{"id":4745,"date":"2024-03-26T01:32:00","date_gmt":"2024-03-26T01:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/?p=4745"},"modified":"2024-07-09T01:36:05","modified_gmt":"2024-07-09T01:36:05","slug":"working-on-work-how-making-sense-of-lifes-messiness-can-lead-to-happiness-at-work-and-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/2024\/Q1\/working-on-work-how-making-sense-of-lifes-messiness-can-lead-to-happiness-at-work-and-home","title":{"rendered":"Working on work: How making sense of life\u2019s messiness can lead to happiness at work and home"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"purdue-initial-words-wrap\"><p class=\"purdue-initial-words\">WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. &mdash;<\/p> \n<p>This spring marks four years since the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented shifts in the everyday work lives of millions of Americans. With those seismic changes, new attitudes and practices have emerged, challenging long-held beliefs of how people should think about their time on, and off, the clock.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>For Allison Gabriel, who has spent years studying emotions, recovery, motivation, stressors, interpersonal relationships and a bevy of other experiences in the workplace, that conversation is overdue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI felt like we were screaming into the abyss for a long time about why we should care about how people feel at work and why well-being is so important,\u201d said Gabriel, the Thomas J. Howatt Chair in Management in the\u00a0organizational behavior and human resources area of the Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business at Purdue University and faculty director of Purdue\u2019s new Center for Working Well. \u201cNow organizations want to, and leaders understand they have to, talk about well-being if they want to stay competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n    <div  class=\"purdue-home-quick-links-static \">\n        <div class=\"tagged-header-container\">\n\n            <h2 class=\"tagged-header\"><span>Additional Information<\/span><\/h2>\n        \n        <\/div>\n\n       <ul class=\"quick-links-content\">\n                                        <li class=\"quick-link__item\">\n                                                                <a class=\"quick-link__link\"\n                                    href=\"https:\/\/business.purdue.edu\/news\/features\/2023\/gabriel-cww.php?_ga=2.198982319.1035648552.1720382024-1745836473.1719258278&amp;_gl=1*1iz0opz*_gcl_au*OTYxMDM3MzMwLjE3MjAwMjU0Mjk.*_ga*MTc0NTgzNjQ3My4xNzE5MjU4Mjc4*_ga_PF1CYQ27F6*MTcyMDQ4NzYyMC4xNy4xLjE3MjA0ODg3NzIuMC4wLjA.\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                    New faculty member to lead Purdue\u2019s Center for Working Well                                <\/a>\n                            <\/li>\n                                                <li class=\"quick-link__item\">\n                                                                <a class=\"quick-link__link\"\n                                    href=\"https:\/\/business.purdue.edu\/news\/features\/2023\/ppd-gabriel.php?_gl=1*1iz0opz*_gcl_au*OTYxMDM3MzMwLjE3MjAwMjU0Mjk.*_ga*MTc0NTgzNjQ3My4xNzE5MjU4Mjc4*_ga_PF1CYQ27F6*MTcyMDQ4NzYyMC4xNy4xLjE3MjA0ODg3NzIuMC4wLjA.\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                    Finding balance: Reentering the workforce with postpartum depression                                <\/a>\n                            <\/li>\n                                                <li class=\"quick-link__item\">\n                                                                <a class=\"quick-link__link\"\n                                    href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/releases\/2023\/Q1\/purdues-next-big-move-the-mitchell-e.-daniels,-jr.-school-of-business.html\" target=\"_blank\">\n                                    Purdue\u2019s next big move: The Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business                                <\/a>\n                            <\/li>\n                            <\/ul>\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n<p>Gabriel\u2019s area of expertise is especially relevant in today\u2019s workplace climate,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.forbes.com\/sites\/joefolkman\/2017\/03\/02\/the-6-key-secrets-to-increasing-empowerment-in-your-team\/?sh=19a0fcea77a6\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">where employees who feel empowered at their jobs are far more engaged in their work<\/a>. Her research focuses on work-related stress, interactions with co-workers, how employees detach from work and how those same workers \u2014 especially new mothers \u2014 transition back to their professional roles after major changes in their personal lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Many returning mothers experience postpartum depression, which&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/business.purdue.edu\/news\/features\/2023\/ppd-gabriel.php\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">was the focus of a paper Gabriel recently co-authored<\/a>&nbsp;in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/fulltext\/2023-93980-001.html\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Journal of Applied Psychology<\/a>. Gabriel and researchers from several other universities found that support from employers in the form of paid maternity leave, as well as mental health policies and flexible work schedules aimed at benefiting pregnant women and new mothers, were critical. The study also showed that organizations that prioritized mothers\u2019 issues helped attract and retain women in their workforce.