At the end of a webinar a manager told me: “Some of my employees feel guilty for not being able to manage everything at once: teleworking, their children, household tasks… I would like to help them, but I don’t know how”. Guilt is an emotion that is as unpleasant as it is useful: it appears when we feel we have caused harm and urges us to remedy it. However,

We haven’t all experienced lockdown in the same way. Some have felt indispensable, others useless. And others have lacked recognition because teleworking has rendered their contribution invisible. These differences naturally give rise to tensions like mutual stereotyping, disintegration of teams and declining performance. How can these be avoided? Psychology’s solution is the “superordinate goal”, i.e. a goal that can only be achieved through the active participation of each member

Have you ever heard of the “bystander effect”? In psychology it is the phenomenon that the more people there are in a place, the less likely any one individual is to help someone in trouble. It is basically due to a dilution of responsibility (there are lots of people; someone else is bound to help on my behalf). When coming out of lockdown, many employees will experience bouts of

Are you familiar with the concept “locus of control”? In psychology, it’s the way we determine the cause of what happens to us. We can divide ourselves into two categories: – The “internals”: what happens to me depends on me… if I fail it’s my fault. These people progress more quickly in their careers but go through intense phases of guilt and self-questioning. – The “externals”: what happens to