Hello and welcome to Working It! It was a pleasure to meet many Working It newsletter readers and podcast listeners at the FT Weekend festival (including some fellow outdoor swimmers 🏊🏼♂️). Don’t worry if you missed the sunshine and adorable dogs at Kenwood House. We are in the process of creating two podcasts from the live panels recorded on that day. One podcast will focus on how to get a pay rise, featuring Claer Barrett and Jonathan Black for Money Clinic. The other podcast will discuss mid-life career change for Working It. Read on to discover why employees place so much trust in their employers and the resulting pressure on bosses. In Office Therapy, we will address the issue of inappropriate attire in the workplace.
As always, please feel free to email me at [email protected] to suggest topics we should cover or let us know about any cool events happening globally. I was told at the festival that we are too UK-centric. Consider me informed 📣. I will be away next week, and my colleague Emma Jacobs will be writing the newsletter.
FT careers expert Jonathan Black, caught between two podcast hosts in loud dresses © Lucy Warwick-Ching
Trust is a double-edged sword in the workplace. Everyone is back to work, and the long slog to Christmas has begun. In the midst of the prevailing “general uncertainty,” employees are searching for a role model and a leader who can inspire them. That leader is often their employer or, perhaps, themselves if they are business leaders. The percentage of employees who trust their employers is at an all-time high, currently standing at 79%, compared to the average level of trust in other institutions such as businesses, NGOs, government, and media, which is 56%. As expected, media is at the bottom of the trust list 😞.
These statistics are from the latest edition of the Trust Barometer, which focuses on workplace trust and is conducted by Edelman, a PR consultancy. The survey included 7,000 people from seven countries, including the US, Japan, and the UK. Let’s delve into the concept of trust and explore what it means to say “we trust our employers.” I found a quote from Edelman itself, featuring the wise words of Esther Perel, a celebrity psychotherapist and podcast host, to be particularly intriguing: “Trust is the active engagement with the unknown. Trust is risky. It’s vulnerable. It’s a leap of faith.” Before becoming an Esther Perel superfan, I had always defined trust as having “absolute faith in someone or something” without any element of risk. Now, I realize that risk is an inherent aspect of trust (or perhaps I’m the only one who didn’t know this 🤔).
To further explore the concept of trust, I spoke with Cydney Roach, the global chair of employee experience at Edelman. If anyone understands what drives employee engagement and satisfaction, it’s Cydney. She describes trust in the workplace as “equity in the bank.” Once an organization has the trust of its employees, it can sustain them during challenging times, enabling the business to navigate through upheaval and disruption. In short, trust gives organizations more latitude. The high level of trust employees place in their employers is not surprising. “We trust the things that are closest to us, and employees choose their employers,” says Cydney. Perhaps most importantly, “in a time of global uncertainty, economic stability is provided by your employer” ⚖️.
So, how can leaders make the most of this trust and build upon it? According to Cydney, the answer is simple: “Listen to people.” Employees possess a wealth of institutional knowledge and ideas, which are often unheard and untapped 🧏🏼♂️. An ideal organization, she suggests, would include employee voices at the governance level, although this is still a rarity. (Working it recently highlighted the need for more HR and workplace culture representation in senior organizational roles, but this goes a step further.) However, listening alone may not be sufficient. There are exceptions to the positive trust trend. For example, deskless workers, many of whom are frontline staff, cannot work remotely and are not located in offices. While they still express greater trust in their employers compared to other institutions, the trust level is somewhat lower at 72%. There is work to be done in this area 💪.
What do you believe increases trust in the workplace? Are you skeptical about the idea that employees trust their employers to do the right thing? Does your organization have worker representation at the highest levels? Let us know: [email protected].
This week on the Working It podcast, we examine the detrimental effects of the “gifted amateur” culture that has plagued the UK for generations. This culture is epitomized by the Oxbridge graduates who have dominated the country’s leadership for many years. My colleague Simon Kuper has written extensively about this topic in his book, “Chums.” The consequences of this amateur approach, combined with a lack of emphasis on management and leadership skills, have had negative ramifications for the economy and the millions of people being led by untrained managers. On this week’s episode, I speak with Ann Francke, the CEO of the Chartered Management Institute, about potential solutions and with Lucy Fisher, FT Whitehall correspondent, about the government’s lack of interest in this area. Additionally, Brooke Masters, the US financial editor, provides insights from the US.
Office Therapy:
Problem: The trainees in my client-facing team dress smartly, but the women often wear low-cut tops and/or very short skirts. Have workplace clothing norms changed? Is the lack of office experience due to the pandemic? Should I have an informal conversation with them or ignore it altogether? Should I escalate the issue to higher management? Help.
Isabel’s advice: You can choose to ignore it and hope the trainees start to “read the room,” or you can involve the HR department. It might be beneficial to establish explicit dress expectations for the entire company, rather than just focusing on women. Do not personally intervene, as this is a delicate matter 🤯.
I consulted FT fashion editor Lauren Indvik for her insights on changing clothing norms (her Fashion Matters newsletter is fantastic—definitely subscribe 👔). Lauren stated, “Coming out of the pandemic, fashion has become decidedly sexier in more traditional terms. Skirts are shorter, fabrics are sheerer, and the revival of Y2K styles has brought back low-rise jeans and bare midriffs, particularly among teenagers and those in their twenties who are nostalgically revisiting images of Britney Spears and Paris Hilton.” She added, “Meanwhile, work wardrobes are becoming increasingly casual. Therefore, it is not surprising that young employees who have no experience in pre-Covid office environments may struggle to ‘read the room.’ However, this does not mean that there is no longer a time and place for professional attire.”
Do you have a question, problem, or dilemma for Office Therapy? Do you think you have better advice for our readers? Send it to me: [email protected]. We guarantee complete anonymity. Your bosses, colleagues, or subordinates will never find out.
Five top stories from the world of work:
1. How the next generation is breaking into boardrooms: Age and race diversity at the board level is still severely lacking, despite numerous initiatives to drive change. Anjli Raval speaks with aspiring non-executive directors and those offering support to help them rise to the occasion.
2. Why companies need to up their game in skills training: Upskilling and training initiatives are often mundane and poorly executed, even when enhanced with virtual reality headsets and similar technologies, observes Emma Jacobs. More effort and skill should be devoted to this area.
3. One year in a struggling state school: FT journalist Jen Williams spent a year visiting a school in Oldham, revealing the tireless work of the staff and the hardships faced by many individuals in the UK.
4. The bosses helping staff through long-term illnesses: When leaders are open about their disabilities or long-term illnesses, it sets a positive tone…
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