Page 55 - Banking Finance June 2023

FEATURES

Good relationships at workplace foster

happiness

t is understandable that any profession, regardless of Ah, technology! This year, the mobile phone turned 50. Do
I industry, is destined to get monotonous and lifeless in smartphones not make us a lonely society? Sherry Turkle,
the absence of human interaction. Even the polling
an MIT technology and society professor, argues that we
organisation Gallup provides employers with 12
questions to gauge an employee's engagement at work. are currently in a state of "continual copresence," in which
digital communication enables the occurrence of two or
And one of them is: "Do you have a best friend at work?" more realities at the same time and place, in her 2011 book
Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and
Yet, a group of Harvard researchers needed 85 years to
Less from Each Other.
conclude that, of course with data evidence. The recently
released report got wide attention in the media. It says the
Also, the workplace culture has undergone a dramatic
unhappiest jobs are most often the loneliest ones, where
paradigm shift. This is especially concerning in the pandemic
employees are not able to work with a team, require little
affected world, where working from home is a widespread
human interaction, and don't offer opportunities to build
practice and the new normal. Our sense of loneliness grows
meaningful relationships with coworkers. "If you are more
stronger. Then, is technology making us less happy? Maybe.
connected to people, you feel more satisfied with your job,
But just technology? Maybe not.
and do better work," according to Robert Waldinger,
director of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, the
Well, in a 1953 article in The Nation, the celebrated
longest scientific study of happiness ever conducted. Robert
American writer Ray Bradbury detailed his personal
Waldinger and Marc Schulz discussed the factor that
experience when he spotted a couple walking their dog in
correlates with good living, namely "good relationships," in
Beverly Hills one night. "The woman held in one hand a small
their 2023 book, The Good Life: Lessons From the World's
cigarettepackagesized radio, its antenna quivering. From
Longest Scientific Study of Happiness'. "Positive relationships
this sprang tiny copper wires which ended in a dainty cone
at work lead to lower stress levels, healthier workers, and
plugged into her right ear," wrote Bradbury. "There she was,
fewer days when we come home upset," the authors
oblivious to man and dog, listening to far winds and whispers
conclude. "They also, simply, make us happier."
and soap opera cries, sleepwalking, helped up and down
curbs by a husband who might just as well not have been
More than 700 people from all across the world were
interviewed by Harvard researchers every two years. there," Bradbury perceived.
Interestingly, the study was started in 1938, at the height
of the Great Depression, with the expectation that the It was a reality 70 years ago! Thus, according to the Harvard
longitudinal study would provide insights about leading a study, should we be concerned about our growing loneliness
happy and healthy life. Society, the workplace, work culture, as a result of our compulsive work from home culture and
and technology have all changed significantly since then. the intrusive effects of technology, or is "lonely
Many new jobs were created in between, whose natures togetherness" simply a trait of human civilisation? (Source:
were beyond imagination in that era. Business Line)

BANKING FINANCE | JUNE | 2023 | 49