The traditional corporate workplace neglects to address the stigma around their employees mental health. Here are 5 ways corporate culture impacts mental health.
Work Life Balance
Having a poor work-life balance can have a negative impact on employees and their mental health. If your work life balance is unhealthy, you may experience loneliness, lack of sleep, burn out, depression, and/or anxiety. It is important to practice self-care and speak out when you are feeling these symptoms in order to prioritize your well-being.
Workplace Stress
The workplace can bring on a lot of stress, whether it’s due to overworking or the fact that your job is simply just boring. Monotonous work has shown to negatively affect mental health, and ultimately leads to burnout in various industries. Stress has led to many adverse effects, such as increased substance abuse and gambling.
Communication
The traditional corporate workplace is a very difficult space that has not been known to nurture communication among employees. Many people find it difficult to share their emotions or feelings as it is viewed as negative to share sensitive topics in the workplace. Some topics that have been discouraged from communication are politics, religion, sex, race and more. Avoiding these can be mentally straining to those who find it important to communicate feelings or emotions around these topics. In addition to this, cultural norms among different generations have changed creating a barrier among different age groups in the workplace. Older generations have been taught to keep work separate from other aspects of life and to not share personal thoughts while at work. On the other hand, younger generations such as Gen Z have been taught to nurture communication and sharing emotions among others. This gap in cultural norms has made it difficult for communication to be an important aspect in the common work environment. Avoiding communication can lead to strains on mental health such as heightened stress or loneliness.
Workplace Safety
Having a safe environment is essential for the mental wellbeing of employees and Gen Zers want the whole package. While most companies provide a physically safe environment, this isn’t enough anymore. Employees in the corporate world report workplace stress, mistrust, and distance between coworkers. Employees want to feel supported and included and won’t settle for less. Creating a nurturing environment of encouragement, support, and inclusivity are now the standards for firms in the corporate world and we don’t see these standards going lower in the future.
Poor Pay
No one likes to be underpaid. Low wages make it hard for employees to live a stable life when they are incapable of growing their bank account to count for costs of living. It has been seen that workers with poor pay are less likely to marry and on the other hand more likely to divorce. There is also a negative effect on family and personal stability. Low wages can lower worker morale, leading to less production...workers are responsible for the growth of the economy.
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