Workplace well-being initiatives don't boost employee mental health
Workplace well-being initiatives don't boost employee mental health
The mental health of people who undertake mindfulness or meditation courses offered by their employer is generally no better than those who are not offered such programmes
My workplace recently started doing a "Path to the Weekend" initiative. This is a mandatory meeting held at 5pm on a Friday for an hour about every month, where we have to have extroverted style discussions such as "tell us about 2 new things you accomplished in your personal life since the last meeting.".
It's hell.
In my experience these things are always a box-checking exercise to justify some useless person's job. As others are pointing out, participation can backfire because now the bosses know you have personal problems. (Everyone has personal problems, but formal admission will be punished in our toxic work-always-comes-first culture.)
It's a shame, because such programs administered in good faith could truly help people. But helping workers is never the real objective. It's only for the optics. "Look, we did a thing to address this".
Its almost as though our horrible corporate culture and financial insecurity can't be solved by cynically implementing said programs 🤷♂️
This is why work-from-home is superior. No one ever sends me follow-up on why I didn't do $dumb_corporate_shit this week.
I dunno, I get $25 every quarter for wearing the same pedometer I did before I worked there. 4 extra wellness days each year, which are basically extra paid holidays that you don't have family obligations tied to. Learning budgets to get me certifications on their dime. Month long paid sebatical after 3 years every 3 years.
Some wellness programs are alright. If the company actually means it.
I think we will see companies increasingly focus their hiring based on emotional intelligence and mental health.
Emotional intelligence is a four fold better predictor of academic and financial success, family stability.
I used to think being smart was enough if you're looking for a good worker.
I realize now there are plenty of smart people who failed to launch and are perpetually bouncing from job to job every few years, not usually on their own accord.
Next I want to see a study of these annoying wellness progroms that take basic health info and then shove healthy behavior down your throat.
It took me a while to figure it out but I ignore all that crap now.
What I do think would actually be helpful is assistance buying health club memberships or exercise equipment. A bike helps me be healthier. Nagging does not.
Aaahhhh nothing like a bozo mid level manager Karen deciding that we'd all be so much happier if we'd do these stupid ass corporate retreats where we all have to do mind numbingly stupid games like blindfold a group, hold eachother, and they all blindly have to follow the leader. I'd lead the entire group into a swirling river and teach the fuckers the real lesson.
Sorry, but this shit pisses me off.
Here we have mid level manager karen2 deciding she is a psychologist because she watched a YouTube video about sharing so now we're going to obligatory share about our personal lives every Monday morning to increase productivity!
I'm not going "kill me now" but I might be tempted to "kill you now" with that nonsense.
I helped organize Friday afternoon parties at one of the last companies I worked at and we made fucking sure it was just a nice get together. We got beers, snacks, drinks, good music and you could come and stay or not, whatever, it was just a nice activity focussed on just actually honestly being nice, and THAT actually improved bonds between people, started friendships, improved office ambiance... It got me my wife!
It's the thing that bothers me about the obligatory 1-on-1s we do every month with our supervisors, asking "On a scale from 1 to 10, what's your stress level? Are you dealing with any personal issues?" And the one time I pipe up and say, "Yeah, they raised my rent $300 and it's putting strain on my budget." The response was "Do you know anyone who could move in or that you could move in with to alleviate that?" I haven't gotten a raise in two years. Fuck this shit. Don't act like you care.
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#1 thing that improves worker mental health is not being at work...
But where am I going to go to get my fix?
I didn't read the article, but from my experience, if you're inundated by workload then you won't have time for extracurriculars.
HR surprised us with a thing.
"We've been studying some and found that having a 3-day weekend, totally disconnected from work, is great for your mental health.
From now on, you get a paid Monday or Friday off every month. Work it out with your manager/team, but this is mandatory. And no, this does not count against your normal PTO."
Yeah. 12 days off, paid. On top of our generous PTO plan.
If you're bitching about your job/capitalism/greed/whatever, I have some advice. Work hard, learn new skills, accomplish new things, hang in a year or three, upgrade your resume, upgrade jobs. Rinse and repeat until satisfied.