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI think there\u2019s this assumption that you have a baby, you go on maternity leave \u2014 for however many weeks you\u2019re fortunate enough to get \u2014 and then you come back and you\u2019re the same person,\u201d Gabriel said, \u201cBut you\u2019re not the same. Mothers are so fundamentally changed in every capacity, so we need to help organizations understand and build more support and infrastructure around this issue because it affects everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In addition to workers, Gabriel has also studied leaders and how they handle themselves on the job. Leaders are in control of workplace culture and supporting their own well-being and the well-being of those that they lead, which Gabriel argues is an essential responsibility. When leaders don\u2019t detach, the stress from their own job can trickle down to their employees.&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2024\/01\/want-to-be-a-better-leader-stop-thinking-about-work-after-hours\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Constantly thinking about work hurt more than it helped performance as a leader<\/a>, according to the results of another study co-authored by Gabriel and published in the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/psycnet.apa.org\/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fapl0001092\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Journal of Applied Psychology<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI call leaders \u2018recovery beacons\u2019 because the signals they send about what they value when it comes to their own well-being signals to the people they lead about what they themselves can value,\u201d Gabriel said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Uncovering these findings can be a laborious process. Largely using experience sampling methods to capture glimpses into employees\u2019 daily life and more recently qualitative interviews, the findings often capture the complex, challenging ways that employees experience life at work and home. Gabriel admits that the data can be \u201cmessy,\u201d and the results can often be challenging to wade through, but a passion for enacting positive change drives her to find solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cI want to start these conversations so people feel more empowered to tell co-workers, supervisors or leaders what\u2019s happening in their lives,\u201d Gabriel said. \u201cPeople are messy, and I find that really beautiful and exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>She added, \u201cWhat I get to think about every day is, how do we help them make sense of the messiness in a way that makes them feel better at work and at home to lead happier lives?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">About Purdue University<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Purdue University is a public research institution demonstrating excellence at scale. Ranked among top 10 public universities and with two colleges in the top four in the United States, Purdue discovers and disseminates knowledge with a quality and at a scale second to none. More than 105,000 students study at Purdue across modalities and locations, including nearly 50,000 in person on the West Lafayette campus. Committed to affordability and accessibility, Purdue\u2019s main campus has frozen tuition 13 years in a row. See how Purdue never stops in the persistent pursuit of the next giant leap \u2014 including its first comprehensive urban campus in Indianapolis, the new Mitchell E. Daniels, Jr. School of Business, and Purdue Computes \u2014 at&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/president\/strategic-initiatives<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. &mdash; This spring marks four years since the COVID-19 pandemic created unprecedented shifts in the everyday work lives of millions of Americans. With those seismic changes, new attitudes and practices have emerged, challenging long-held beliefs of how<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":4746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"department":[81],"source":[29],"purdue_today_topic":[],"coauthors":[107],"class_list":["post-4745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","department-daniels-school-of-business","source-purdue-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4745"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4748,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4745\/revisions\/4748"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4745"},{"taxonomy":"department","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/department?post=4745"},{"taxonomy":"source","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/source?post=4745"},{"taxonomy":"purdue_today_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/purdue_today_topic?post=4745"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.purdue.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}