Tag: employee happiness

HEALTH AND WELLNESS BENEFITS OF WORKING FOR YOURSELF

If you have hankered to be your own boss for some time but are unsure if taking the leap is the right decision, please consider this: there can be a number of health and wellness benefits that come from working for yourself.

As for how and why this is the case, check out the following points:

YOU CAN FINALLY FIT IN EXERCISE

If you work full time in a traditional job plus have along commute to and from work, you might find it difficult to find the time to work out during the workday. Then, once you are home you are probably too zonked to head to the gym or even walk your loyal pooch. If you are your own boss and working from home, you will no longer have to factor in commute time to your day—instead of hopping in the car to drive to work, you could use that time to head to a local gym for a Zumba class or time on the elliptical, or you could “commute” to work by walking around the block a few times with your dog.

YOU CAN SET YOUR OWN SCHEDULE 

Another main benefit of being your own boss is getting to set your own schedule. You no longer have to answer to a company manager and spend 40 hours in a building at specific times—you can set up a nice home office and work hours that fits your unique body rhythm. For instance, if you are a devout early bird, you can get up at 4 a.m. and put in a few solid hours before taking the kiddos to school, and then finish up by the time you are ready to pick them up.

If you love the idea of a flexible schedule and being an entrepreneur but are understandably nervous about opening your own business, you could always start by working for an established company that will support you along the way. For instance, if you like sales-related jobs, you might try working in direct sales for a business like Amway. You can still set your own schedule and work from home selling Amway products online, but you won’t be completely self-employed or alone in your work. The company will also teach you how to sell Amway products and offer tips and advice on becoming an Independent Business Owner.

YOU MAY FEEL LESS STRESSED 

If working full time makes you feel stressed out and guilty as a parent because you don’t see your kiddos as much as you would like and always have to pass up chances to chaperone field trips and volunteer in their classes, being your own boss may alleviate these negative feelings. The flexible work schedulethat comes from being your own boss means you will be able to adjust your hours to meet your family’s needs along with personal and life responsibilities. Not having to pay for costly child care or after school programs may also help to lower your stress level.

BEING YOUR OWN BOSS CAN LEAD TO A HEALTHIER YOU

Yes, setting up your own company takes time and determination. But in the long run, it can definitely be worth it for your physical and mental health and well-being. From taking better care of yourself and enjoying a flexible schedule to ditching the guilt that can come from spending 40-plus hours away from your family, being your own boss may be the ticket to a healthier you.

Mandy X

open plan office

The psychological impact of open plan offices

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