Does your boss truly care about your happiness?

Are you happy at your job?

It’s an existential question we all try to navigate as we commute to and from work, or turn on the laptop from our newly renovated home office.

A report from The New York Times addresses the relationship between the employer retaining employees through the feeling of happiness. Whether it’s an exclusive company-wide John Legend concert or a special team lunch in South Lake Union, companies are taking new school approaches to keep their talent happy.

“I think that it’s just a very weird shift in the way that bosses are relating to employees,” explains Shari Elliker on the John & Shari Show. “And I don’t exactly know if it’s because we have a labor shortage, and people are so worried about retention, or if, in fact, it is part of this new focus on empathy, and on satisfaction and on all the things that are supposed to be part of the workplace.”

It’s certainly a shift in philosophy, at least in John Curley’s past experience.

“I was being paid $16,000 to be the weatherman and do all this other stuff there in Lancaster (PA),” Curley recites in his best storytelling form. “And [my boss] goes ‘Oh, okay. You got a problem? $100 a week more that’s all you need?’ Then he takes out a gigantic book called Broadcasting TV Cable Handbook … And he goes, ‘I can help you. I want to help you open the door for me.’

“I opened the door, and he takes the book and throws it out the door. He goes ‘there’s a place where a whole bunch of other jobs and other stations all in the book. Go get the book, find another station, and get the [expletive] out!’

That type of managerial tact wouldn’t fly in 2022, but does your boss or company genuinely care about your value to the company?

“Yeah, it’s a different world,” says Shari. “And I really don’t believe it. I don’t think it’s real. I don’t think they care if you’re happy. I think they care that you don’t leave.”

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