Coping in a world of work

A fortnightly column about emotional well-being Workplace resilience is more about the culture created within an organisation than about individual employees

- Sonali Gupta

One of the questions that clients often ask is: What defines resilience? Given that we live in a world that feels like it is volatile, unpredictable and all about hustling and being constantly available, this is an important question. Whether we work in a corporate office, run our own entrepreneurial venture or are consulting and freelancing, this question needs an answer and defining resilience can have an impact on personal and organisational health.

Resilience has become a word that is often misunderstood and misinterpreted. While a definition exists for resilience at large, workplace resilience is not clearly defined, leading to misconceptions. One of my worries is that we focus too much on individual resilience, forgetting that workplace resilience is so much about the culture that leaders, stakeholders and promoters create within the organisation.

Given that work paradigms have changed in terms of remote and hybrid methods, we need to work towards a definition of workplace resilience that allows employees and organisations to thrive.