This episode is part of the Happiness Reset at Work campaign, where Klaudia introduces you to 5 drivers that contribute to building more satisfaction in our careers so that you can reconnect and re-energise with your work in 2025. 

The 2nd driver of happiness at work is: Fairness.

Klaudia explores the concept of fairness, breaking it down into three key types: distributive justice, procedural justice, and interactional justice. Each type plays a vital role in how we perceive our work environment and our relationships with colleagues and managers.

By reflecting on personal definitions of fairness and evaluating workplace boundaries, you can gain insights into improving your work relationships and overall satisfaction.

Hello happiness seekers. My name is Klaudia and you are listening to the Happiness Challenge.

So across January I released three short episodes for each driver and in those episodes I bring you the science behind each driver with a set of hands on ideas to implement in your working life.

A piece of expert advice and I have invited some fantastic experts to share their knowledge and I'm very, very excited about all the insights that they're sharing.

Follow me on LinkedIn and join my new substack newsletter because you'll be able to receive a summary of each driver and also to get some free tickets to a webinar on the topic that is just my favorite one, scienceofhappiness. And I'll be hosting that webinar in February.

And finally, if you would like to dive deeper, join my new masterclass online to build your individual action plan to create more fulfillment and impact at work.

There are only 15 places available and you can sign up@happinesschallenge.co.uk courses and today in this episode, we diving into the second driver of fairness. So picture this.

You arrive at work and it has been announced that your colleague who joined the company around the same time in a very similar role to yours, received a promotion. You may feel frustrated and overlooked, questioning the criteria for the decision.

And that scenario raises a fundamental how does perceived fairness, or lack of it, impact our sense of happiness and fulfillment in the workplace? So let's start by defining fairness in the workplace context.

Fairness often refers to equity in terms of compensation, promotion opportunities, workload, feedback and recognition. This is very important to note because often when I say fairness, people automatically jump to pay, which is of course very important.

But fairness or lack of it can really affect us in many more softer elements of our work, such as whether our manager gives us feedback as much as they give feedback with other team members, or whether our manager distributes their workload fairly. And in occupational psychology research, fairness is also known as organizational justice.

And there are three types of fairness that has been distinguished in the workplace. First one is distributive justice or fairness.

So this is the perceived fairness of distribution of rewards, recognition, feedback, praise based on work input. It's very important to note that we perceive fairness by comparing our rewards and recognition to that of someone who is similar to us.

And when researchers measure this type of Fairness, they ask people to rate or score statements as compared to my co workers in a similar situation, unfairly rewarded and recognized for the work that I do. The second type of fairness, it's procedural justice.

The perceived fairness of the procedures that are used to allocate resources and to make decisions.

So for example, whether we perceive that the performance review or appraisal processes are fair, or whether we perceive that the procedures or decisions that are being made in relation to flexible working requests, are they being fair and consistent.

So when researchers measure this type of fairness, they ask people to rate statements such as the procedures used to to allocate resources and make decisions are fair and consistent. And the final type of fairness, the third type is interactional justice.

So the perceived fairness of any interactions between us and our colleagues, but really mainly our manager. So whether we feel we're being treated fairly by our manager.

And when researchers measure this type of fairness, they ask people to rate statements such as, I'm treated fairly by my manager, very simple. So we have these three types of fairness and the benchmark for each of them vary from person to person.

That is, fairness is very individual component, so what might be fair to me may not feel fair to you. And also the level of fairness always depends on the context that we are in.

So for example, if we think about pay for a moment, certain level of pain might be not acceptable in certain sectors, but absolutely fair in others. So again, the position, the perspective, the context of the situation changes how we perceive whether something is fair or unfair.

Now, why does fairness matter to our happiness at work? And there has been just so many different studies that indicate that fairness directly correlates with job satisfaction.

So if the level of fairness goes up, our job satisfaction goes up as well.

When people perceive that they are being treated fairly, whether it's in pay, assignments, feedback, workload, they tend to be happier and more motivated because ultimately when that happens, we feel that we matter and that our contributions are recognized. So the questions I would encourage you to reflect on in relation to fairness at work are what does fairness at work mean to you and why?

Because again, as I already mentioned, it's quite individual concept. So do you have your own definition?

Second question, what aspects of your work would benefit from setting boundaries to achieve more balanced approach? This is related to the idea that often we may feel that we've been treated unfairly because maybe some of the boundaries being overstepped.

So are there any specific aspects of work that would benefit from setting boundaries? And the third question is, in what working relationships would you like to gain more respect and recognition.

So are there relationships that maybe you would like to improve that level of fairness of? I hope this is useful. Thank you so much for listening to the Reset at Work campaign.

If you have enjoyed today's episode, as always, please please subscribe, leave a review and share with someone who might benefit from it.

And because we've spoken about the topic of compensation and pay at work, if you are interested to learning more about financial well being and happiness, listen to episode 114, how much money Makes Us Happy with Peter Komolaffe. I hope to see you at the next episode 137 where I will share practical hacks for increasing the level of fairness at work.

But in meantime, as always, I dare you to be happy. Bye.