Workplace Mental Health Indicators

Occupational functions are not significantly impaired, interpersonal boundaries are maintained within an autonomous and controllable range, and emotional recovery elasticity after stress remains at a reasonable threshold.

When I was working on an EAP project for an Internet company two years ago, I met an operations team leader who was particularly impressive. She was 32 years old, led a content team of 12 people, and achieved S performance for three consecutive quarters. Meetings were always online logically. When subordinates asked her questions, they always patiently answered them clearly. Everyone in the company praised her as an emotionally stable backbone. As a result, she suddenly resigned in October last year, and only said privately during the handover that she had been suffering from insomnia for three consecutive months. Her legs felt weak when she drove downstairs to the company every day, and she had to sit in the car for 20 minutes before she mustered up the courage to go up. After going to the hospital to take the assessment, she was already suffering from moderate anxiety and somatization. Many people find it strange that she can still perform normally? In fact, the impairment of professional functions never starts when you "cannot complete the work." When you need to exert far more willpower than usual to maintain the same output, the alarm has actually sounded.

It’s interesting to say that the academic community has actually been arguing about the criteria for determining mental health in the workplace for almost ten years. One group is the pragmatic group that "gives priority to function". They believe that the workplace is a place for value exchange. As long as you can complete your work normally and collaborate smoothly with your colleagues, a little negative emotion is normal. You can't ask the company to provide you with emotional value, right? The other school is the "feeling-first" humanistic school, which believes that as long as your overall feeling at work is painful, even if you get performance A again and again, it is mentally unhealthy, and there is no need for people to burn themselves out for a job. There is nothing wrong with what both sides say, so now whether it is academic research or corporate practice, people will not use a certain standard alone, but look at the three core indicators in combination.

When it comes to the indicator of boundaries, many people's first reaction is, "Does it mean that the boundaries are clear if you get off work on time and never help your colleagues?" Not really. I met a kid who just graduated from sales last year. He has a very easy-going personality. He never refuses when his colleagues ask him to help pick up customers. He will definitely reply to messages sent by his boss at two o'clock in the morning within ten minutes. Even if the seniors in his group can't finish the weekly report, he will take the initiative to help. As a result, his own performance has been at the bottom for two consecutive months. When he was criticized by the boss in a meeting, his first reaction was not to feel aggrieved, but to feel that "I really can't do anything well." You see, this is a typical out-of-control boundary - he has put meeting the expectations of others ahead of his core career goals. Even though he usually seems to be always cheerful, in fact, his mental state has turned on a red light. Of course, there are also many managers who disagree with this judgment and feel that shouldn't newcomers do more work and build more connections when they first join the company? A highly cohesive team is meant to fill each other's positions, right? This is actually true. The core criterion is never whether you have done work for others, but "whether you can decide on your own whether to do this" - if you happen to have nothing to do today and think it's okay to help your colleagues work overtime, that's totally fine. ； But if you are obviously so busy that you still feel anxious for a long time when you refuse other people's requests, for fear that others will have opinions on you, then there is a boundary problem, and it has nothing to do with whether you can help or not.

The most easily overlooked of the three indicators is emotional resilience. A while ago, I met a visual designer who was born in 1995. He revised the draft for Party A for 8 versions. In the end, the client said lightly, "The first version is the best." He rolled his eyes in the conference room and came out to complain to us for half an hour about whether the client had lost his mind. Then he ordered a cup of full-sugar bubble milk tea. After get off work, he went to a cat cafe to pet the cat for two hours. The next day, he happily revised the drawing without being affected at all. This is a sign of sufficient flexibility. On the other hand, if you encounter something bad and think about it over and over again for a week, get distracted at work and feel depressed after work, or even start to have physical reactions such as headaches, stomachaches, and nausea at the thought of going to work, then you lack flexibility and need to stop and adjust. The current mainstream adjustment methods are also divided into two groups. One group believes in CBT cognitive behavioral therapy, which can help you find out unreasonable beliefs such as "the client's denial of the plan is to deny me as a person" and look at the problem from a different perspective. ； The other group advocates mindfulness practice, telling you that you don’t have to force yourself to be happy immediately. If you are unhappy, you will be unhappy. Accept this emotion and it will go away naturally. No one is better than anyone else. What suits you is the best.

To be honest, many large factories now conduct mental health screenings for employees, and they will not stupidly directly ask "Are you depressed recently?" "Are you stressed?" Half of the answers to such questions are false. They use more practical behavioral indicators: For example, in the past week, how many times have you been unable to concentrate on completing your work due to emotional problems? Do you deliberately avoid group dinners with colleagues? In the past month, have you ever taken more than 2 days off due to bad mood? These questions that seem to have nothing to do with psychology can actually reflect your true state more accurately.

In fact, there is no need to use these indicators to benchmark yourself every day. After all, who doesn’t want to slam the table and leave when they go to work? Occasionally I emo for a day or two, and occasionally I help my colleagues work overtime when my brain gets hot. As long as you can get yourself back on track, nothing will happen. Mental health in the workplace never requires you to be a perfect worker without emotions. To put it bluntly, it means that you can earn the money you should earn comfortably. It’s that simple.