The Boss & Me

The pandemic has created hardships at every level of the corporation. For some, work from home is heaven on earth; after all, office politics are nearly nonexistent when there's no office! Yet, according to McKinsey, when it comes to employee happiness, bosses and supervisors play a bigger role than one might guess.

Relationships with management are the top factor in employees’ job satisfaction, which in turn is the second most important determinant of employees’ overall well-being. According to McKinsey, only mental health is more important for overall life satisfaction. Unfortunately, research also shows that most people find their managers to be far from ideal; for example, in a recent survey, 75% of survey participants said that the most stressful aspect of their job was their immediate boss. And those describing very bad and quite bad relationships with management reported substantially lower job satisfaction than those with very good and quite good relationships.

Senior leaders can create a step change in both shareholder and social value by clearly articulating the sizable upsides to high job satisfaction, including educating managers on their pivotal roles and embedding quality of workplace relationships into manager development and performance appraisals. They can also act as critical change agents by embracing servant leadership and approaching everyone in their organization with compassion and genuine curiosity, according to McKinsey. All important things to consider as employees return to the office.