Even if you love your job, it’s easy to fall into a pattern of griping about work. And a side-effect of that can be that you start to take your colleagues for granted. You know that you work hard, obviously. But when you’re up to your eyeballs in deadlines, you sometimes forget that everyone around you is grafting, too.

According to new research, however, we should all pay more attention to our colleagues’ efforts, and remember to thank them for their hard work. Because gratitude is a powerful force in the workplace – and it has the ability to genuinely improve people’s lives.

Researchers at Portland State University and Clemson State University in the US examined a group of nurses to see how being thanked for their work affected their physical and mental wellbeing. What they discovered was remarkable. When nurses were thanked more often at work, their sense of workplace satisfaction increased significantly.

This, in turn, led to the nurses experiencing better sleep, fewer headaches and healthier eating. In other words, it looks as though being on the receiving end of gratitude in the workplace can genuinely improve people’s mental and physical wellbeing.

Why we should all express more gratitude in the workplace