April 18th, 2011 [ Posted by Dr Lindsay ]
To state the obvious ‘work plays a vital part in our lives’. It provides an opportunity for us to earn wages, provide financial security, build self-esteem, gain wealth and provide opportunities for those nearest and dearest to us.
An emerging research interest is the imperative of job satisfaction as the key driver to personal worth. However, the recent study from Leadership Management Australia has found from its study of 3500 employees that 48% of service managers and 60% of employees either hate their job or have a ‘ho-hum’ approach to their work.
The resultant outcomes for their companies would clearly drive lower productivity and performance. EAP’s today are focussed not only providing strategies to assist with problems in the workplace but also to proactively add value to an employee’s desire to improve job satisfaction and self-esteem. A worthy goal . . . everybody wins.
March 21st, 2011 [ Posted by Dr Lindsay ]
Mental health has been in the news a lot lately. It is estimated that between 15 and 30% of employed people will experience mental health problems in their lifetime. The question is; what part does the workplace play in the development of mental ill health in its workers?
Creating a positive culture is the responsibility of leadership. If the men and women in leadership demonstrate disrespect they will generate an environment where people do not respect or value each other. Modelling positive workplace behaviours is the most important determinant of the mental health of individuals in the organisation. If the leader demonstrates kindness and patience then it will rub off on the staff. However if the leader is more concerned with image and personal aggrandisement then there will be a self serving, back biting atmosphere which elicits distrust and conflict. If workplace culture is toxic then mental ill health such as depression and anxiety will be rife, absenteeism will be high and the organisation will earn a reputation for being unhealthy and unsafe.
Senior Executives that expect a great deal from their employees 24/7 are more than likely high contributors to the mental ill health of their people. Recent research indicates that psychological detachment which implies the need to disengage from work, results in greater emotional health and wellbeing. This involves switching off phone and email and any other connection to work. If employers are stringent about encouraging this value they will reduce burnout and job exhaustion in their workers. A key characteristic of top performing companies is their commitment to an ethic of work-life balance. Respecting the personal lives of their team members as sacrosanct has been shown to be of pivotal importance
Finally employers owe a duty of care to their employees to provide a safe work environment. Up until recently the concern has been to ensure that protection was offered against physical injury. It is now well recognised that businesses, companies and other places where people work must offer protection against psychological injury. It is a well recognised fact that some individuals are more emotionally resilient than others. Therefore it is not easy to predict whether one person is more vulnerable to mental ill health than another. It is true that some people may have a genetic predisposition to mental illness which can be triggered for the first time because of a workplace conflict or pressure. Clearly this is not foreseeable. However if people are treated well with ready access to senior staff; expected to handle a reasonable workload without undue pressure; if they are provided with proper time to disengage from work after hours, then it is unlikely that work has been a key contributor to mental ill health.
March 14th, 2011 [ Posted by Dr Lindsay ]
At first glance the idea of fun at work seems paradoxical. After all isn’t working simply a means to an end? Work is all about making enough money to pay for the toys that enable us to live the lifestyle to which we have become accustomed. Fun is what you do when work is finished. Fun is what you work for – if you don’t work, you can’t afford to have fun. Right? But what if fun could be had at work and what if your boss cared about whether coming to work was fun for you? What if you were no longer considered a human resource or a company asset? What if at the end of the day you felt like you had really made a difference? What if you had workplace leaders that you could respect because they lived the values they espoused? What if you were treated as a valuable part of the team? What if your ideas and opinions were listened to and acted upon? What if you were given the freedom to use your skills and creativity to make decisions without someone looking over your shoulder? What if everyone at work was flourishing because they were so well placed that they were engaged, fulfilled and motivated? What if there were fewer managers and more teams? What if you were kept in the loop and actually knew what was going on? What if………?
Work can be fun. People who work want to sense that their contribution is valuable and meaningful in the larger scheme of things. They want to know that they are trusted to fulfil their role without undue supervision. They want to be treated well as valued human beings and not as cogs in a wheel or social capital. People who work want to be able to have confidence in their leaders, admiring their authenticity, integrity and humility. They want leaders who command respect because of the dignity and honour they assign to their staff; not leaders who demand respect because of their status, pay packet or qualifications. Leaders are the key because work can only be fun when leaders choose to be who they need to be and allow their people to be the best they can be at work.
Work can be fun. People who work have fun when they are part of a community that is made up of others who together use their initiative and creativity to make decisions on the basis of the shared values of the organisation. They operate ethically and feel good about what they are contributing to society in services or products. People who work want to feel appreciated for what they do and to be encouraged to become better. They want to feel important enough to the organisation to be kept in touch with what is going on no matter what role they occupy and to know that their opinion is considered valuable.
Work may not be on the same scale of fun as some other activities but if you have to go to work wouldn’t you rather have fun?
March 7th, 2011 [ Posted by Dr Lindsay ]
The challenge for business
According to the National Health and Safety Commission stress accounts for the most common reason for absenteeism. This is also supported by an increase in 400 per cent in stress related claims over the past ten years. Research conducted by Medibank Private reports that workplace stress is costing the Australian economy $14.81 billion a year; and these are 2008 figures!
Our experience, in supporting companies and their employees through our Employee Assistance Programs (EAP), indicates there has been a 54 percent increase in stress related counselling over the past three years. Workplace stress can be caused by a range of issues including inability to meet performance expectations, unresolved work related relationships, working alone or remotely, inability to meet results, excessive hours, poor communication, keeping up with changes, office politics and unresolved conflicts to name a few.
Our evidence based research does indicate that the EAP counselling provided by our psychologists does make a difference, particularly in reducing stress related incidences. It is clear that while we recognise there is a growing stress epidemic, there is also a major emerging shift in business to positively respond to this matter and reduce the cost, by introducing preventative education programs in order to build a more resilient work force. The ability to “bounce back” and continue to contribute productivity does enhance the health of the organisation or business, its people and their personal and corporate results.
February 28th, 2011 [ Posted by Dr Lindsay ]
Employment in the mainstream workforce is an important contributor to mental health and a well rounded personality. People need to feel that they are utilizing their skills, are valued for their contribution and making a positive difference. Where jobs allow employees to flourish, feel valued and are appreciated, the result will generally be that they remain physically well, are highly productive, exhibit high levels of self-efficacy and personal worth.
Unemployed people, by contrast, may suffer much higher levels of depression and anxiety, hopelessness and despair because they may lack the purpose and meaning that work and its associated social participation provides.
So what makes the difference in the way we function and what is the impact?
A recent Harvard Business Review article entitled The Making of a Corporate Athlete (Loehr. J. Schwartz T) provides some useful insights that may give us a clue. The authors spent two decades working with world-class athletes examining the qualities, attributes and evidence they displayed that made them high performing world class athletes. From this evidence, they developed an integrated theory of high-performance management called the Performance Pyramid. At its foundation is physical well-being and then at the next level is emotional health, then mental acuity and finally spiritual purpose. Notably, the authors state that each level profoundly influences and impacts the other. Their evidence suggests that you cannot have one without the others, if you want to be an elite athlete. They then take us into the corporate world noting that many of the executives they met and studied exhibited many of the same qualities. They suggested that executives who were required to operate at a high level of performance were in effect “corporate athletes’.
My current experience is that there is an increasing recognition that what makes high performing individuals is in fact gaining traction in a way that recognises that there is much, much more than receiving the correct pay and conditions. There is much to learn from this study and the time is right to implement this evidence into aspiring high performing businesses.
