What is Care in the Workplace?

By Baozhen M. Luo-Hermanson, PhD

March 4, 2025

A team member stays late for the third time this week to complete a project. The next morning, they receive a terse email from their manager that simply reads, “Need this revision by noon.” No acknowledgment of their effort, no thank you—just another demand. In that moment, the thought surfaces: "They just don't care about me."

A nurse practitioner notices that discharge procedures are causing preventable readmissions. She documents cases and proposes a new protocol based on patient needs rather than administrative convenience. Her supervisor acknowledges the problem but responds, “We don't have the staff hours for this approach,” without exploring possible solutions. The message is clear: institutional constraints trump both patient outcomes and professional expertise. Another case of “They don't care”—about either the caregivers or those being cared for.

These sentiments aren’t isolated. They echo across offices, remote workspaces, factory floors, and hospital corridors. While they paint a grim picture of workplace dynamics, they only tell us the outcome—that employees feel neglected or that their purpose is undermined. Let’s unpack what's really happening by exploring three key questions.

Who Are “They”—The Ones Who Should Care But Don’t?

On the surface, “they” are employers—specifically, leadership at all levels. This includes direct supervisors, middle management, and C-suite executives who shape the work environment, employee well-being, and opportunities for growth.

But is it fair to simply point fingers at individual leaders? Most leaders do care—or at least intend to. I refuse to believe that executives wake up in the morning and decide to be uncaring.

Research supports this nuanced view. According to Gallup, 88% of executives say employee well-being is a top priority. Yet only 24% of employees actually feel their employer cares about them. Half of the workforce feels undervalued, and one in three feels invisible.

This disconnect between leadership’s intent and employees’ experience is what I call the care gap—a critical issue, considering employee disengagement costs businesses $8.8 trillion annually worldwide.

So, what's happening here? The truth is, "they" aren't just managers or executives; "they" are often the entire ecosystem of the workplace. The lack of care is not simply an individual failure, but a complex interplay between leadership (how leaders behave and interact with employees), work culture (how employees experience the shared social and psychological environment), and work systems (how work is designed and executed). Care deficit manifests in daily interactions but is rooted in deeper organizational dynamics that extend far beyond any single person or role.

What Don’t They Care About?

When employees say, “They don’t care,” what they’re really saying is: “They don’t care about me” or “They don’t care about the work that matters”—precisely the sentiments illustrated in our opening examples from office settings to healthcare environments.

This complaint is a cry for attention to meet needs beyond a paycheck and benefits. Drawing from Maslow's hierarchy and Martha Nussbaum’s capabilities approach, I’ve identified six fundamental human needs employees seek:

1. Respect – Being treated with dignity and having one's perspectives valued

2. Trust – Psychological safety and confidence in leadership

3. Recognition – Specific acknowledgment for effort, skills, and accomplishments

4. Empathy – Being understood and valued as a whole person

5. Belonging – Connection and inclusion within the organization

6. Purpose – Alignment between personal values and work

When employees express that no one cares, they’re signaling: “We are not just cogs in the wheel—we are human beings with core needs for wellbeing and development.”

What Is Care in the Workplace?

We typically associate care with family relationships or healthcare settings serving vulnerable populations. Throughout my academic career, I explored care in these specific contexts.

Over time, I discovered a deeper truth: care isn’t limited to specific settings or demographics. Care is universal—it has sustained societies, enabled progress, and fostered resilience through history’s greatest challenges. Care is the foundation upon which everything else is built.

Political philosopher Joan Tronto provides a definition that helps us understand care’s broader significance. Tronto defines care as “species activities we do to remain, continue, and repair our world so that we may live in it as well as possible” (p. 3). Care is about meeting needs, and relates to relationships between citizens and their environment (1). This perspective helps us see workplace care as essential part of a larger social fabric.

So, what exactly is workplace care? Here's my definition:

“Care is the act of supporting employees—both as individuals and collectives—to meet their human needs for well-being and growth. Delivered through relationships and systems, care often flows from those with more power—personal, positional, social, or expertise—to those with less. The impact of care—empowering or harmful—depends on how it is practiced and sustained.”

Bridging the Care Gap: First Steps

Recognizing the care gap is just the beginning. Here are three starting points for leaders and organizations ready to address it:

1. Audit your systems, not just your people. Look beyond management training to examine how your organizational systems either enable or prevent good care. For instance, do your performance metrics also consider employee wellbeing along the line of the 6 needs—respect, trust, recognition, belonging, empathy, and purpose? Most organizations only have metrics on performance but no metrics on trust—and that's why toxic leaders are promoted.

2. Listen before acting. Before implementing new initiatives, have honest conversations with employees about what care means to them in this process—what their needs are and what are mostly lacking within the organization. The solutions may be simpler—and more impactful—than you think.

3. Enhance your power literacy. Knowing how power flows within an organization is essential. Map how power moves through positional, expertise, social, and personal channels. Understanding how each leader holds and exercises their power provides a critical foundation for meaningful care. When leaders recognize their power dimensions, they can more consciously direct resources and attention toward meeting employee needs.

(1) Tronto, J. C. (1993). Moral boundaries: A political argument for an ethic of care. Routledge.