Standards for mental health in the workplace

Its core criteria are that individuals can maintain relative emotional stability in the work environment, and do not have ongoing conflicts with their self-identity. They can not only cope with regular occupational pressures and complete job tasks, but also find a dynamic balance between work requirements and personal boundaries, and there is no sense of exhaustion or meaninglessness for more than one month in a row.

Many people have a very big misunderstanding about this standard. They think that mental health in the workplace equals "zero negative emotions": don't quarrel with colleagues, don't complain to the boss, don't complain about tiredness when working overtime, and reflect on whether you haven't done well enough when you are wronged. A consulting case I received in the past two years is a typical one. A 28-year-old girl who works in Internet operations got all A's in her performance appraisals for three years after joining the company. She has never been embarrassed by anyone. Her boss sent a message in the middle of the night and she would reply within half an hour. Even when the temperature reached 38.5 degrees, she was holding her computer in the hospital to change her activity plan. Everyone around her was She felt that her mood was as stable as a robot. As a result, she resigned naked after Double 11 last year and went to the hospital to be diagnosed with moderate depression. The doctor said that her previous "zero emotion" was essentially emotional isolation, like stuffing all negative emotions into a pressure cooker without even a release valve. Sooner or later it would explode.

Regarding this standard, scholars in different research fields actually have different views. Researchers in the school of positive psychology will raise the standard even higher. They believe that "not sick" is only the bottom line. True workplace mental health also includes a "sense of growth": you can get positive feedback at work, feel your abilities are improving, and even gain self-identity from the value of your work. For example, teachers see students getting good grades, and product developers see that the functions they build solve real problems of users. The sense of joy that comes from the bottom of the heart is a sign of health. But scholars who study burnout—the research field in which Freudenberg, who first proposed the concept of “job burnout”—have a much more pragmatic attitude. After all, many people now work just to earn a salary. Talking about self-realization is indeed a bit luxurious. They think the passing line is very simple: you will not have physiological discomforts such as headaches and nausea when you think of going to work, you will not lose sleep for a week because of work, and you will not take the anger you suffered at work on your family and friends for no reason, even if you meet the standard.

I have been doing corporate EAP consulting for almost 6 years. To be honest, I rarely use the hard indicators on the scale to check the mental state of employees. Instead, I look at a few small details. The first one is whether you can take the initiative to "fish"? It’s no joke. Those employees who sit for eight hours without even drinking water and staring at the computer the whole time are the ones we focus on. Occasionally standing up to get a glass of water, walking around for two minutes, or watching short pet videos for half a minute when the boss is not looking. It shows that you will actively adjust your energy rhythm and will not force yourself to bear it. The second is do you have a reasonable emotional outlet? As long as you don't drag your colleagues to complain for two hours every day that it affects normal work, complain to your partner during the lunch break that the boss has brought up strange requirements today, or complain to the team about unreliable products after the project is launched, it is much better than keeping all emotions in your heart. Also, will you “fight back” when you encounter injustice? Last time, a young man from the sales department came to talk to me and said that last week the leader wanted to blame him for losing customers to other teams. He talked to the leader on the spot for half an hour with past communication records and data. Although the atmosphere in the office was quite stiff at the time, he forgot after he said it. It was time to follow up with customers. I said at the time that your state was too healthy. If it had been someone else, you might have been wronged for several days. I was still reviewing in my mind whether I had failed to do something well, which was all internal friction.

Of course, these are not absolute standards, after all, everyone's personality is so different. I have met an algorithm engineer before who has a very introverted personality. He never gets together with his colleagues to complain. When he is stressed, he goes hiking on weekends by himself, or goes home to write open source code and decompress it for two days. His mental state is much healthier than many people who complain together every day. Therefore, these details are only for reference, not as a caliper to check yourself, and you cannot deduct points by comparing them one by one.

There are also many people who confuse "not liking their current job" with "unhealthy workplace psychology". A while ago, a reader sent me a private message, saying that now he wants to fish every day when he comes to the company, and he can't muster the energy to work. He feels that it is meaningless at all. Is there a psychological problem? I asked him how he felt after get off work, and he said he felt energetic after get off work. He played ball with friends three times a week, and formed a small band of his own to perform on weekends. He lived a very fulfilling life. I told him at that time, you couldn't be healthier. You just don't like this job. Don't label yourself with psychological problems.

To be honest, when we discuss the standards for mental health in the workplace, we are not essentially trying to set a framework for you to check whether you are "qualified" or not. Rather, we want you to know that you don't have to force yourself to be the perfect employee who is always emotionally stable and always positive. You can complain, you can fish for trouble, and you can fight back when the blame is dumped. As long as you can find a comfortable balance between work and your own life, and leave the bad things at work at the company after get off work and live your own life well, that is enough.