New report warns struggling managers could erode joy at work
Organisations are being urged to offer managers support as new findings reveal that their challenges are putting employees' hope and joy in the workplace at risk.
New research from Wiley Workplace Intelligence revealed that 46% of people managers suffer from severe stress, much higher than 27% of employees without direct reports.
"Managers are nearly twice as likely to experience severe stress as their individual contributor colleagues," the report read.
According to the report, supporting managers is crucial because they are responsible for sustaining hope and motivation in others.
It underscored that manager experience directly shapes employee experience, stressing that when managers are stretched, clarity erodes.
Recognition also suffers when managers are under-resourced, while the buffer between organisational pressure and employee experience grows thinner when managers are stressed.
"The fastest path to strengthening hope and joy across an organisation runs directly through its people managers," the report read.
"That means treating manager wellbeing as a strategic priority, not an afterthought. When managers have more time, clearer direction, and adequate resources, those conditions tend to extend to the people they lead."
Factor in employee happiness
The findings come as the same report unveiled widespread happiness in the workplace, with their colleagues being a major influence on this joy.
More than three in four (76%) of employees said they feel joy in their work, according to the report.
Most employees also said they feel motivated to do their best work. They also feel connected to the people they work with (85%) and understand how their role contributes to organisational success (93%).
The majority of employees (39%) cited their team as a major influence on their happiness at work. Another 19% said they shape their own joy, while only six per cent credited senior leadership.
The report notes that this clarifies how joy works in organisations.
"Joy is local. It lives in daily interactions, in moments of collaboration, in the small but consistent experience of feeling seen by the people you work alongside," it read.
"The implication is clear: efforts to build joy at scale, through announcements, campaigns, or top-down culture initiatives, may miss where joy lives. The team level is where it is won or lost."
