There’s no doubt about it: the pandemic has led people to be much more aware of mental health. This awareness is even making its way to the office, where companies are focusing much more on building soft skills like vulnerability and empathy.

What else matters this week?

More people are staying single for longer. It’s time for workplaces to adjust.

Lidl just became the U.K’s best-paying supermarket.

The Financial Times and Statista compiled a list of Europe’s most diverse companies.

We’ve got a full breakdown of all the top headlines you can’t miss this week.

 

 

#1. Bringing your emotions to work is all the rage now.

 

When Kea Tull’s daughter didn’t pass a vet tech training exam, she was so angry she would “pay to break something.”

Around the country, several rage rooms had sprouted up. But none in Philadelphia….and that’s how her business was born. Throughout the pandemic, her business grew so much that she moved spaces twice.

Mental health is top of mind for so many workers, and that awareness has only been accelerated since the pandemic began. Our research showed that no matter the age or gender, 32% of respondents reported declining mental health compared to our 2020 report.

Rage rooms are just one example of the awareness around emotional and mental health. As a result, organizations are increasingly creating more space to foster and develop soft skills around empathy, vulnerability, and mental health.

“This is about understanding that people are not robots,” Shola Kaye, who consults with Fortune 500 companies to build empathy, leadership, and communication skills, told Fortune Magazine. “People need time and the ability to be heard and understood.” Read more in Fortune Magazine.

 

#2. How much radical transparency is too much?

 

Employee salaries. Profits and losses. Personnel changes.

Every company has their secrets, and these inner workings tend to be discussed by the company’s top leadership. How many people understand the inner workings of their company?

Lack of transparency has been a common workplace complaint for years. One 2013 survey found that management transparency is the top determining factor in employee happiness. Workers tend to be much happier in transparent workplaces, and they’re more likely to stay in their jobs with transparent leadership.

Radical transparency isn’t new. One of the most high-profile examples: Netflix, where decision-making processes are public. The company calls the technique “sunshining.” People are expected to explain their decisions, publicly, even when people are fired.

Radical transparency can be helpful for companies and their workers, especially if there’s a trusting culture. But if implemented wrong, this practice can kill creativity and even scare workers from sharing their thoughts. Read more at the BBC.

#3.  What bosses really think about the future of the office.

People think about the office differently now – and that includes CEOs.

For years, many CEOs would keep a watchful eye on their employees while they worked at their desks. But the pandemic turned the tides: bosses grew less attached to their crowded offices and executives who once put in 15-hour days can now accept that the workday is flexible.

After years of working in the office, though, CEOs are struggling with the impending change.

“I do miss meetings in which you can stand up and go to the whiteboard and draw what you’re thinking and have others look at it,” Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google and its parent company, Alphabet, told the New York Times.

While companies are struggling with the “how,” “when,” and “if” of bringing employees back to the offices, leaders are deciding that, well, maybe there is no clear consensus on the answer. Many factors are at play when it comes to reordering work and office life. Read more in the New York Times.

#4. How office space is changing.

The pandemic has reshaped how companies are using their commercial space.

Long gone are the days of the traditional office and the decked-out corner office. With flexible work on the rise, organizations are turning instead to communal work spaces.

Enter: meeting rooms, open plan café-like seating areas, and collaborative spaces. Instead, where you sit doesn’t denotate your rank in the company. Read more at Axios.

#5. The Great Resignation will only accelerate automation.

 

The “Great Resignation” is everywhere. Across the U.S., Americans are putting in their notice and leaving their jobs at an unprecedented rate. Data shows that in August, more than 4 million Americans quit their jobs.

Some employers are responding to the walk-outs by offering higher wages and better working conditions – and even bonuses.

Other employers, however, especially in labor-intensive industries, are responding by investing heavily in automation. McDonald’s, for example, is testing automated voice ordering in their drive-through facilities. Domino’s struck a deal with a self-driving delivery company. Read more on Forbes.

 

As a result, at least one union is calling for much stronger regulation of this monitoring technology. Read the full story in the BBC.