Tag: emotional wellbeing

Mental health maintenance kit

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Life is so challenging and day to day challenges can leave us feeling drained and exhausted. I have created a mental health maintenance kit to help maintain emotional wellbeing. It’s a quick and easy way to keep yourself balanced and can assist in coping with stress and anxiety.
This mental health maintenance kit has been created after doing research on what works and many of my clients have reported that this has helped them to overcome difficult times in life. Of course it can’t solve everything but it’s a great checklist to remind you of positive things you can do each day to keep yourself on the straight and narrow,
I use it daily and try my best to make sure I have used each one of the seven strategies to help me deal with life, especially when I feel vulnerable or know that my thinking is ‘off’. When we feel especially emotional about something, our thinking can be affected by these intense emotions and this is when we should accept that our thinking may not be accurate.
When we’re emotional and in a vulnerable place it’s a good time to implement the mental health maintenance kit too, it can be used as a preventative measure or to help us during tough times:
In short, the mental health maintenance kit is based on the acronym: IMAGINE
I = “I” for self care
M = Mindfulness
A = Acceptance
G = Gratitude
I = Interaction
N = Nurture fun/playfulness
E = Explore

I – “I” = SELF CARE

It’s a good idea to engage in self care daily. Looking after yourself involves many different things. Some are basic such as brushing your teeth and showering. Other forms of self care: hand creams, face creams, moisturiser, getting a massage, going to the hairdresser etc. Try to improve on self care over time. If you currently can only manage to brush your teeth, then try to brush teeth and shower. If your basic hygiene needs are met, perhaps put body cream on or a face mask. Prioritise self care as it does wonders for emotional well being and has many psychological benefits.
Examples of self care: getting your hair done, going for a massage, any forms of self improvement, eating a healthy diet, exercising.

M = MINDFULNESS

Several times a day, it’s good to practise mindfulness. Even if you can only manage 5 minutes each time, try to focus on the present moment. Focus on what you can see, hear, touch, taste and smell. Being mindful takes our focus away from our worries about the past or the future and gives our minds a well needed rest.
Good examples: a meal with a friend, watching television, playing with your children, meditation

A = ACCEPTANCE

Ask yourself if there is anything that you are resisting when you need to accept it? Are there things out of your control that you fight against? Acceptance can take a lot of strain off us. Resistance can lead to unnecessary anxiety and/or depression. Regularly look at your life and learn to accept the way it is at the moment. That doesn’t mean you aren’t allowed to want things to change but acceptance frees up our energy to focus on what can influence and change.

Example: I went througha breakup a while back and found it hard to accept. I kept resisitng and hoping we would get back together. Once I accepted the status quo I healed much quicker and was able to move on.

Ask yurself: What am I fighting against that I actually have no control over? Accepting what is can be very liberating.

G = GRATITUDE

It’s easy to focus on what isn’t right in our lives. The grass can seem greener on the other side and it’s common to want what we don’t have. It’s a great mental skill to practise gratitude as it can instantly help us to feel happier.

Think about what is good in your life, no matter how small. Some people even keep a gratitude journal and write in it daily.

Our default seems to be quite negative and it’s a good strategy to remind us that things aren’t always that bad.

Each day focus on what went well – it could be something as simple as the fact that the sun is shining. We activate different neuarl pathways in our brains when we focus on what is good and this leads to longer lasting levels of satisfaction over time.

I = INTERACTION

Spending time with others can often bring us the most joy. Being with others releases the feel-good hormone called Oxytocin. Being with others helps us to feel connected and involved. If you find you are avoiding others, it’s important to figure out why. Of course we all need time out but if you systematically avoid people, you are missing out on many happy opportunities.

N = NURTURE FUN/PLAYFULNESS

Make time to be silly in life. Laugh often and always maintain a sense of humour. We often take life too seriously and seeing the funny side can lessen the emotional impact if it’s negative. Watch comedies, play games, go skiing, do things that make you smile.

Get in touch with your fun childlike side again.

E = EXPLORE

This involves looking a little deeper into your patterns of behaviour. Identify what your ‘mental diet’ is – that is, what thoughts are you ‘feeding’ yourself? The thoughts we accept and ‘buy into’ will affect our quality of life. Are there any unhelpful thoughts leading you off course – such as mind reading, catastrophising or being self critical? (see the list of unhelpful thinking). If you struggle to understand your behaviour and find that it is causing you issues, Cognitive behavioural therapy could help you uncover deeper issues.

 

Mandy X

Copyright mandy kloppers/thoughtsonlifeandlove/headscience.co.uk 2019

Photo by Dawid Zawiła on Unsplash

open plan office

The psychological impact of open plan offices

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The design of an office has a measurable impact on employees’ wellbeing. The psychological impact of open plan offices is frequently overlooked by managers of companies. Of course for every situation, there are pros and cons but from the available reserach it would seem there are very few advantages when it comes to open plan offices.

