However, the strength of this correlation is astonishing. Employees without ‘peer social support’ in the workplace were 2.4X more likely to die during the study. What’s more, the niceness of the boss had almost no impact on mortality. Stanford Professor Bob Sutton had it right when he coined the ‘No Asshole Rule’.
Given my analytic bent, I was intrigued that one of the strongest factors in the statistical model between peer social support and mortality was the perception of control. We don’t just want friends in the workplace; we want our co-workers to listen to our opinions and believe we matter. Or, as a Wired Science article so eloquently said:
…the only thing worse than an office full of assholes is an office full of assholes telling us what to do.
The morale of the story? Hire friendly people and give them jobs in which they can have impact. Otherwise their health – and your company’s – will suffer.
MORE RECOMMENDED READING:
Rewarding Teamwork
Do Me A Favor So You’ll Like Me: The Reverse Psychology of Likeability
You Can’t Work at Work
Your Brain At Work
Mental Accounting Explains Why You Buy Things You Don’t Need
Can You Learn To Multiply?
The Poison of Power
7 Tips for New Managers
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Last week I wrote about Pret A Manger which rewards employees on behaviors such as niceness and teamwork, not just traditional measures of performance. Pret believes incenting these behaviors improves the health of the organization which leads to more sustainable performance. A 2011 research study from Tel Aviv University backs them up and suggests having nice co-workers even improves employee health.
The researchers closely monitored 800 adults over twenty years, repeatedly interviewing....