We’re all familiar with the concepts of fight, flight or freeze, which are well-known human reactions to a potential threat or danger.
But there is a fourth type of survival response and it’s a growing behavioural trend among Gen Z. Known as ‘fawning’, this type of behaviour is described by experts as a ‘learned adaptation to a hyper-connected, high-stakes social environment’
It’s not a new concept, but its growth among Gen Zers is attributed to them growing up in a digital world. This generation is already familiar with ‘being always on’ and is highly focused on building a positive online persona.
They’re well aware that behaving in certain ways is more likely to encourage ‘likes’ and increase their number of followers.
As a consequence, many are adapting to this behaviour in their offline lives, focusing on excessive people-pleasing, avoiding conflict, and over-accommodating others.
Fawning not only has an impact on individuals’ personal lives, but it can impact how they interact with others in the workplace. While it may appear as teamwork or kindness, in reality, fawning can signal deeper workplace issues like low psychological safety and unsustainable workloads.
How to spot ‘fawning’ at work
Common signs from employees include: excessive agreement with all ideas in meetings, even contradictory ones. Consistently taking on extra work despite lack a of capacity, frequently staying late or working outside of office hours and constantly seeking reassurance on all work contributions.
What does this type of behaviour mean about your workplace culture?
While fawning behaviour can be attributed to an individual’s personal struggles, it could also be a sign of issues in your workplace environment, one of which is low psychological safety.
Psychological safety is considered one of the most crucial factors in fostering a healthy and collaborative workplace culture where legal rights and individuality are recognised as a business priority.
However, Reward Gateway | Edenred’s research reveals a discrepancy in perceived psychological safety at work. 51% of HR professionals believe employees feel safe confiding in them but only 42% of employees feel this way.
In a psychologically unsafe workplace, employees feel unrecognised and anxious, unsure where to seek support. A lack of recognition fuels feelings of insecurity, making it difficult for employees to be their true selves or engage confidently at work.
When businesses reward employees for working excessive hours, others will feel obliged to follow suit, creating unhealthy workplace habits. Constantly exceeding your working hours easily results in fatigue and burnout. And as we all know, tired, anxious and exhausted employees do not equate to healthy, productive teams.
Workplace burnout may even weaken short-term memory, attention spans and other cognitive processes, potentially making employees notably less productive. Burnt-out workers are also 63% more likely to take sick days and nearly three times as likely to be looking for another job.
What can businesses do to reduce ‘fawning’ in the workplace?
Listening to your employees encourages productivity, diligence and hard work – especially when coupled with recognition. Creating opportunities for employees to contribute during meetings or creative collaborations will promote psychological safety, increase job satisfaction and reduce the need for excessive approvals.
When there is a culture of hard lines and rules in a workplace, it can intimidate employees into feeling unable or less willing to step outside of the boundaries of a project to offer unique solutions. This creates a tense working environment and leads to an unmotivated workforce.
Make sure you invite differing opinions in meetings and that candid, constructive feedback is praised, not just agreement.
Employees need to know they have the freedom to make mistakes, articulate opinions and give feedback. Staff also need to feel it’s OK to push back and say ‘no’ to additional work or projects if they do not have capacity for them, without worrying about negative consequences.
Leaders and their leadership style have a unique opportunity to create a psychological safety at work. Openly encouraging employees to take time off, set boundaries and to ‘switch off’ at the end of the working day needs to be led from the top down.
Those who lead with honesty, respect and vulnerability will build a team that is motivated and engaged.
Finally, an effective approach for businesses to prevent and alleviate behaviour like ‘fawning’, feelings of burnout and anxiety in the workplace is to signpost employees towards relevant emotional wellbeing support.
This may include Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), which support staff with issues like stress at home or work, financial difficulties and family and relationship concerns. Wellbeing benefits and talking therapies are an essential offering, helping all employees manage conflicting priorities, difficult emotions and common life stressors.
Chris Britton is people experience director at Reward Gateway | Edenred
