“Though her words are simple and few,

Listen, listen, she’s calling to you.

Feed the birds, tuppence a bag,

Tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag.”

‘Mary Poppins’ (1964) Disney Studios.

In the Disney movie ‘Mary Poppins’, Mary draws attention to the person selling breadcrumbs to people for Tuppence, so they can feed the birds. Mary Poppins encourages the children in her care to learn to feed the birds in life. It is, of course, a metaphor for caring for others and caring for yourself. After all, if you won’t give tuppence about yourself, why should others? Likewise, if you don’t care about others, couldn’t give tuppence for others, why would they care about you? In the movie ‘Mary Poppins,’ George Banks is portrayed as this cold father figure who struggles to show love to his family, partly in the name of efficiency, partly because work is his priority, and partly because of his own upbringing. The lesson that Mary Poppins is teaching his children, are also lessons she is trying to teach him as well, is that you need to give a tuppence about the important things in life. After all, Mary Poppins is ‘practically perfect’!

The question really comes down to: How do you feed the birds to maintain your sense of Well-being? How do you contribute to the well-being of others?

The two questions are, of course, related. Giving back to the world and helping and supporting others can also be beneficial to one’s own sense of well-being. It also works in reverse. St Francis of Assisi observed this in the famous ‘Peace Prayer of St Francis’: “It is in giving that we receive.” One of the curious things about COVID-19, despite the havoc it continues to bring to countries and people around the world, is the way it has highlighted just how connected we are and how fragile life really is.

The findings from a recent OECD report on our Well-being during the 2020 phase of the pandemic make for interesting reading. In summary, those findings were: 

• Income and Wealth: Prior to the pandemic, disposable income across the OECD countries had increased by 2.9%. However, by the end of 2020, 31%, almost one-third of people in 25 OECD countries were facing financial hardship.
• Work and Job Quality: Prior to the pandemic, unemployment rose to 1.9 percentage points in the OECD countries. In the first half of 2020, 14% felt their jobs were no longer secure. Labor underutilization was very evident.
• Physical and Mental Health: According to the report, across 33 OECD countries, the death rate increased by an average of 16% between March 2020 and May 2021, and life expectancy fell by 0.6%. By late 2020, across 15 OECD countries, more than one-quarter of the population were at risk of Anxiety or Depression by the end of 2020.
• Work-Life Balance: According to the OECD survey, 1 in 3 people throughout the pandemic in 2020 were too exhausted to undertake household chores. Many noticed that work had found its way into their personal / family life, especially those engaged in ‘telework’.
• Social Connections: According to the report, 20%, 1 in 5 people by early 2021, in 22 OECD countries, felt lonely “most or all of the time”, an increase from 1 in 7 people.
• Social Capital: The report found that by May 2021, a majority of respondents in 12 OECD countries “felt society was more divided than Pre-Covid.”

OECD (2021), COVID-19 and Well-being: Life in the Pandemic. Paris: OECD Publishing. p3.

What the report from the OECD really highlights, is that the pandemic that is COVID-19, has had a horrendous impact upon all aspects of our lives, from work to family, to friends and the society in which we live more broadly. This disconnect reveals the discontinuity that people have been experiencing, not just in the workplace but in schools, clubs, hospitals, and family life, in fact, most places you might think of. In Anthropology these notions of discontinuity leads naturally to discussion of rupture, which has a lot of currency, especially in this context. Anthropologists, Martin Holbraad, Bruce Kapferer, and Julia F. Sauma in their excellent book, ‘Ruptures and Discontinuity in Times of Turmoil’, highlight the potential and the impacts that ruptures can have. They note that ruptures emerge from a serious disconnect between what has previously been regarded as normal or familiar and as a result, have the very real potential for high-level impact upon those caught in the rupture.

“The unsettling effects of rupture understood as a radical and often forceful form of discontinuity, are central to current perceptions of a world in turmoil. How far might a sense of rupture – of a world that is serially breaking with itself – be an occasion to transform conceptions of social and political transformation? …While rupture operates as an inherently negative moment – a critical cut or ‘switch-point’ (Weber 1930) that instigates a significant break with existing conditions – by the same token it can act as a positive or dynamic impulse towards escape, redirection, reconstitution, and sometimes renewal.

Martin Holbraad, Bruce Kapferer and Julia F. Sauma (2019) ‘Introduction: Critical Ruptures’ in Holbraad, M., Kapferer, B. and Sauma, J.F. (eds). 2019. Ruptures: Anthropologies of Discontinuity in Times of Turmoil. London: UCL Press.

The notion that a rupture in the social fabric of our lives can also lead to renewal, is exceptionally helpful when connecting the current turmoil to Well-being. Our sense of Well-being has never been more critical and in need of a ‘laser-like’ focus. Our physical, mental and most likely our spiritual health, demands it!

It may be useful to be clear as to what is meant by “Well-being’. The Health Department for the State of Victoria in Australia, provides this useful definition of ‘Well-being’.

“Wellbeing is not just the absence of disease or illness. It’s a complex combination of a person’s physical, mental, emotional, and social health factors. Well-being is strongly linked to happiness and life satisfaction. In short, wellbeing could be described as how you feel about yourself and your life.”

Department of Health (Victoria State Government). (2020). Wellbeing. Better Health Channel. Melbourne: State of Victoria.

With Well-being covering a “person’s physical, mental, emotional and social health”, there is a compelling case for leaders of organizations, government and non-government alike, to take Well-being seriously. These factors go directly to a person’s sense of job satisfaction, productivity and ability to work collaboratively as part of a team. The age-old saying ‘you can’t give, what you haven’t got’, is particularly pertinent in any discussion on Well-being, particularly for leaders. Well-being is really a case where the leader needs to lead by example. Further testimony to the importance of leaders taking their own Well-being and that of their team seriously, was highlighted in a recent McKinsey report, referencing a McKinsey survey.

“A (2020) McKinsey survey on employee experience found that taking care of one’s physical and mental health was associated with a 21 percent improvement in work effectiveness, a 46 percent improvement in employee engagement, and a 45 percent improvement in well-being. Organizations that invest in scaling well-being and improving employee experience have seen lower rates of employee turnover, higher ratings on innovation, and even increased Iong-term stock performance. They are also more frequently cited as great places to work.”

Brassey, J., De Smet, A., Kothari, A., Lavoie, J., Mugayar-Baldocchi, M., Zolley, S. (2021). Future Proof: Solving the ‘Adaptability Paradox’ for the Long Term. New York: McKinsey & Company.