Summary: Employee unhappiness could increase risk of accidents.
Key Take Aways:
- Being socially and emotionally disconnected could be a sign an employee is at greater accident risk.
- Employee accidents and injuries are very costly.
A survey conducted at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory in Washington state found a relationship between employee happiness and the risk of job accidents. "We understand that in order to be successful, that we need to take a look at these small indicators to get a handle on things before they become bigger", explained Cindy Caldwell, Senior Technical Advisor in PNNL's Environment, Health, Safety and Security Directorate. (Source: MyFoxTriCities.com)
They identified two main factors that may put an employee at a higher risk of having accidents.
- Feeling as if they are not listened to.
- Not feeling emotionally comfortable in their workplace.
In his book Delivering Happiness Tony Hsieh identifies social connectedness as one of the key elements of happiness, so the particular research finding about not feeling listened to being linked to unhappiness, meshes well with his important point. (If an employee feels she or he is not listened to, a sense of disconnection is probably taking place, which generally results in unhappiness.)
A research study conducted at Texas Christian University also found employees more likely to have accidents were tense at work and dissatisfied. Another study focused on petroleum workers at offshore platforms found a similar relationship. (These are very dangerous work environments.)
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Act over four million Americans experience significant injuries or illness on the job each year. The US Dept. of Labor has provided an online calculator to help determine the very high costs of employee accidents, injuries and deaths.
Image Credit: Jack Georges, Public Domain
