Engagement and Resilience in the Workplace During COVID-19

March 8, 2021

Good morning! By this time next week it will be 8:07 AM CDT. Are you getting the yard work done, sidewalks swept, winter lights taken down, debris and gunk addressed, branches and sticks collected? Still too early for the garden, but keep an eye out for the first rhubarb sprouts poking up soon. New vocabulary: Zoom Towns.

• What have you missed MOST these last twelve months?  For now I’m settling on spontaneity… might change.
• If someone wants to have total and absolute freedom doesn’t it logically follow that the other 7,716,334,608 people will have to accept something less?
• My granddaughter thinks her grandpa lives at the top of the Washington Monument in Washington City; I don’t think I’ll dissuade her, I could do worse.
• “Emotions that emerge from a toxic work environment seep into every aspect of your life.  Get out!  No job is worth that kind of misery.”  (Laws of Modern Women)
• The Smithsonian rarely disappoints and the March 2021 edition is no exception as it features five feature stories well worth your time.
  • Start with the storming, looting, and burning of the United States capitol building.

Engagement and Resilience in the Workplace During COVID-19

• ADP Research Institute surveyed over 25,000 employees from 25 countries throughout the world so as to better understand Engagement, Resilience, and the Impact of the COVIDs on the workplace in 2020.
  • “Fifteen percent of workers globally are highly resilient.”
  • “A worker is fourteen times (14x) more likely to be fully engaged if they trust the team leader.”
  • Singapore (-9%) and the U.A.E. (-7%) experienced the greatest decline in resiliency over the last four years according to the study.
  • Perhaps somewhat surprisingly, the largest increase in resiliency over the last four years occurred in Brazil = +5%.
  • The U.S. experienced a 2% positive gain during the time period.
  • India has the highest resiliency of any country surveyed at thirty-two percent (32%) of the workforce;
  • Taiwan, Sweden, and South Korea tied for last with eight percent (8%).
  • The United States sits in the middle of the pack at sixteen percent (16%) of the workforce ranked highly resilient, slightly above average.
    • Executive Summary of Findings Stemming from the Research:
      • Trust is everything;
      • One is the loneliest number;
      • Office space isn’t essential;
      • It’s good to be in technology;
      • Nurses and teachers are suffering most;
      • The unknown is scarier than change;
      • The honeymoon (effect) is over;
      • Members of the so-called Generation Z are no less resilient than older generations;
      • Relationships boost resilience;
      • Resilience and engagement levels increase with higher-level positions.  (Marcus Buckingham, ADP Research Institute, 2021)
      • For help creating a more resilient workforce which can outlast all that life throws your way, consider Without a Vision’s services.
• You can do anything, but you can’t do everything; take things one step at a time.  (Unattributed)

• Here’s Robert Frost’s rejoinder to last week’s poem:

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.