Employee Appreciation Day: How Work is Working for You

Employee Appreciation Day is a holiday created to thank employees for their hard work and effort throughout the year. We thought this holiday was a perfect opportunity to check in with our community about how you’re feeling right now and what has helped you get through these unpredictable and stressful times. Here’s what you told us.

 

Two-thirds of you feel like your company cares about your well being.

 

 

Here are the most common things you wish you could tell your boss.


We heard a lot of feedback from you on things that you wish you could communicate to your managers. The most common themes were around bringing more humanity and empathy to the workplace, being able to express feeling overwhelmed and overworked, having feelings of burnout and exhaustion, and wishing there was more appreciation, celebration and compensation (couldn’t we all use a raise?!)

 

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best), here’s how much you enjoy your work.

87% of you have experienced burnout with your job this year.

Burnout is at an all time high according to many large studies conducted around the world. According to a study conducted by Christina Maslach of the University of California, Berkeley, Susan E. Jackson of Rutgers, and Michael Leiter of Deakin University, there are 6 main causes of burnout:
  • Unsustainable workload
  • Perceived lack of control
  • Insufficient rewards for effort
  • Lack of a supportive community
  • Lack of fairness
  • Mismatched values and skills
Many of these causes, especially perceived lack of control and lack of a supportive community, have been exacerbated by the pandemic and this new world of remote work. We’ll dive further into the topic of burnout in a future post, but will leave three high-level recommendations for companies looking to improve this metric within their organizations:
    1. Ensure employees have manageable workloads. This is about checking in regularly about the amount of work someone has, but also about creating a culture where it’s encouraged to discuss the need to have less on your plate.
    2. Make mental health an acceptable topic of conversation. Encourage managers to check in with their direct reports regularly about how they’re doing and how they can feel more supported.
    3. Create (optional) opportunities for building community and connection within the company. This can be tough virtually, especially when no one wants another Zoom happy happy hour on their calendar, but there are other fun and creative ways to bring people together that people actually want to partake in.

      Here’s what you told us were the hardest things about work this year.

      Some common themes we heard from you were around the lack of boundaries between work and life, learning how to work from home effectively (especially without childcare), having fear and uncertainty about the future, job instability, and overall just having the energy and motivation to get out of bed everyday.

        These have been your favorite Work From Home tools to help you get through the day.

         

         

        We loved hearing about all of your favorite products, from exercise bikes, standing desks and vitamins to having a favorite mug and smart water bottle that reminds you to hydrate. We especially loved the recommendations around essential oils (check out our favorite desk sprays here), stretching, and motivational podcasts that keep you going.

         

        Over half of you were given a home office setup and/or health and wellness stipend from your company.

        Here’s what you told us that you wish you could change about your job.

         

         

        A very common theme in your responses was the strong desire to have less meetings, especially when they often felt unnecessary. You also expressed a desire for better team communication, help with childcare, more human connection, and more vacation time.

        Is your company doing something unique to celebrate its employees? We'd love to hear about it and feature you! Send us a note at hello@mondays.com.

        p.s. If you're looking for appreciation ideas for your team, take 10% off any purchase at mondays.com with code THANKYOU.