Joy at Work Thinking
 Written by Ed Cook and Roxanne Brown
Despite the gobs of money spent on employee engagement programs, globally in 2024, employee engagement has declined to just 21%, according to Gallup. Meanwhile, “quiet quitting” describes half the U.S. workforce, and “job-hugging” indicates employees are stayin...
Written by Ed Cook and Roxanne Brown
You spend days, weeks, sometimes even months recruiting new people to your organization. What if you used some of that energy on your current team? Consider the potential impact of re-recruiting. The clear value is that it will take far less effort to keep your ...
Written by Ed Cook
Engagement is a big word. Employee Engagement is an often discussed goal. Engaged employees are the ones who will stay with the organization. They are the ones who will do the difficult tasks and solve the difficult problems. But is this really true? Perhaps we need to go up a le...
Written by Ed Cook
The last couple of years forced two global experiments, one in remote education and the other in remote work. Much of these two experiments are about human interaction. They explore what it means to communicate, to lead, to teach. The final and full understanding of those two...
Written by Ed Cook
With the Great Resignation causing distressing amounts of employee turnover and dismal employee retention numbers, Employee Engagement is front of mind for many leaders. What employee engagement is, however, can be elusive. Some see it as activities associated with team buil...
It's okay if you're struggling! There are healthy and constructive ways to talk about personal struggles in the workplace. Spread some Joy at Work by making it easy to discuss and help each other.
Sometimes it can be hard to stay motivated, especially when you're working in a virtual workplace where it's hard to get feedback and reactions to your work. Spread some Joy at Work by sharing your feedback with colleagues!
Written by Roxanne Brown
Instead of feeling defensive and beat up by a conversation at work that’s filled with debate, maybe you should feel excited!
Sometimes what looks or sounds like disagreement is actually a sign that people are trying to engage with your idea.
When people ask “why?” questio...
Written by Roxanne Brown
When we ask people to describe the best team they’ve ever led or been part of, they usually say things like:
• We had each other’s back
• We had a hard goal to overcome and we were clear on the destination
• It was hard but we all focused
• People helped each other
• We laug...
Written by Roxanne Brown
Own your impact. You were hired because you matter so do the work as if your work matters.
If your employer doesn’t know your work matters then you might consider a change in the future. Not to run away but to give yourself the gift of something better for your life.
Sig...
Written by Roxanne Brown
Sometimes this is the subtext of work conflict:
Employee to employer: I feel hurt by the way you treated me. [I work hard for you and this company.]
Employer to employee: I feel hurt by the way you treated me. [I’ve invested a lot in you, for you and this company.]
The pow...
