1. Worksheet 1: What Are My Unmet Work Needs?

by Thomas Stuart, MA, LPC, LAC

(Originally posted to Substack on 7/20/25)

What are work needs?

As a worker, you have things that you require or need from your employer. These are called work needs

Work Needs are subjective, and unique to the individual person. For this reason no other person can say that your identified work needs are “wrong,” they can only be “achievable or unachievable at this time.”

If a worker has work needs that are unmet by the employer, they will experience distress and suffering.

“Catherine works full time at a meat rendering facility (aka a slaughterhouse) and has for 3 years. She is very unhappy with many parts of her job – the work is physically hazardous, there is a high pace and pressure to work faster, her manager is demanding and does not respond to worker concerns, and many of her coworkers fight openly or make mean jokes about each other. The last few months quotas and pressure at the workplace have increased, the working environment is getting worse, and a coworker got injured in a workplace accident. She is being told she needs to work more overtime hours, threatened actually.

Catherine has suffered greatly from symptoms including sleep loss, eating binges, increased back pain, increased agitation and anger, worry, times of low mood. She is experiencing real losses of personal time, safety, comfort, and control.”

From Catherine’s example above, we can see many potential unmet work needs, such as:

- Physical safety at the workplace

- Supportive Manager

- An achievable workload

- Ability to have complaints heard

- Reasonable work hours

- Low pressure/pace of work

- Social support at workplace

- Ability to control schedule

As a result of her working with an employer who is failing to meet her individual specific work needs, she is suffering from real medical symptoms affecting her mental and physical health, and other tangible losses like time and safety.

The worker in America is an individual actor engaging with the employer in the working relationship. As an individual actor, the worker has their own individual desires, goals, likes, dislikes, quirks, and other traits that make them unique.

The employer also acts as an individual actor engaging with the worker, from the other side of the working relationship. The employer likewise has their own individual desires, goals, quirks, and traits.

Some people prefer a high pace of work, what if Catherine doesn’t actually feel that the fast pace of work is a problem? If Catherine doesn’t identify the pace of work as something that causes distress or suffering, then she is saying it is not an unmet work need of her.

What about the risk of physical danger in Catherine’s workplace? Some people may be less bothered by this too. Regardless of the individual’s desire for a safe workplace, an unsafe workplace will always still have real danger to the worker.

2025 Gallup polling shows some high ranking unmet work needs in its reports on Employee Retention:

2025 Gallup polling on desired work needs by workers

Here we see 4 very high ranking answers above all others, which are showing the most important work needs polled as:

1. Low work stress, demands, and better work-life balance

2. Better pay

3. Job safety, not fearing job loss, termination, or other sudden unwanted changes

4. Independence and freedom to “Do What I Do Best” (aka lack of micromanaging)

I’d also like to highlight the next highest ranked need: One in three American workers is apparently so unhappy with their manager that they are telling a polling agency it is important to get away from them somehow. That sounds like a lot of bad managers meeting a pretty high bar of having their direct reports wanting to “move away” from them. If this poll is accurate, that’s over 54 million workers.

Attached and written out is a worksheet to help you identify current unmet work needs:

Pay, contracted benefits, duties, and major conditions:

· My pay is too low, I want to make ___________ ($/hr or yr)

· I want more hours of work

· I want less hours of work

· I want a promotion or higher level job

· I want better (or any) health/dental/vision Insurance

· I want better investment benefits from my job.

· I want more PTO/vacation/sick time

· I want a better job position

· I am unhappy with job status: full/part time, W2/1099, hourly/salary status, stable/commission pay

· I want the option of overtime

Conditions of work:

· I don’t like my commute to work and want it to be under _______ minutes/miles

· I don’t like the travel requirements of work

· I want either full or partial work from home

· I dislike that my job duties are not defined and I am asked to do any task that comes up

