Some conditions at work you can manage without.
Some you can't.
Lumara names the conditions you can't manage without, in language you can use. Leave your email and you will hear what we add next, the occasional note worth reading in between, and more about your own profile once you have one.
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NEED DEFINITIONS
Twenty conditions that decide how well you work.
Each one is defined by what its absence costs. A preference is something you would enjoy. A need is a condition whose absence reliably changes how you perform, how engaged you stay, or whether you start looking elsewhere. The twenty below cleared that test. They sit in four tiers, and each tier is named for the kind of harm its absence produces.
TWENTY NEEDS, FOUR TIERS,
ONE LANGUAGE
NEED DEFINITIONS
Twenty conditions that decide how well you work.
Each one is defined by what its absence costs. A preference is something you would enjoy. A need is a condition whose absence reliably changes how you perform, how engaged you stay, or whether you start looking elsewhere. The twenty below cleared that test. They sit in four tiers, and each tier is named for the kind of harm its absence produces.
TWENTY NEEDS, FOUR TIERS,
ONE LANGUAGE
Security
THREAT AND DEPLETION
3 needs
When a Security need goes unmet, the harm arrives as strain and exhaustion, often before you have words for it. These are the conditions that have to hold before anything else in working life can.
EMPLOYMENT STABILITY
your place here feeling stable
Steadiness and predictability in the employment relationship. What matters is your own read on it, rather than the objective state of the organisation.
WORKLOAD SUSTAINABILITY
a workload you can carry
A workload you can carry without running yourself down, in both the volume of work and the pace at which it arrives.
BOUNDARY RESPECT
your own time staying yours
Work staying inside its limits, so the time meant to recover you belongs to you. Long hours are not the test. The test is whether work follows you home.
EMPLOYMENT SECURITY
your place here feeling secure
Stability and predictability in the employment relationship. What matters is your own read on it, rather than the objective state of the organisation.
Security
THREAT AND DEPLETION
3 needs
When a Security need goes unmet, the harm arrives as strain and exhaustion, often before you have words for it. These are the conditions that have to hold before anything else in working life can.
EMPLOYMENT STABILITY
your place here feeling stable
Steadiness and predictability in the employment relationship. What matters is your own read on it, rather than the objective state of the organisation.
WORKLOAD SUSTAINABILITY
a workload you can carry
A workload you can carry without running yourself down, in both the volume of work and the pace at which it arrives.
BOUNDARY RESPECT
your own time staying yours
Work staying inside its limits, so the time meant to recover you belongs to you. Long hours are not the test. The test is whether work follows you home.
Connection
IDENTITY AND BELONGING
4 needs
When a Connection need goes unmet, the harm arrives as friction, isolation, or not knowing where you fit. These conditions are largely set by the environment you enter, which makes them the most important to read before you join.
ORGANISATIONAL ALIGNMENT
a place whose values you share
Sharing something with the organisation at the level of values: its mission, its culture, what it will and will not do.
MANAGER ALIGNMENT
a manager you click with
Your manager's values and way of working sitting close enough to your own that the relationship runs without steady friction underneath it.
PEER ALIGNMENT
colleagues who work the way you do
The people you work alongside working in ways that fit with how you work, in norms, standards, and pace.
PEER BELONGING
a real sense of belonging
A genuine bond with the people you work with: warmth in the relationships, and colleagues who have your back. Separate from whether you share their values.
Connection
IDENTITY AND BELONGING
4 needs
When a Connection need goes unmet, the harm arrives as friction, isolation, or not knowing where you fit. These conditions are largely set by the environment you enter, which makes them the most important to read before you join.
ORGANISATIONAL ALIGNMENT
a place whose values you share
Sharing something with the organisation at the level of values: its mission, its culture, what it will and will not do.
MANAGER ALIGNMENT
a manager you click with
Your manager's values and way of working sitting close enough to your own that the relationship runs without steady friction underneath it.
PEER ALIGNMENT
colleagues who work the way you do
The people you work alongside working in ways that fit with how you work, in norms, standards, and pace.
PEER BELONGING
a real sense of belonging
A genuine bond with the people you work with: warmth in the relationships, and colleagues who have your back. Separate from whether you share their values.
Value
DIGNITY AND STANDING
8 needs
When a Value need goes unmet, the harm arrives in how you are treated and where you sit in the structure around you. Most of these conditions are within the discretion of a manager or the organisation.
PROCEDURAL RIGOUR
processes that treat you fairly
The way calls get made here being even-handed: pay, promotion, recognition. This is the consistency and integrity of the procedures, apart from whether any one decision goes your way.
