What Your Netflix-Addicted Workers Are Trying to Tell You

Findings from Netflix about subscribers' viewing habits can be applied to low levels of employee engagement, reports journalist Roger Trapp in Forbes . Netflix found more than 33 percent of its U.S. watchers and 20 percent of those in Britain admitted to watching their favorite shows on the job. "It is just that now — thanks to technology — demotivated employees have something else they can do when they are not sufficiently excited by what they are supposed to be doing," Trapp writes. "Sitting in front of a screen, the modern employee simply has many more options than his or her forebear, who was largely restricted to simple repetitive tasks on a production line." Trapp cites the work of Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, which calls on leaders to be mindful of their own needs with a view to making themselves more capable of providing the kind of leadership required in the modern world. "Leaders who adopt the approach they advocate are more likely to put people at the center of their organizations and as a result meet their needs for being connected, having meaning, being valued and being happy," Trapp says. "It all sounds beguiling and it, of course, makes sense that happy people are more likely to work harder and more effectively. But will being happy at work stop them trying to sneak a look at the latest Netflix hit?"