· I want better flexibility/control of my work schedule

· My schedule is unstable, changes suddenly or frequently

· I don’t like my work duties

· I often feel pressured to stay late at work, and work late

· I feel pressured to do unpaid work from home

· I am given too many work duties to complete

· I don’t feel that my pay is fair or equitable for the work I do

· I feel uncomfortable in the social environment at work

· Clients/customers are rude, demanding, or aggressive

· The amount of work varies too much between fast and slow

· The amount of work I have leads to a cycle of feeling burnt out regularly

· My employer makes it difficult to actually take time off

· I want a job that is more flexible in letting me leave early

· The physical workplace or office is uncomfortable or unpleasant

· Work has many small costs that add up (meals, gas, parking)

Conditions related to behavior and policies of employer/managers:

· My employer does not give me proper guidance to do my work

· My employer assigns me too many work tasks to complete in time

· My employer does not provide me resources that are needed to complete work (time, money, staff, etc.)

· The work expected of me feels impossible to complete

· I don’t like the tasks or duties my employer assigned to me

· Managers are dismissive of my needs when I speak to them

· (aka possible gaslighting)

· When there are problems at work, my managers are critical and blaming (as opposed to supportive and corrective)

· My manager is rude or says hurtful things to workers

· My manager says things that make me uncomfortable

· My manager raises his voice and yells at work

· Work reaches out to me during my time off work

· Managers pressure me to do work during my time off work

· My manager threatens workers with termination or other consequences

· I think my employer may be doing illegal things (not paying worker on time in full, disability accommodations, discrimination, illegal acts related to business, etc.)

· My workplace feels unfair, and has no sense of justice

· My employer is inconsistent in enforcing rules or policies

· My employer shows favoritism in hiring and treatment of certain workers

· My manager doesn’t communicate clearly

· When I want to speak with my manager they are often not available

· I think my employer/manager is abusive (name calling, lying, gaslighting, cycle of conflict)

· My employer responds to requests or communication with blame, misdirection, and criticism (possible gaslighting)

· Managers pass responsibility between each other, and it is confusing and mazelike to try to get information or needs met

· My employer is untrustworthy

· When workers ask for their needs from the employer, my employer fails to meet their needs

· My employer is incompetent, and not actually knowledgeable

· My employer promises change but then fails to follow through

· My employer’s decisions do not make sense or are illogical

· My employer hires or promotes incompetent, abusive, or problematic workers or managers

· My employer recently acted in a way that makes me fear for my job safety (layoffs, merger, unfair firings, threatening etc.)

· My employer assigns me to shift times or lengths that are unpleasant or are making life difficult

Work Needs of Personal Health, Time, and Life

· I don’t feel physically safe at work, work is dangerous

· I feel physically or emotionally fatigued or exhausted because of work

· My employer changes my schedule frequently or with short notice, which causes problems in my life

· My employer makes it difficult to leave work on time

· The pace or tasks of my job are too physically or mentally strenuous.

· My job is affecting my family in a negative way.

· My job makes it difficult to care for my pets

· My job tends to interfere with my sleep

· My job contacts me or comes up too frequently during my non-work time.

· My job tends to interfere with healthy eating habits.

· My job makes it difficult to do the normal tasks my life requires.

· Individuals at my work feel unsafe to be around (by being aggressive, blaming, hostile, threatening, name calling)

· I feel __________________ (regular unpleasant emotions) because of work.

· My job has a pattern where I feel burnt out and overwhelmed frequently.

· I have pain in my ________ made worse by my job.

· My job makes it difficult to get to medical or mental health appointments.

· I think my mental health is made worse by my job because of _______________

· My job makes it difficult to do things for my well being like ___________________

· The physical environment of my workplace feels uncomfortable because it is _______________________

· My job makes it difficult to do things that improve my mood or physical health like _______________________

Future and Growth Related Work Needs

· My job is not helping me gain new skills that I want for my personal career.

· I have not gotten a promotion but feel I should have a more valuable job.

· I need a raise and have been with my employer for a long time.

· My job is not helping my career advance.

· My employer has not given me a promotion, which I want.

· My job is not helping my professional network grow.

· I don’t think my job is helping me meet my personal goals of _________________________

· I have done good work but don’t think my employer has rewarded it.

· I have career goals of _________ and think working here is interfering with them

· My job is not working with me to allow me to complete school or professional training.