Let’s start with a question – why do we work?
Well, the obvious answer may be we work for money. We work because it pays us a salary and that salary (financial return) allows us to do things: pay our bills, buy our morning coffee, take a holiday or enjoy a meal with friends and family at the weekend.
But how about this question – what do we want from work?
Again, we may say we’d like a pay increase so more money could be on our workplace wish list, but research from social psychologists and behavioural scientists paints a more contextual picture.
In his groundbreaking book Drive, Daniel Pink suggests that our motivation is indeed less to do with financial motivation (once our basic needs are met), and more to do with our intrinsic motivation. Pink suggests that our intrinsic motivation is driven by three core factors – autonomy, mastery and purpose. His work aligns to research on ‘mattering’ at work. In his new book The Power of Mattering: How Leaders Can Create a Culture of Significance, Zach Mercurio stresses the role of leaders in creating a work environment where people feel seen, valued and needed.
Mercurio provides us with a neat framework to help us to measure mattering at work. He calls it the N.A.N. framework:
- Noticing – Truly seeing and hearing others
- Affirming – Reflecting back someone’s unique value
- Needing – Showing others they are indispensable to a shared purpose
While he stresses that mattering is not simply about creating a culture of inclusion and belonging, the relationship between these ideas is clear. Creating a culture of inclusion, belonging and mattering leads to a strengthening of the ‘psychological contract’. Feeling included – having one’s voice heard and respected, and feeling a sense of belonging – and not having to hide who we are, drives openness, collaboration, engagement and motivation. These factors are essential to individual and team performance.
Research from the McKinsey Health Institute sets out a number of key workplace enablers that drive wellbeing and performance. These key enablers include essential factors, such as meaning, psychological safety, authenticity, co-worker support, leadership commitment and career opportunities. When these critical factors are missing, our ability to perform well decreases. And the strain on our wellbeing – such as increased cognitive load, stress and anxiety – increases.
The five dimensions of exclusion and mental burnout
In our work with global businesses, we at FAIRER Consulting have identified five key dimensions that act as root causes leading to perceptions of exclusion, isolation and mental burnout.
1. Co-worker distance: Many colleagues experience high levels of workplace isolation, often due to co-worker distance. Psychologist Alexander Danvers’ work on loneliness plays a role here. Loneliness, according to Danvers, is the absence of feeling seen, heard or valued. In many corporate environments, driven by transactional relationships, loneliness is on the rise. And minority groups are likely to feel a sense of distance from the crowd when affinity (a bias often valued by the majority group) is absent.
2. Lack of psychological safety and belonging: When the principles of conscious inclusion are absent, many diverse employees enter the working environment feeling ‘on guard’. Often suffering from exclusion, disrespect and social isolation outside of work, colleagues carry with them an ‘emotional tax’. This emotional or minority tax significantly increases the cognitive load and stress levels of minority colleagues, which is facilitated by the need to cover, or hide aspects of who they are for fear of judgement.
The term ‘covering’ was popularised in the context of the workplace by Kenji Yoshino in his 2006 book, Covering: The Hidden Assault on Our Civil Rights. Deloitte’s research paper, Uncovering Talent, outlines four key ways in which covering plays out at work:
- Association-based covering: for example, not wanting to go to employee network groups out of concern that they will be placed in a certain category (usually one that is quite restrictive), exposed and subjected to discrimination.
- Appearance: employees may avoid wearing certain attire or religious symbols in order to fit in with the wider workforce.
- Advocacy-based covering: Employees may not "stick up for" coworkers if they do not wish to represent their group at work.
- Affiliation-based covering: This relates to behaviours more in line with specific actions, such as talking about identity-related events in a way that avoids being exposed.
3. Lack of voice and respect: We know that bias has a significant impact on perceptions of inclusion, belonging and our sense of teaming and wellbeing at work. Belonging and the integration of differences are two of Gartner’s seven key dimensions of inclusion and diversity. When in force, these factors drive feelings of respect and being cared for. When these factors are absent, it can lead to a sense of othering and psychological distance. It fosters a breakdown of psychological safety, which is critical to positive team relationships and overall organisational performance.
4. Isolation and career drifting: We know from social psychology that, despite our best intentions, human beings are vulnerable to social and cognitive biases. When biases such as the halo effect, confirmation bias, and attribution error play out in the workplace, the impact on the careers of minority employees can be significant.
These biases impact everyday behaviours and organisational decision-making. They impact key career triggers, including work allocation, manager-colleague networking, sponsorship, performance reviews and promotions. These biases contribute to insider-outsider dynamics within organisations, where those perceived as outsiders often rely on additional cognitive effort in trying to gain acceptance from insider groups.
5. Toxic workplaces and inter-personal conflict: When things go wrong in the workplace the results can be toxic. 2024 research by the American Psychological Association found that 15% of respondents labelled their workplace as somewhat or very toxic. Among those living with a cognitive, emotional, learning, or mental disability, 24% reported a "toxic workplace" experience.
Mindy Shoss, professor and industrial-organisational psychologist at the University of Central Florida, states that “Toxic workplaces drain all the energy and excitement out of employees and replace it with fear”.
A 2022 study in MIT Sloan Management Review cited toxic work cultures as the top driver of employee attrition – well above job insecurity or lack of recognition for performance. The report stated that the leading contributors to toxic work cultures include: a failure to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion, workers feeling disrespected and unethical behaviour.
From our work at FAIRER, we’ve seen that a key contributor to workplace toxicity – and rising stress and anxiety among diverse employees – is the ‘wilful blindness’ of co-workers and managers. Managers and colleagues often turn a ‘blind eye’ to microaggressions, co-worker disrespect and exclusion.
Four ways to promote a culture of inclusion and wellbeing
- Build psychological safety: Without psychological safety, there can be no real sense of inclusion. Organisations should seek to build psychological safety through teaming activities and the promotion of corporate cohesion activities. This often means creating spaces where diverse colleagues can share their experiences with others without fear of judgement or stigma.
- Promote inclusive leadership: Leaders and others should play an active role in showcasing inclusive behaviours. This means practicing the principles of open curiosity, empathy and perspective-taking. It means challenging biased thinking, behaviours and decision-making. It also means calling in positive behaviours that role model and promote stated business values.
- Workplace flexibility: Organisations should support colleagues who suffer stress and ill health due to a lack of inclusion with a wide range of support, including flexible work patterns, mental health resources and team rotation programmes. Of course, these initiatives do not address the root causes of stress and ill health, so without a root cause analysis, this approach is simply tokenistic and acts as a band-aid to deep stresses.
- Transparent career development: Organisations should undertake a de-biasing analysis of their career planning processes to ensure opportunities are fair and equal for all. This includes job rotation opportunities, reviewing promotion processes and leadership criteria for biased language. Businesses should adopt the principles of amplification together with mentoring and sponsorship for underrepresented groups.
Let's build inclusive workplaces together
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