Daily Brain Snack: Appreciation as an Antidote to Embitterment in the Workplace
How appreciation moderates embitterment and rumination in the workplace
Well, this is right up your street, isn’t it? You have done research into well-being in the workplace haven’t you?
Precisely. As regular readers will know SCOAP is a foundational model predicting well-being in the workplace. But it is also good to see others’ research that fully supports our work. And the study I want to report on today does just that. It looks at workplace embitterment and the mitigating effect of appreciation.
What types of embitterment?
We know from our model that fairness in the workplace is one of the key predictors of well-being. And in this study by Evie Michailidis et al. of the University of East Anglia they looked at being given unnecessary and unreasonable tasks relate positively to daily embitterment.
You know the type of thing - something that can’t be finished, or is doomed to failure, or requires doing unpleasant things, or contradicts what you have previously been assigned. They call them Illegitimate Tasks (ITs)
Oh yes, I’ve been given a few of those in my life!
And unsurprisingly these lead to a feeling of embitterment and this is in combination with work-related rumination and negatively and indirectly to psychological detachment. This can also trigger a negative loop - becoming disengaged and leading to a performance drop and the negative consequences of this…which lead to more embitterment.
Oh dear and what can be done to counter this?
Well, the focus wasn’t on assigning the work correctly in the first place (which is the ultimate solution) but the study noted how appreciation from coworkers impacted this.
And how?
Well, in line with our SCOAP model, on those days when employees received least appreciation from their co-workers this embitterment was higher and it was moderated on days they received more appreciation.
So appreciation moderates this embitterment and breaks the negative loop? Kind of like an antidote?
Yes, whether it fully breaks the negative loop remains to be seen - unlikely in extreme circumstances. But yes, appreciation which falls under the S of SCOAP, helps reduce bitterness and hence mitigate all the negative impacts of this bitterness and reduce disengagement. This shows how positive co-workers can help the well-being of their colleagues. That applies to all of us.
So we need more appreciation in the workplace!
Yes, appreciation is often missing in many workplaces but ironically also comes for free - a few kinds words of appreciation costs nothing. This research focused on the impact of co-workers but obviously this would be more powerful if this came from leadership (and if truly meant).
So, yes, good to see some more research that supports SCOAP and healthy productive workplaces.
In summary keep appreciation high in the workplace!
And try not to be unfair and assign unrealistic tasks at the outset!
Reference
Evie Michailidis, Despoina Xanthopoulou, George Michaelides.
Daily workplace embitterment and work-related rumination during off-job time: illegitimate tasks as antecedents and the buffering role of appreciation.
Work & Stress, 2025; 1
DOI: 10.1080/02678373.2025.2484761