INTERPERSONAL RECOGNITION
your work being acknowledged
Leadership acknowledging you personally when you do good work, through praise and feedback that name what you have done.
PROFESSIONAL REGARD
your judgement being trusted
Being treated by the person you report to as a capable, trustworthy adult whose voice is legitimate. It is the standing you are given in that relationship.
DEVELOPMENTAL LEADERSHIP
leadership invested in your growth
Real effort into your growth from leadership: the stretch, the feedback, the attention that says you are worth investing in.
ADVOCACY
putting you forward
The person you report to standing for you beyond the room: putting your name forward, crediting your work, backing you where it counts.
ORGANISATIONAL VOICE
a real say in what affects you
A real hand in the decisions that shape your work. It runs from being kept informed, to being asked, to your input carrying weight in what gets decided.
REWARD BALANCE
pay that reflects what you bring
Your pay reflecting what you bring, set against your peers, the market, and your own contribution. Whether the amount is fair, apart from whether the income feels secure.
FLEXIBILITY
control over how and when you work
Enough say over how and when your work gets done within working hours. These are the conditions inside work, apart from the boundary around it.
Value
DIGNITY AND STANDING
8 needs
When a Value need goes unmet, the harm arrives in how you are treated and where you sit in the structure around you. Most of these conditions are within the discretion of a manager or the organisation.
PROCEDURAL RIGOUR
processes that treat you fairly
The way calls get made here being even-handed: pay, promotion, recognition. This is the consistency and integrity of the procedures, apart from whether any one decision goes your way.
INTERPERSONAL RECOGNITION
your work being acknowledged
Leadership acknowledging you personally when you do good work, through praise and feedback that name what you have done.
PROFESSIONAL REGARD
your judgement being trusted
Being treated by the person you report to as a capable, trustworthy adult whose voice is legitimate. It is the standing you are given in that relationship.
DEVELOPMENTAL LEADERSHIP
leadership invested in your growth
Real effort into your growth from leadership: the stretch, the feedback, the attention that says you are worth investing in.
ADVOCACY
putting you forward
The person you report to standing for you beyond the room: putting your name forward, crediting your work, backing you where it counts.
ORGANISATIONAL VOICE
a real say in what affects you
A real hand in the decisions that shape your work. It runs from being kept informed, to being asked, to your input carrying weight in what gets decided.
REWARD BALANCE
pay that reflects what you bring
Your pay reflecting what you bring, set against your peers, the market, and your own contribution. Whether the amount is fair, apart from whether the income feels secure.
FLEXIBILITY
control over how and when you work
Enough say over how and when your work gets done within working hours. These are the conditions inside work, apart from the boundary around it.
Meaning
PURPOSE AND DIRECTION
5 needs
When a Meaning need goes unmet, the harm arrives as emptiness or drift, and it usually takes reflection to surface. These conditions set how far your best work can go.
PURPOSE FIT
a connection to what you care about
A real line of sight between your work and something you care about: the mission, the people it reaches, or the problem it solves.
CONTRIBUTION VISIBILITY
seeing the difference you make
The concrete sense that your work is making a difference. What counts is your own read on that impact, whether or not anyone else notices.
PRESENT STRETCH
a genuine stretch
Work that keeps challenging you and growing what you are capable of. Growth you feel in the present, in the doing of the work.
FUTURE TRAJECTORY
a clear path forward
A credible next move visible from where you sit, a sign that growth here has somewhere to go. The road ahead of you inside this organisation.
CAREER CAPITAL
capability and standing that carry
The role leaving you more capable and better regarded in ways that outlast it. The value that stays yours when you move on.
Meaning
PURPOSE AND DIRECTION
5 needs
When a Meaning need goes unmet, the harm arrives as emptiness or drift, and it usually takes reflection to surface. These conditions set how far your best work can go.
PURPOSE FIT
a connection to what you care about
A real line of sight between your work and something you care about: the mission, the people it reaches, or the problem it solves.
CONTRIBUTION VISIBILITY
seeing the difference you make
The concrete sense that your work is making a difference. What counts is your own read on that impact, whether or not anyone else notices.
PRESENT STRETCH
a genuine stretch
Work that keeps challenging you and growing what you are capable of. Growth you feel in the present, in the doing of the work.
FUTURE TRAJECTORY
a clear path forward
A credible next move visible from where you sit, a sign that growth here has somewhere to go. The road ahead of you inside this organisation.
CAREER CAPITAL
capability and standing that carry
The role leaving you more capable and better regarded in ways that outlast it. The value that stays yours when you move on.
These needs weren’t guessed. Each was tested against the evidence.
These needs weren’t guessed. Each was tested against the evidence.