If there is no rapport, I don't trust a supervisor trying to poke at my feelings. Demanding I talk about my feelings as part of my job duties? No thank you. Gross overstepping of boundaries. If I thought it was a temporary dumb idea that would blow over I might wait it out. Otherwise I'm looking for the exit.
At one point I had to attend another non technical teams team meeting to present some information that was important to them and was quite taken aback that the first 15 - 20 minuets of the meeting consisted of an around the table with each individual telling what they did on the weekend and how they were feeling. It was an extremely bizarre experience. Needless to say I refused to share my private time with what were essentially strangers. They were very surprised that I didn't want to participate and could not understand why I would find the whole process somewhat offensive.
I suppose that there are certain cultures where sharing everything is considered polite, but personally I don't get it.
People have things come up in their personal life. These emotions still exist while working. Part of the job is being able to keep a lid on them and put on a good face when you have to.
I would quit anywhere that tried to do this.
I suppose you never participated in support groups, mastermind groups or others where there's psychologically[1] safe space for "opening up"?
I agree that if not done properly it will become creepy and insignificant and will burden the meeting making it toxic :(
So I suppose in your teams you rely on 1:1 conversations but aren't you afraid of guarding[2] too much information this way?
[1] https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_silo
It's inappropriate to keep emotional dossiers on your co-workers and I can't imagine that "for their benefit" is anywhere near the median use case for a tool like this.
What guarantees would someone have that this information would not be shared, intentionally or not, with interested third parties in the future?
for the record: I agree that if there's no consensus from the team to volunteer to create habits for psychological safety, it will become a recipe for disaster if it's made mandatory. People will leave, lie or disengage totally.
1) "safe spaces" for emotions is inherently at odds with corporate culture, point blank. They exist to use you. They pay you, you provide them a service and/or your time as written in the contract. It is in your best interest to not be the nail that sticks out from the wood if you wish to keep the money coming because ultimately the power exchange lies heavily with them.
2) I don't do support groups, though this is more of a personal decision. Keeping vulnerable facets of my life completely air-gapped from cash flow and from other untrusted and un-vetted individuals has never failed me.
Now - water cooler-ish 1:1's a la "hey, you hanging in there?" can be done with tact and sincerity by select individuals if there's a previous rapport. But there is an art to sniffing out whether it's meant with a sincere no-bullshit-humanity-centric angle, versus "can we optimize this individual's output" angle. It's demeaning to think one can be the other.
Also, when you've declared something explicitly, you're now tied to it. Emotions are fluid and changing; nobody wants to have to establish some artifact, some fencepost of where they're at and then be tethered to it for the entire conversation.
Expecting to do that before every meeting with your employees just makes you sound like an aerospace engineer who's never hear of "O-rings".
Afraid of guarding? My mental state is my own business. I may choose to share it with my manager or my coworkers (in fact, I have), but to have it become a required part of a meeting? No. No. No. Especially on a remote team where I just don't know the other people. This is not the right way to build rapport.
It's telling that so many of the comments on this post at the time of my writing are negative. Please heed them.
And please keep in mind that as the team lead, or manager, or whatever your role is, there is a power imbalance. People will not have an easy time saying no to this activity, even if they want to.
I would honestly feel more comfortable with my employer taking everyone's vitals at the start of a meeting, because physical health is so much less stigmatized than mental health.
It struck me that you don't know your remote peers. In what setting are you working? I suppose you have a physical office with colleagues and a remote extension of teams with whom you occasionally collaborate?
about my role: I'm part of a digital cooperative and we too have power imbalances but not that direct as in a hierarchy. Our power dynamics stem from seniority but we all volunteered 2-3 years ago to do something about our team mental state and we're continuing to do it. Now it's part of the culture and this, of course, will alienate newcomers who dislike deeper harmonization but at the same time, it's strengthening the core team. Like everything, it has pros and cons :D
It would be like like bringing a parent or spouse to psychotherapy (pair/relationshop therapy is structurally different) - that simple presence automatically destroys the possibility to "open up" properly.