It’s instrumental to employee satisfaction and it costs hardly anything.
Fill in the gaps in the article:
Forget Unlimited Paid Time Off. This Employee Perk Fuels Far More Happiness
with the words in bold below:
overlooked warm spoiled carve monumental
strive for abuse tokens ample milestone
(…) It doesn’t take a grand gesture to make a lasting impact
Don’t get me wrong—PTO (= Paid Time Off) is great. I’m an admitted vacation fiend, and to be honest, I thought my work might regret giving me unlimited PTO. While I like to think I don’t 1. ……… it, I am absolutely sure to use it.
So while it’s a perk I love, and having 2. ……… time off is something I’m very fortunate to have become 3. ……… with over the years, it’s not necessarily the perk that makes me happy to be employed by my employer.
Though there’s a tendency to chalk up big, lavish, and grand gestures as means to make a powerful impact, happiness is a day-to-day job. And grand gestures are typically rare gestures.
Meanwhile, little gifts of gratitude can make a big difference, research shows.
Seemingly trivial things, such as a food delivery gift card, a thank-you, or a small compliment can tug on the heartstrings more than a big gesture, as they can feel more sincere psychologically, according to an article published by the Harvard Business Review.
They can also happen more often because these small 4. …….. of appreciation and recognition are very cheap–if not free. Because these can be shared on an ongoing basis, as opposed to the once-in-a-blue-moon grand gesture, they have a compounding effect that leads to a far greater impact over time.
Appreciation takes a minute–not money
The key to showing appreciation is not money. It’s time.
To appreciate someone, you have to first recognize them, their work, and what they’re going through. In other words, it starts with something as simple as thinking of others–something that can easily be 5. ……… when you’re stuck under a pile of your own work to contend with. But it really is easy to do, if you 6. ……… a minute of your time.
It can be as simple as taking a moment to recognize the effort someone put into a task or project, the extra mile someone went, or perhaps someone just making it through a day filled with excessive stress.
The beauty of this is that you also don’t need to wait for a major 7. ……… to celebrate your team. A “thank you” or a kind word of recognition is for anytime. And it’s not even as much about the act of saying thanks as it is the degree of awareness of others and the recognition of them, their work, and what they’re going through.
The best employee perks make employees feel gratitude toward their employer
Feeling as though your employer appreciates you won’t happen by gift giving alone. It won’t matter how long or amazing your list of shiny employee perks is if there’s never a thank-you or recognition that accompanies them. But it will happen by helping employees feel seen, understood, and recognized.
As 8. …….. as unlimited paid time off is for employees, it doesn’t exactly 9. ……… the heart like little things such as a simple compliment, thank-you, or Grubhub gift card can. Because the best employee perks aren’t about helping employees get away from work but helping them become happier at work.
Best of all, when employers show gratitude toward their employees, employees begin to harbor gratitude toward their employers. Workplace satisfaction goes up, and the employee turnover rate goes down. Everyone wins, which is something every employer should 10. ……. .
In order to read the whole article/check your answers go to: https://www.inc.com/kelly-main/forget-unlimited-paid-time-off-this-employee-perk-fuels-far-more-happiness
Key: 1. abuse; 2. ample; 3. spoiled; 4. tokens; 5. overlooked; 6. carve; 7. milestone; 8. monumental; 9. warm; 10. strive for
Glossary
- fiend – an enthusiast or devotee of a particular thing
- to chalk up – to have or record something good or bad
- tug – to forcefully pull or drag something
- compounding – combining things
- contend with – to try to deal with a difficult situation
- to harbor – if you harbour an emotion, thought, or secret, you have it in your mind over a long period of time
Practice makes perfect
Read:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/27/business/goldman-sachs-unlimited-vacation.html
and answer the questions below:
- Why hasn’t the bank’s move led to much cheering among its employees?
- What has Goldman long prided itself on?
- Why isn’t the policy going to make any difference?
- Why have some observers been cynical about Goldman’s motives?
- How can unlimited paid time off serve as a recruiting tool?
- Why does the benefit work best if leaders serve as an example?
Fill in the gaps with some of the words used in the first article. Make sure their grammatical form is correct.
1. At the age of ten she had to c………… the death of both parents.
2. Is there anyone h……………. a grudge against you?
3. I’m a strong-tea f…………. .
4. Soon there’ll be a ………. opportunity to relax, swim and soak up some sun.
5. You’ve o………….. a misspelled word in the report.
6. It took a m ………….. effort to get the country back on its feet.
Key:1. contend with; 2. harbouring; 3. fiend; 4. ample; 5. overlooked; 6. monumental
Explore more to create your own teaching-learning experience!
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