We spend a considerable part of our day in our workplaces. Hence, it also forms a part of our identity. The work that we do, the people we work with and the environment we are in also helps in shaping the day for us. Workplaces and their ambience also impact our mental health. When we are inside a healthy work culture with a healthy work and life balance, we feel happy, more productive and enthusiastic about our work. Vice versa happens when we are placed inside a toxic work culture.
ALSO READ: 10 easy tips to manage your mental health
Psychologist Nicole LePera addressed the issue of toxic workplaces and how they impact the mental health of the employee by putting them into survival mode in her recent Instagram post. “Because we aren’t taught emotional skills or relationship skills, workplaces reflect the same unhealthy family dynamics, repeated. Because we have outdated work models, employees are expected to function as robotic factory workers,” read an excerpt of her post. Nicole further noted down the workplace practices that harm the mental health of the employees:
Urgency – A chronic culture of urgency is created when their employees are burdened with deadlines on a daily basis and a crisis situation props up every day. This is the culture which makes employees behave like robots.
No boundaries – Employees are expected to be present and available for 24 hours a day. A workplace that cannot respect the boundaries and the work and life balance of its employees end up being toxic and harmful for them.
Low pay – A low wage employment often pushes the employees to have side gigs which leave little or no time for them to unwind or have time for their family or themselves.
Bosses – The people we work under also impact our mental health. When employees are made to work under bosses who cannot regulate their own emotions and hence end up expressing it in the form of shouting, being rude, ridiculing the employees, it affects their mental health.
No appreciation – A workplace that doesn’t applaud the good works of their employees and treat them like robots, also affect their mental health.
Micromanaging – Constantly overlooking and controlling the employees leads to workplace anxiety and hyper-vigilance.
Unhealthy competition – Pining the employees against each other creates a culture of fear. “I believe we can re-build dysfunctional work places. We just need more open conversation and education,” wrote Nicole.
