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W is for Well-being through Clarity and Connection
Welcome! This article is part of an A–Z series where I’m sharing reflections on the patterns I keep seeing in teams, leadership and workplace culture.
Not theory. Not tips. Just observations from real working life.
I've been thinking about wellbeing in the workplace lately and particularly how we sometimes make it more complicated than it needs to be.
When we talk about employee wellbeing, we often think about mental health awareness, wellbeing days, employee assistance programmes, mindfulness sessions or perhaps the occasional yoga class.
And there's absolutely a place for all of those things, but I wonder whether we're sometimes overlooking the things that affect how people feel at work every single day.
Knowing what's expected of them.
Understanding why their work matters.
Having someone they can turn to when they're struggling.
Feeling part of something rather than simply being another person doing a job.
Because you can offer all the wellbeing initiatives in the world, but if someone spends their working day feeling confused, unsupported or disconnected, how much difference are they really going to make?
Perhaps wellbeing isn't just about what we offer people. Perhaps it's also about what it's like to work here.
Sometimes it's the little things that wear us down
Think about the last time you weren't quite sure what was expected of you.
Perhaps someone asked you to do something but didn't explain what a good outcome looked like, or you thought you'd understood the priorities, only to discover they'd changed and nobody had told you. Maybe you made a decision you thought was perfectly reasonable, only to be questioned afterwards.
I have been there and it is really frustrating, isn't it? Now imagine that happening regularly.
I think we sometimes underestimate how much energy people spend trying to work things out.
Am I doing the right thing?
Is this what they actually want?
Who makes the final decision?
Should I ask, or will I look as though I don't know what I'm doing?
And this is where I think decision fatigue comes into it.
We tend to think about decision-making as the big stuff. The important choices that require lots of thought, but what about all those little decisions we're making throughout the day because things aren't clear?
Which task should I prioritise? Who do I need to involve? Can I make this decision myself, or do I need permission? Do I carry on or wait for someone to get back to me?
Individually, they might not seem like much, but when you're constantly having to work things out, second-guess yourself or make decisions without the information you need, it can become mentally exhausting.
And I wonder how much of that exhaustion organisations are unintentionally creating through a lack of clarity.
Because people only have so much mental energy to give.
If they're using it all trying to work out what they're supposed to be doing, how much have they got left for actually doing it?
For me, clarity isn't about telling people exactly what to do every minute of the day.
It's about giving them enough understanding, direction and confidence to get on with their work without constantly having to second-guess themselves.
And surely that has to be good for wellbeing.
The figures tell us something
The CIPD's Good Work Index 2025 found that one in four UK workers felt their job had a negative impact on their mental health.
The research identified excessive workloads, pressure, poor relationships with colleagues and the quality of line management as important factors associated with unhealthy work.
And according to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace 2026 report, 46% of UK employees said they'd experienced a lot of stress the previous day.
Those figures are worth thinking about.
Because we're not just talking about people who might benefit from some additional wellbeing support, we are talking about the experience of work itself.
And I wonder how often organisations look at that experience before deciding what wellbeing support to introduce.
Because if people don't understand their priorities, don't feel comfortable asking questions or don't have a good relationship with their manager, perhaps that's where we need to start.
Feeling connected is about more than just 'getting along'
There's another part of wellbeing that I think deserves more attention.
Connection - and I don't mean everyone being best friends or spending more time socialising. I've worked with teams where people get along perfectly well on the surface, but there's very little real connection between them.
They work alongside one another, attend the same meetings and exchange emails.
But do they actually understand one another? Do they know who to go to for help?
Do they feel comfortable saying they're struggling? Do they feel their contribution matters?
Because there's a difference between being part of a team and feeling that you belong to one.
Gallup's 2026 report also found that 18% of UK employees had experienced a lot of loneliness the previous day.
That isn't necessarily loneliness caused by work, but I think it's a useful reminder that being surrounded by people doesn't automatically mean we feel connected.
And connection matters.
When people feel comfortable with one another, they're more likely to ask questions before something becomes a problem, share ideas, offer help and ask for it themselves and perhaps most importantly, they don't feel they have to work everything out alone.
Managers make a difference, often without realising it
One of the things I've noticed is how much influence a manager can have on someone's experience of work.
