Security Blanket Terrorists changed your employees. It's up to you to provide the nurturing.

Everyone was moved by the terrorist attacks in New York andWashington. But September 11 was a knee-bending, one-two punch foremployees already reeling in a softening economy beset by worthlessstock options and a climbing unemployment rate. The attacks--whichoccurred so publicly and at one of America's best-knownbusiness addresses--have left many employees re-examining thereasons why they do what they do for a living, and at what cost.Since September 11, time off the clock has taken on new meaning.Suddenly, not letting employees telecommute or leave an hour earlyto watch their children play T-ball can make you look less thanhuman.

In the post-September 11 workplace, "work-life balance isno longer seen as a dream but as a right," says RichardDonkin, a workplace historian and author of Blood, Sweat & Tears: The Evolution ofWork (Texere). Roughly 82 percent of 1,800 employeessurveyed last fall by Aon Consulting's Loyalty Institute saidthey are reassessing their priorities and trying to devote moretime to their personal lives. The brass rings that employees usedto value in exchange for long workdays--money and fancytitles--don't mean as much as they did just one year ago.According to a Society for Human Resource Management survey doneafter the attacks, some workers are turning down promotionsthey've already accepted, and employees seem less worried aboutgoing beyond the call of duty to prove themselves--even thoughunemployment is at a four-year high.

"People are looking for a way to do their jobs, but withless intensity," says Pat Wiklund of Wiklund &Associates, a Mountain View, California, consulting firm. Shesees the effects of September 11 as more than just a temporarymalaise in the wake of unimaginable tragedy. The events have causeda permanent shift in how employees feel about work, awakeningfeelings that existed all along but have suddenly come to thesurface. "Our world view has changed," says Wiklund."What was motivating employees before all of this came downmay not fit right now."