suppose, a level, when you're looking at somebody's wellbeing, it's about how you can balance somebody's emotions. So if somebody's got positive wellbeing, then you would expect somebody to experience more positive emotions. They'll be happier. They'll feel joy in the workplace. They might feel more satisfied with what they're doing. And if somebody has got poorer wellbeing, then they might display emotions such as sadness or anxiety or depression.

Pippa
So Phil, wellbeing at work is about our physical, mental and emotional health. But for Zofia, true work wellbeing is also about enjoying your job and being satisfied with the work that you do.

Zofia Bajorek
But I would argue that workplace wellbeing is fundamentally more than ensuring somebody's happy at work, that it's about giving them meaning, purpose, enjoyment, satisfaction and somewhere to thrive at work. And it's also about protecting staff, making sure that they don't get ill, or preventing employees who might already be ill from getting worse.

Pippa
Yeah. And I suppose I can see the benefits of all those things from an employee perspective, but how would you kind of see this from the perspective of the employer, the business? How should they think about wellbeing?

Zofia Bajorek
Well, going back to that, I think if you've got somebody who's feeling happy and energised and wanting to come into work, then they'll fundamentally do a good job for you. They'll be more committed. They'll be more creative, innovative. They'll be wanting to throw themselves into work and do the best that they can for the organisation, and they'll give you good outputs. They'll be more productive. There'll be less sickness absence, less what we call presenteeism, when people come to work when they might not be well and so their productivity might be inhibited. You know, they'll, people will just want to give more and to show the organisation that they're willing to go that extra step.

Phil
OK. So it sounds like people being happy and well at work can be good for individuals and for businesses too. I wonder, though, Pippa, what does research show actually helps employees feel happy at work? Is it those perks, like you mentioned at the start of the programme, the free breakfast and meditation? Or is it something else?

Pippa
Well, Zofia says it's about an idea that she calls good work. So this is feeling happy and satisfied with the work that you do.

Zofia Bajorek
So that's things like making sure that people have autonomy over when and how and the speed in which they work. They have employee voice. They feel comfortable to say what they want to say at work, but they have good support, good line management, good flexibility, fairness. They're rewarded fairly for what they're doing. So we have that evidence to show that good quality work works. But in practice what we see in organisations are, what we call organisations implementing the sparkly things such as fruit baskets on a Monday morning or gym passes, or head massages. Now, I'm not knocking organisations that do this. You know, anything that gives an employee a little bit of a boost at some points is always going to be welcome. But that isn't going to make the long-lasting changes to, to wellbeing as focusing on the good work is.

Pippa
Yeah. I was going to ask what is the most important thing, if you could kind of get all employers to do one thing what would it be? But maybe it's not that simple.

Zofia Bajorek
I would say it's not that simple unfortunately. So I have a, I have a little mantra that I go by when I talk about developing good work and wellbeing practices. And it's a three-point triangle. So the first is looking at good work. The second, I would say is, well, do organisations know how well their, how well their employees are at the first place? And do, or do organisations need better evidence to show what needs to be done? Then I would say the third corner is the role of of the good line manager. Because essentially a line manager plays a critical role in how people manage or experience work. They are there to make sure that your wellbeing isn't affected by work, to make sure that you are healthy at work. So in your one-to-one meetings, not only should they be asking you about, you know, how are your projects? Are you meeting your deadlines? Fundamentally, the first question in a line managerial one-to-one should be how are you?

Pippa
A lot of what we're talking about here is sort of organisationally, and how can businesses sort of make this experience better? But, I suppose for our listeners who are like an individual within an organisation, whether they be managing someone or they are managed by someone, what are the key things to think about when it comes to kind of your own, I guess, personal wellbeing at work?

Zofia Bajorek
Yeah, totally. There are things that you can do yourself. Simple things. First of all, make sure you're eating and you're drinking well. Are you taking your lunch hour? Your lunch break is there for a purpose. Our brains need a break just as much as our body needs a break. Make sure that you're socially connected to people. I think one of the one of the things at the moment, with the changes in work and the changes in workplace, is many of us are working in a hybrid way at the moment, and for some, we could go for a day without connecting with anybody. But if we have a day where, you know, we might not see somebody or speak to somebody that can be really poor for your for your wellbeing. But I think inherently it's about making sure that you're getting out of your work what you want to get out of it. And within a line managerial relationship as much as your line manager is there to to look after you, you also have that responsibility to go to your line manager to say, well, actually, things aren't looking well for me at the moment. Or, you know, I think that I could do better in my work if I had this particular bit of training or I had access to this bit of development. Or actually none of the work that I'm doing at the moment is exciting me. It's not using my skills. Is there any way that we can craft a role, or I can be put on a project where I actually am excited to go into work and to open my emails? There's a joint responsibility there.

Pippa
It sounds like making sure people feel well at work is quite complicated. It's not a simple answer.

Phil
Yeah, I like this idea about being satisfied and having a purpose in what you do. I've certainly, in jobs I've done, that's always been really important to me. Yeah.

Pippa
And Zofia did say that one-to-one meetings with the your line manager are really important. So it's not just about your line manager helping you, but you have to think about what do you want to talk about in those meetings. And it might be difficult to speak up about how you feel with your manager in some organisations. Maybe you've said something before and you were ignored. So there are other places to go for support if you're feeling unwell or unhappy. So talking to family, colleagues, maybe a union representative if you have one, or health professionals. Make sure you're looking after yourself.

Phil
Thanks for listening to this episode. You can find more programmes to help you with your English at work on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Pippa
Next time we'll be talking about the impact of AI on work. Bye for now.

Phil
Bye.

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