Employers: Are You Focusing on Hedonic Wellbeing or Eudaimonic Wellbeing or Both?
The topic of employee wellbeing is all the rage in workplaces today. But which form or type of wellbeing should the employer focus on?
Philosophers and researchers have identified two different types of wellbeing: hedonic and eudaimonic. Hedonic wellbeing focuses more on the feelings of happiness and satisfaction in the moment. These positive aspects of wellbeing fade quickly resulting in what is known as the hedonic treadmill of positive experiences. In other words, fleeting pleasurable experiences and feelings that need to be replenished as they quickly fade away. Essentially, “the doctrine of hedonism is the maximizing of pleasure and minimizing pain.” (Peterson, 2006)
The concept of eudaimonia presents a different view. According to the eudaimonic view of wellbeing, eudaimonia “entails identifying one’s virtues, cultivating them, and living in accordance with them.” (Peterson, 2006) Eudaimonia views satisfaction with life across the lifespan, not just merely in the moment.
Since the two different views are mutually exclusive, the wise employer will incorporate both into their employee wellbeing efforts. Peterson puts it this way: “We found that those who pursue eudaimonic goals and activities are more satisfied than those who pursue pleasure. This is not to say that hedonism is irrelevant to life satisfaction, just that all things being equal, hedonism contributes less to long-term happiness then eudaimonia. However, one need not always choose between them. Indeed, I believe that the full life is characterized by both and further that these orientations can be synergistic with respect to life satisfaction. Individuals who are neither hedonistic nor eudaimonic in their pursuits are dramatically dissatisfied with their lives.” (Peterson, 2006)
In their efforts to address employee wellbeing, today’s wise employer will seek to address both philosophies of wellbeing. But recognizing and understanding each approach is only half the battle. The other half is how the employer operationalizes or implements each approach.
But when it comes to operationalizing or implementing wellbeing, employers need to remember that wellbeing is highly contextualized. Wellbeing will be unique to the individual employee and it will be unique to each particular organization or even workplace with a multi-workplace organization.
This means that an employer cannot simply copy what another employer is doing or copy and implement a wellbeing program idea someone else shares in a podcast, webinar or article. Implementation needs to be aligned with the individual employee and the organization itself.
The wise employer co-creates their wellbeing activities, events and programming with their employees and leaders/managers in order to identify strategies and tactics which will effectively address both the hedonic and eudaimonic wants, needs and desires. It is well established that one size fits but one set of circumstances.
Reference:
Peterson, Christopher. 2006. A Primer On Positive Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press.