In 1997, a Canadian company asked a group of psychologists from the University of Calgary to monitor employees as they shifted from a traditional office layout to an open one. The psychologists assessed the employees before the transition, four weeks after the transition, and, finally, six months afterward, measuring their satisfaction with their surroundings, as well as their stress level, job performance, and interpersonal relationships. The results were less than positive; the employees suffered pursuant to every benchmark: the new space was disruptive, stressful, and cumbersome. Instead of feeling closer, coworkers felt distant, dissatisfied, and resentful. Productivity plummeted.

The advantages of an open plan office

Improves mobility. This is the only advantage I have found whilst doing my research.

The disadvantages of an open plan office

Dimishes collaboration – employees tend to send more emails.

Decreases interactions between employees.

A study found that employees working in small numbers (3 to 9 people) and medium-sized (10 to 20 people) in open-plan offices reported lower levels of well-being and ease of interaction with other employees.

“The open plan offices may have short-term financial benefits, but these benefits may be substantially lower than the costs associated with decreased job satisfaction and well-being,” Dr Otterbring further commented.

More interruptions and distractions leads to less focus on work.

Noise levels.

No privacy.

Hot desking – leads to a sense of being unimportant and undervalued, a cog in the wheel. Studies have shown that people forced to share workspaces reported feeling marginalised, experienced more distractions, negative relationships and uncooperative behaviour, not to mention feeling like their supervisors were being less supportive.

No escape from a bad boss. According to a recent Gallup poll of a million U.S. workers, a bad boss is the No. 1 reason people leave their jobs. According to the British Psychological Society, bad bosses can make employees chronically depressed and actively hostile to co-workers.

Employees are more likely to get ill – spread of communicable diseases increases. This increases absenteeism and lowers productivity amd company profits.

Approx 50% of the population (the percentage of introverts) find open office plans anxiety provoking and draining, thereby reducing productivity.

Open plan offices can increase gender inequality. Open plan offices favour more attractive females. and also promote sexual harrassment. Female employees often feel more exposed and ‘on show’ in open plan offices.

Evolution would suggest we all naturally feel safer with our back to a wall. This isn’t always possible in an open plan office and can lead someone to contantly experience low threat-anxiety. The triggering of stress hormones and the automatic: fight, flight, freeze response may be generated consistently whilst in an open plan office. There is a perceived lack of safety in this environment. When you sit with your back exposed, your body constantly produces the stress hormone cortisol, which negatively affects your weight and immune system while creating a greater risk of chronic disease.

Constant multi tasking is exhausting for the brain. Always being aware of surroundings, noise can be fatiguing on a long term basis. Epinephrine (also known as adrenaline) is involved in the body’s “fight or flight” response. Essentially, workers in open offices are under a constant barrage of adrenaline, their bodies telling them to fight or flee. For those who suffer from anxiety disorders, high levels of epinephrine causes increased discomfort, worry, and distress. Over a period of time, the constant high dose of epinephrine leads to a phase of exhaustion where the body starts to experience the more harmful effects of anxiety.

 According to studies recently cited in Psychology Today: “People who were frequent media multitaskers had reductions in their brains’ grey matter–specifically, in areas related to cognitive control and the regulation of motivation and emotion…and exhibited weakness in both working memory (the ability to store relevant information while working on a task) and long-term memory (the ability to store and recall information over longer periods of time).”

 

The future will be different. Gadgets are more portable now and we don’t need an office anymore to do work. Public transport seems to be struggling to keep up with demand and the roads seem to be getting busier – remote office working seems to be the trend of the future.

Reasons to avoid an open plan office:

Many employers are caught up in the incorrect notion that open offices incite creativity and teamwork, and shaking them of it may be a difficult task. Open plan offices do more damage than good. Just ask your employees what they might prefer and work from there. Happy employees leads to more productive businesses with higher profits in the long term. Why do you think the big bosses always have their own offices?

 

Stats quoted from 2 Harvard researchers: http://rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/373/1753/20170239

References: https://www.psypost.org/2016/08/how-open-offices-are-killing-us-44478

 

mental health stats workplace

Mental health statistics in the workplace

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Awareness of mental health and how it impacts every other area of life is growing. Not only in hospitals and schools but also in the workplace. It’s common sense that happier employees will be more loyal, take fewer sick days and will be more focused and productive at work. Research confirms that mental health support at work is the way forward. Life is stressful, there are so many daily pressures and those fortunate employees that have an outlet will be the ones that can ‘reset to zero’ and get back to the job at hand.

