Five things you can do to manage your mental wellbeing on the job.

Every day practices to manage your mental wellbeing.

Professionals involved in workplace wellness gathered at Collective Health for a meeting yesterday. Workplace wellness is about keeping employees healthy and engaged so that they can do their best work.

Two new workplace wellness problems:

1/ Addiction to devices

Many employers are struggling because employees are becoming increasingly distracted by all the social apps captivating our attention at home and now in the workplace. Some members of the panel talked about their own efforts to curb use of their smart phone while commuting to and from work and on weekends. All agreed that addiction to devices will become one of the main wellness challenges in years to come.

2/ Concern for chaos

Concern for the chaos present in most organizations was also raised as a factor that is increasing anxiety as well as the length of the average workday. Jules, Chief of People at Collective Health, talked about how they use the OKR framework from Google to reduce the number of key initiatives and how face time [aka: number of hours spent in the office] is less important than the contribution. 

Re-engage in real life

The key takeaway is that we need to re-engage in real life relationships and to focus our efforts while at work to make the biggest impact in the shortest amount of time.

Five things you can do on the job to re-engage in real life:

1. Share a meal regularly with a colleague, friend or your family rather than sharing a picture of your food.

2. Take a break and if you can squeeze in a workout to improve your physical health and mental wellbeing. 

3. Schedule a walk into your day [aka: commute or walking meeting] so that you get some fresh air and sunshine.
4. Monitor your relationships to ensure they are nurturing you rather than draining your energy.
5. Spend your time on the highest value initiatives to shorten your workday and regain more work-life balance.

Life is full of ups and downs.

If you’re struggling with a problem that seems to big or scary to handle on your own or just don’t feel like yourself, consider talking to a therapist who is trained to provide the support you need.

If you missed it, read our last post to learn when you should consider engaging a therapist and how to select one. It also contains more tips from our discussion with Dr. Ana Dubey for maintaining your mental health.