I can’t imagine going to work at a company without first checking how its employees feel about working there. If you want to know what it’s like to work in a given company, what better way than to ask its employees, and providing them anonymity, so they feel safe to say what they really feel? Last week, the website Glassdoor released its seventh-annual list of the 50 best places to work among large companies. You don’t have to read far into the reviews to discover how vastly different it can be to work in a high-rated vs. a low-rated company. For example, 95 percent employees at Nestle Purina and 91 percent at In-N-Out Burger would recommend their companies to a friend, compared with just 29 percent who would do so at RadioShack and Sears. Google, the highest-rated company on both Glassdoor and a list compiled by Fortune magazine, promotes a culture of constant innovation and an inspiring mission. It also offers a remarkable array of services and perks to employees.
Alongside competitive salaries, Google provides terrific food, at no cost, workout facilities and low-cost massages. But these lists don’t really measure something even more important: the quality of their employees’ lives. Over the last decade, I’ve spent countless hours interacting with employees at all levels in many of the companies that appear on the Glassdoor best-companies list, as well as on the Fortune annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list. What these employees tell me, with increasing consistency, is how exhausted and overwhelmed they are. The relentless work demands take a toll on their health, happiness and family life. That also affects their morale and their ability to think creatively and reflectively. Why, then, do employees at all of the companies on these lists rate their employers as highly as they do, including on their internal engagement surveys? They are, I believe, the prisoners of low expectations. They’re grading on a curve. Their vision of the possible is limited by the workplace experiences they’ve had.
They’ve been rewarded for working long hours while sacrificing other aspects of their lives, including time with their families and time for themselves. They’ve learned how to rationalize their choices, and not to expect more from their employers. In turn, even companies genuinely committed to creating positive work environments mostly continue to operate as if their people have infinite capacity, and are able to do ever more, with fewer resources. Precisely the opposite is true. Energy is our most precious resource. In physics, it’s defined starkly as “the capacity to do work.” Higher demand in the absence of sufficient rest and renewal means less energy. Less energy means less capacity. So how can you define a great place to work? It begins with creating a work environment that enables and encourages all employees to regularly refuel and renew themselves, both on and off the job. That will make them capable of bringing the best of themselves to work. As demand rises ruthlessly and relentlessly, employees at the “best places to work” aren’t less willing to go above and beyond what’s expected.
That is the definition of engagement, but it’s not sufficient. K. Anders Ericsson is the researcher best known as the architect of the “10,000 hour rule,” which suggests that it takes 10,000 hours of deliberate practice to achieve mastery in a given field. But Mr. Ericsson has also found that the best performers in a range of disciplines practice in surprisingly small increments. Typically, it is for no more than 90 minutes at a time without interruption, followed by a break, and rarely for more than 4½ hours total in any given day. How many employers on the Glassdoor and Fortune lists actively encourage their employees to work no more than 90 minutes at a time? Or to take regular renewal breaks during the day? Or to truly disconnect from work in the evenings and on the weekends? Precious few companies recognize that it’s not the number of hours their people work that determines the value they create, but rather the energy they bring to the hours they work. As Mr. Ericsson has found, it’s possible to generate more value in less time by focusing intensely and then renewing than it is by working long and continuous hours.
The simplest measure of a great place to work is how it makes employees feel to work there day in and day out. That requires meeting the four core needs of their employees: physical, emotional, mental and spiritual. Is there any question that if people feel healthier, happier, more focused and more purposeful at work, they will perform better? In turn, here is the question employers atop the Glassdoor and Fortune lists would be well served to ask themselves: How much time and energy are you investing to ensure that your employees are healthier, happier, more focused and more purposeful?Congratulations Food Babe Army! The Food Babe Way is officially a New York Times Best Seller! I am astonished by all your support and generous love. I am humbled and forever grateful for every single person that is reading this book, leaving their reviews, spreading the word and getting this message out. This is a big deal and I can’t thank you enough for all your support. Making the NYT’s list means our message will finally be getting out to the masses in a big bold way!
This book won’t be relegated to the back of bookstores everywhere, it will be up front and center, growing our movement faster than ever! I know we can change our health, the food system and the world together by spreading the information & research in this book. During my book tour this past week, I met so many people that just don’t read blogs. They are picking this book up curious and inspired to change their lives. And there are people that only read books that are “best sellers”, and they too will now be more likely to pick up a copy. I had some incredible Costco book signing events this week. For example, at one Costco, there was a huge sign explaining organic food above my head and my petition video (discussing the controversial additive BHT in Kellogg’s & General Mills cereal) was playing behind me on a big flat screen TV as I met readers and members of the Food Babe Army. Just a few rows over, they were selling the cereal I was warning people about! It was quite a sight to see.
This is what spreading the message looks like and it is happening so fast. I’m so happy to have you along for the ride. I wish I could share all the incredible personal stories I have heard this week with you – the ones from people who say they don’t eat Kraft Mac & Cheese anymore, and the ones that stopped their daily Subway sandwich habit, or gave up GMOs or processed additive-filled food, and have started to feel a level of health they never thought was possible. I wish I could video tape everything that’s happening – because hearing your stories is what this is all about! This is why I quit my corporate career to become a food activist full time and I’m so incredibly grateful to be here with you in this revolutionary time! In light of all of this, I thought it would be so motivating and inspiring to hear even more of your stories. I want everyone to see them and hear them to inspire even more people, so we can all learn and teach each other what is possible when you start to learn about what’s really in your food.
Let’s share our stories in video with each other! I want to ask you one simple question… Whether you have already read a copy of The Food Babe Way or are a reader of my blog, share your life-changing story in a quick video and post it online. To make this even more fun, we reached out to some of our favorite brands to give out prizes for our favorite videos! The Food Babe team will evaluate each video and 14 winners will be chosen based on the highest total scores. Each of the 4 judging criteria (Creativity & Uniqueness, Honesty & Integrity, Quality & Clarity, Inspirational) is worth up to 5 points of the total score of each contestant. The highest possible total score is 20 points. On Monday, March 2, 2015, Sunday, March 8, 2015 we will announce the 14 winners on the Food Babe Facebook page. There will be 2 Grand Prize winners, 2 Runner up winners, and 10 Honorable Mention winners. You must claim your prize by Friday, March 6, 2015 Friday, March 13, 2015, as outlined in the official rules.