Mental Health Statistics

  • 16% of UK employees called in sick because of stress in 2012/13 (Friends Life research, October 2013)
  • £460m – daily cost to employers in wasted wages due to sickness resulting from stress (Friends Life research, October 2013)
  • 19.9% – percentage of long-term absence caused by stress-related mental ill-health and home or family issues. (Group Risk Development, 2012 Employer Research )
  • 47% – percentage of UK employees with access to an EAP (UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association, EAP Market Watch , published in July 2013)
  • 10% – average percentage of a workforce that will use an EAP, including online services (UK Employee Assistance Professionals Association, EAP Market Watch , published in July 2013)
  • As many as 42% of employees call in sick claiming to be suffering from a physical illness when the real reason is a mental health issue, according to a report by health insurance provider BHSF.
  • The report, Hiding in plain sight: mental health in the workplace, published in September 2018, surveyed 1,001 full-time employees. The study found that over half of respondents (56%) suffered from stress, a third (36%) from anxiety and a quarter (25%) from depression.
  • Only 15% of respondents said they would tell their boss if they were struggling with mental health issues. Reasons for not divulging problems include fear of not being promoted, the information resulting in poor grading at assessment and being seen as a weak link in the team.
  • Nearly two-thirds (63%) of employees felt that mental health was stigmatised by either all or some of their colleagues.

Dr Philip McCrea, chief medical officer at BHSF, said: “The scale of this problem is huge, and it is being massively underestimated by employers, with employees feeling that they have to mask the issues they are facing.

“Although shocking, these findings don’t surprise me. This report must provide a reality check for employers who need to be more proactive and focus on early intervention. A more open culture must be created in workplaces across the UK, and employers have to take responsibility for this change.”

  • As many as 88% of respondents said work was either the main cause or a contributing factor to their mental health problems. However, only a fifth (21%) of employees received dedicated mental health support from their employer.
  • The average employee takes 8.4 sick days each year due to a mental health problem, according to the BHSF report.

Dr McCrea said: “Mental health is currently costing the UK economy billions, and the cost of non-intervention is far greater than the cost of intervention. It’s up to employers to take a proactive approach to managing mental health in the workplace before it’s too late.

“Developing early intervention strategies is critical. This includes the provision of mental health first-aiders, providing adequate mental health training for managers and resilience-building for employees, among other things.”

  • A fifth (20%) of employer respondents organise counselling for their employees in order to support staff mental health, according to research by insurance organisation Aviva and the British Chambers of Commerce.
  • Their survey of 1,020 UK organisations also found that 35% of respondents provide flexible working options to help support employees with potential mental health problems.

The research also found:

  • 36% of respondents review individual workloads to help support staff with their mental health, while 18% train managers to better support employees.
  • 49% of respondents do not access occupational healthsupport for their staff from external bodies, and 10% are not aware of any available support.
  • 29% of respondents have seen an increase in the number of employees taking time off work for mental health reasons.
  • 33% of respondents have observed an increase in the length of time employees are taking off work because of mental health issues.

Adam Marshall , director general at the British Chambers of Commerce, said: “As the world of work changes, it is absolutely crucial for business leaders to pay ever closer attention to the health and wellbeing of their employees, especially at a time when firms are facing severe challenges finding and retaining the skilled staff they need.

“While legions of [organisations] are now more aware of mental health concerns and acting accordingly, far too many businesses are still turning a blind eye to this issue, which saps productivity, morale and individual wellbeing. Our message today is that it is no longer acceptable for [employers] to ignore mental health in the workplace, and all [organisations] need to step up [its] game.”

Dr Doug Wright, medical director at Aviva, added: “It is encouraging to see that more businesses are not only more aware of the topic of mental health in the workplace, but are also actively offering initiatives like flexible working options to help encourage a healthy work-life balance.

“It is, however, worrying to see almost a third of businesses have seen an increase in people taking time off for mental health reasons, and [while] some of this increase may be down to staff feeling more able to discuss the issue of mental health which is, in itself, good news, it also suggests that more can be done to help.”

Options for support


Thankfully, there are a number of options that can help support employees. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a talking therapy that helps people manage their problems by changing the way they think and behave. CBT is most effective for conditions where anxiety or depression is the main problem. Many employers now recognise the benefits of online  CBT techniques. These tools are suitable for those with mild to moderate stress, anxiety and depression.

Happy and healthy employees are the driving force behind every successful business. But if employers don’t provide their staff with the right training, support and tools, absenteeism is likely to become a growing concern.

Creating a culture of health is vital to an organisation’s success. Employees who feel that the employer they work for cares about their overall health and wellbeing are more likely to be motivated, engaged and are less likely to leave. Educating employees to ensure they are comfortable accessing self-help tools or calling helplines is also vital.

 

 

Source: employeebenefits.co.uk