I'm not talking about grand gestures here, sometimes it's as simple as explaining why something has changed, taking a few minutes to check whether someone understands what's expected, listening properly when someone raises a concern or noticing that someone who is usually quite chatty has become unusually quiet.
I think we sometimes underestimate the impact of those everyday interactions.
Imagine two people doing exactly the same job.
One has a manager who makes time for questions, explains decisions and checks in regularly.
The other has a manager who's difficult to approach, changes priorities without explanation and only gets involved when something goes wrong.
Same job.
Potentially very different experiences of work.
And I suspect very different feelings about coming to work in the morning.
Of course, managers are human too.
They're often juggling their own workloads, deadlines and expectations.
Which is why I think organisations need to support managers to manage people, not just expect them to somehow know how.
Because being good at your job doesn't automatically mean you know how to help other people feel confident, supported and connected in theirs.
You can have clarity without connection, and connection without clarity
You can have a really friendly team where everyone gets along, but nobody is quite sure who's responsible for what. People are supportive, they enjoy working together, but decisions take forever and things fall through the gaps.
And you can have a team where roles and responsibilities are perfectly clear, but nobody feels particularly comfortable speaking up or asking for help. Everything looks organised on paper, but it doesn't necessarily feel like a great place to work.
That is why clarity and connection need to go together.
Clarity helps people understand what they're doing, why they're doing it and what they can expect.
Connection helps people feel they matter, that they're understood and that they don't have to face every challenge on their own.
Neither one replaces the other, and perhaps that's something worth considering when we're talking about wellbeing.
It's not just about reducing the things that make work difficult. It's also about strengthening the things that make work feel worthwhile.
This is where understanding people matters
And this is where my work comes in. I spend a lot of time helping people understand themselves and one another and one of the things I find fascinating is how differently people can experience exactly the same working environment.
One person might feel perfectly comfortable being given a broad objective and the freedom to work out how to achieve it.
Someone else might feel much more confident with clear expectations, agreed timescales and an opportunity to ask questions.
One person might feel connected through regular conversations and collaboration.
Another might value having the space to work independently, knowing support is there when they need it.
Neither is right or wrong.
But if we assume everyone needs the same things from their working environment, we're probably going to miss something and that's where self-awareness and awareness of others become so valuable.
Not because we're trying to put people into boxes, but because understanding different needs and preferences helps us create working relationships where people can do their best work.
And I think that's an important part of wellbeing that can easily get overlooked.
Wellbeing shouldn't be something separate from work
I sometimes wonder whether we've unintentionally made wellbeing into another thing organisations have to do. Something that sits alongside the day-to-day running of the business.
A programme, an initiative, a calendar of activities.
But what if we looked at wellbeing as part of how we run the business in the first place?
How clearly do we communicate expectations, d people understand how their work contributes to the bigger picture, are managers approachable, do people feel comfortable asking for help, do teams understand one another well enough to work together effectively?
And when something isn't working, are we willing to have a conversation about it?
None of those things requires an enormous wellbeing budget, but they do require time, attention and a willingness to look at how people actually experience working in the organisation.
And I appreciate that won't solve every wellbeing challenge.
People have lives outside work, circumstances we may know nothing about and individual needs that will differ.
But surely we can make a difference by ensuring the working environment isn't unnecessarily adding to those challenges.
So, W is for Wellbeing Through Clarity and Connection
I don't think wellbeing is something we can create simply by introducing more initiatives, I don't think it's solely the responsibility of individuals to look after themselves but I do think it's something that is influenced every day by how we communicate, how we lead and how we treat one another.
When people know what's expected of them, they can spend less time second-guessing and more time using their energy on the things that actually matter.
When they understand why their work matters, they can see how they contribute.
And when they feel connected to the people around them, they know they don't have to manage everything alone.
Of course, wellbeing support still has an important place.
But perhaps we need to think a little more about the everyday experience of work before we decide what else people need.
So here's the question I keep coming back to:
If we took away all the wellbeing initiatives tomorrow, would the way we work still support people's wellbeing?
Because if the answer is no, perhaps that's where we need to start.
Not with another initiative.
But with a little more clarity, a little more connection and a better understanding of the people behind the performance.
If this resonated, it’s probably because you’re seeing it too.
Philippa x
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