Feel Better, Work Better

Helping people who work with you avoid getting sick obviously makes them more able to work. But what about going beyond avoiding health problems?

This week our house is getting solar photovoltaic panels installed. We’ve wanted this for a long time. It has simply taken until now for us to be in a position to do it.

As soon as the crew started Monday, our area went into the hottest, sunniest weather we’ve had so far this year.

Brits aren’t accustomed such weather. Ordinarily we offer hot tea and coffee to crews like this, but hot drinks were not appropriate or much wanted. We asked the crew what cold drinks they like on the job, got some, and got ice cream bars and icicles (ice lollies) too. We provided an ample supply all day.

We didn’t prevent dehydration. They would have consumed water they had brought along. But the fact that we provided something nicer showed that we saw them as people, not just purchased labor. They felt appreciated. We could see it in the way they moved as they worked and the expressions on their faces. Despite the heat, they felt good about doing our project.

I went up to the roof to see how they mounted the panels to hold up to our exposure to storm winds without penetrating any of the roof tiles. I went into the attic to trace the cables, which sneak in without poking holes in the liner under the roof and then neatly run all the way across and down through the back of the boiler cupboard to the inverter and controls in the garage. Everything is impeccable and well labeled.

This won’t be the last we see of each other. We’ve already discussed adding a microwind turbine. Vertical shaft versus the horizontal shaft designs most people go for. Where to put it. Noise and vibration. They’re about to put a microwind turbine on their office, so after they’ve done that, I’ll visit to see it and we’ll go into more detail about putting one on this house. (They like the specifications for the I used as an example of what we want, and decided to get that model themselves instead of the one they had been considering.)

And so on. There is plenty more we can do together. They now associate doing work for us with feeling good, feeling appreciated, so they are enthusiastic about doing it well and doing more of it.

I say this often: The most seductive thing in the world is genuine attention.

It’s great for personal relationships and working relationships. A little genuine attention puts a shine on things.

When people feel better at work, they work better. It’s only natural.