Some workers feel underappreciated during pandemic

Employees in all kinds of different fields have gone above and beyond during the pandemic, but many say they’re not getting the thanks they deserve.

Lexi Fields is a career coach at Kirkwood Community College in Iowa. After completing a recent work project, Fields got a ‘you’re awesome’ meme from her boss. The small gesture meant the world. “It really doesn’t take, you know, a lot of effort to do something like that, but it does mean something to us all. We do feel like a family on this team,” Fields says.

But it seems her manager’s expression of thankfulness is not the norm.

A recent survey of 500 Americans found 49% had not received a “thank you” from their boss during the pandemic. The company Workhuman conducted the study. Workhuman uses software to help managers and employees amplify their gratitude for a better working environment. CEO Eric Mosley says of the study’s results, “It’s quite unbelievable. If you think of it in today’s world, with all that’s going on, we’ve asked 10s of millions of people to work from home, and sometimes under duress. They don’t have ideal circumstances. It’s a very stressful time.”

On Twitter, worker complaints run rampant.

EMT Carl Robinson, who has been fighting the pandemic on the front lines, told CBS News correspondent Laura Podesta, “I feel like things have changed. I feel like society’s kind of forgotten about what we’re in, despite having to wear masks, social distance anywhere and everywhere they go.”

He says he received lots of thanks from the public at the beginning of the pandemic, but not lately. When asked if he thought he’d be motivated to do an even better job if the praise was more consistent from society and his patients, Robinson said, “I do. I believe society has a big role to play.”

And others agree. In the Workhuman study, 64% of people say receiving a thank you during the pandemic inspired them to work even harder.

In July, Pinterest published results from the website’s search trends over the course of the pandemic. The company saw the highest searches ever on mental wellness. Searches for gratitude alone were up 60% from February to May.