Wellness in the Workplace — Achieving balanced health on the job
There’s more emphasis on achieving wellness than ever before. It’s less about exercise and eating Cheerios for a healthy heart and more about one’s overall well-being, including corporate wellness — thank millennials and Gen Zs for that.
When it comes to the workplace, attracting and retaining great talent (you), means implementing a healthy work environment for employees.
Although yoga Fridays help with physical wellness, what about the day-to-day stress (and anxiety) that work inevitably brings?
In other words, what are tried and true actions you can take to promote your mental health and emotional stability while working?
I’m no expert–seriously, I’m just a content writer–but after some research, I’ve discovered a few ways to stay well in the workplace.
So let’s stay well, shall we?
Here are five ways to maintain your mental, physical, and emotional well-being in the office.
1. Set clear boundaries at work
Whether you’re a workaholic or you’re just so anxiety-ridden that if you don’t say ‘yes’ to everything, you’ll lose your job, setting boundaries is important to maintain a healthy work-life balance. Career Contessa suggests setting boundaries as early as the interview process.
“From the interview onward you teach your boss and your colleagues how to treat you and how you achieve a healthy work-life balance.”
Of course, in an interview, you’re thinking about one thing — getting the job. But an interview is an opportune time to check for any red flags a company may have surrounding work expectations. It’s also a measurement of whether or not the job is a good fit for you.
The folks at Career Contessa also note three different forms of boundaries you should cultivate in the workplace–physical, mental, and you guessed it, emotional.
They suggest keeping things professional at work (more handshakes, fewer hugs), making it clear when you don’t want to be approached (like wearing headphones), setting your work hours with approval from your boss and sticking to them, and communicating your approach to feedback.
2. Prevent Burnout
Did you know burnout increases your risk of illness due to high levels of stress?
It also lowers your productivity in the long run. Intuit Mint found that burnout even harms your career trajectory and leads to a loss of income…yikes!
To prevent burnout from burning a hole in your pocket, let’s learn how to identify it. Signs include:
- Exhaustion
- Fatigue
- Procrastination
- Overwhelm
- Unhappiness in your role
- Lower productivity
- Just feeling over it
One of the most important things to understand to prevent burnout is that you can NOT do it all. You’re only one person. Once you’re clear about that you should…
- Figure out your optimal workload.
- Learn to say “No” when you’ve hit max capacity.
- Delegate tasks to free up space.
- Ask for help.
That last one is vital.
Sometimes just having an honest conversation with your team or boss is all it takes to get the help you need. Let people know if you’ve taken on too much and need a hand completing projects. You’ll save yourself in the long run and the project will likely get better results.
3. Take mini breaks
This tip is simple. You don’t need an Apple Watch or a Fitbit to remind you. You don’t have to follow the Pomodoro Method either. Just get up from your desk every once and a while!
Stand up and stretch–heck, just take regular bathroom breaks. The work isn’t going anywhere so it won’t hurt to take five a few times a day. Move your body and give your eyes a break from your computer screen.
4. Drink the Kool-Aid — join the company fun
Ok, take this one with a grain of salt, but here’s what I mean. Say you’re lucky enough to work for a company that shares your values. That still doesn’t mean you agree with all the decisions your company makes.
So drinking the Kool-Aid doesn’t mean you have to buy into every single thing about your job. However, attending company events is one way to sip the Kool-Aid while taking a load off.
You work hard, you deserve it. And the best part is, company events are on the company dime! They also provide an opportunity to get to know your coworkers and do some real team bonding.
Big projects with tight deadlines can cause lots of stress, but feeling like you’re a part of the team makes it easier to give support and be supported in such times.
This is especially true for large and remote teams. Take the AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) for example. It may be known as an HIV and STI prevention nonprofit, but the organization spans 45 countries and has over 7,000 employees globally.
Utilizing the employee engagement programs brings AHF staff members all over the world together by promoting physical and mental health through staff events.
5. Use your benefits!
Finally, make sure you get the most out of your job’s benefits. We all subscribe to health plans. And maybe we sign up for the gym too. But how many people actually consider utilizing the Employee Assistance Program, for example?
Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) are employer-sponsored benefits that provide mental health and behavioral support to employees experiencing personal or work-related difficulties.
Despite 97% of large companies (>5,000 employees) and 75% of mid-sized to small companies offering employees the EAP benefit, a 2019 study showed that less than 10% of employees use it.
A reason for this may be that EAP is not advertised much after the HR portion of a new-hire onboarding. Another reason, maybe employees feel there are too many hoops to jump through to access the benefit.
This burden lies, of course, with the company itself. Jobs are supposed to make it easy for employees to understand and access their benefits.
Even still, for those who’ve tried the tips above (and others) for staying well at work but still feel overwhelmed, it may be worth the extra effort to ask an HR representative about using the EAP benefit.
The bottom line:
Everyone has a unique working style, and no workplace is the same. So there is no one size fits all way to stay well in the workplace.
The important thing is to identify ways you can improve your physical, mental, and emotional well-being by making small but powerful changes to your work life.
If it isn’t possible to implement all of these suggestions at once, don’t sweat it — totally not the point.
