-Nanditha Gururaj
Intern, Nov- Dec 2023
It's no secret that working in today's world may be difficult. It's no surprise that so many of us are battling to keep our heads above water in the face of deadlines, demands, and continual pressure to perform. Even though we spend so much time at work, we rarely discuss our mental health—or how our jobs may be hurting it. It's past time to end the silence.
Physical and mental wellness are equally vital. Mental health has an impact on all elements of our lives, including employment performance. When an employee's mental health suffers, key performance measures including productivity, creativity, and social involvement can all suffer. Prioritizing mental health in the workplace can help your employees thrive and realize their full potential, which is what businesses require to prosper and grow. Unfortunately, there is still a lot of stigma associated with mental illness, which discourages many people from seeking assistance. This can lead to lower productivity, absenteeism, and job churn in the workplace. It can also foster a toxic environment for employees who are attempting to balance their mental health with their professional responsibilities. As many as one in every five employees is dealing with some combination of mental health issues, performance issues, and stress.1 Employees cited issues such as despair, a lack of desire, decreased focus, insomnia, and poor collaboration. When employees and leaders are unable to focus on their duties, the consequences for a company can be disastrous.
Workplace stress is a major contributor to occupational illness, low productivity, and human mistakes. This means increased sick leave, high personnel turnover, poor organizational effectiveness, and an increase in accidents owing to human error. Work-related stress can also cause heart disease, back pain, headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, or a variety of minor ailments, as well as psychological impacts like anxiety and depression, lack of attention, and poor decision-making.
There are numerous ways in which a work environment can lead to poor mental health at work. Excessive stress and frustration can accumulate over time as a result of poisonous relationships, inexperienced leadership, and ambiguous communication. When you combine this with a lack of clear responsibilities and goals, long or inflexible work schedules, unrealistic demands, and a lack of employee support, it's no surprise that employees can feel dissatisfied, unhappy, and weary.
We can all work to improve our mental health and resilience - our ability to deal with adversity. Self-care is a skill that must be honed. It's not easy, especially if we're anxious, sad, or have low self-esteem. Examine the 10 evidence-based techniques to improve your mental health listed below. Look for one or two that you find difficult. These could be your objectives. These may be the areas you overlook when you're stressed - for example, drinking too much, isolating yourself, or comfort eating are all examples of ways people try to cope.
Talking about your feelings might help you maintain excellent mental health and deal with difficult situations. It is not a sign of weakness to express your emotions. It's all part of taking care of your health and doing everything you can to stay healthy. It can be difficult to express one's emotions at work. It might be quite beneficial to have coworkers you can chat with or a boss who asks how you are during supervision meetings. Choose someone with whom you feel at ease and who will be encouraging. You should consider what you want to disclose, who you want to disclose it to, and when and where is the best time and place to do it. If you are upfront about your feelings at work, especially if you are a leader, it may inspire others to do the same. If you don't feel comfortable talking about your sentiments at work, make sure you have someone with whom you can discuss job difficulties - partners, friends, and family can all serve as sounding boards.
The establishment and execution of a workplace mental health strategy and the programme will promote employee health, increase corporate productivity, and contribute to the overall well-being of the community. Psychosocial intervention courses, as well as stress management training and health promotion interventions, have been shown to improve mental well-being.
A workplace that values the mental health of everyone in the organisation can be so so important! This piece conveys it perfectly ✨
Such an insightful read that highlights the significance of a healthy workplace!