Gratitude in the Workplace

Gratitude by definition is the quality of being thankful, and showing appreciation and willingness to return thanks to others. When it comes to interacting with your fellow employees, having gratitude can help an individual to foster a more positive environment wherever you go. This article will cover a few ways to encourage gratitude and how it benefits the overall workplace.

Benefits of Workplace Gratitude

There’s plenty of scientific evidence that shows how gratitude positively impacts the workplace and office culture. Some of the key benefits include improvements in:

Productivity and stress management
Quality of relationships
Overall well-being

According to UC Davis psychology professor Robert Emmons, author of The Little Book of Gratitude: Creating a Life of Happiness and Wellbeing by Giving Thanks, gratitude is essential in the workplace, saying that “most of our waking hours are spent on the job, and gratitude, in all its forms, is a basic human requirement…it is essential to both give and receive thanks at work.”

Gratitude also helps develop reciprocity within in-house teams, customers, and clients, and even allows better career opportunities to occur for individuals who are mindful of it. An SHRM report highlighted how “respectful treatment of all employees” was the number one factor to job satisfaction, where “trust between employees and senior management” was second. Employees find that a work culture that embraces gratitude is a better motivator than money, according to researchers from the London School of Economics. When analyzing 51 separate experiments, the researchers found that financial incentives can backfire and reduce an employee’s natural inclination to complete a task and derive pleasure from doing so.”