How to Promote Wellness in the Workplace
As summer is no more than a memory and the chilling winds of autumn await us ahead, offices once more fill up and companies pick things up where they left them off. There’s no more vacation, nor peace and quiet. What we do have is another impactful trade show season ahead, which made us think about how to not only survive it, but thrive under stress.
Wellness is a word we hear often, especially in the context of the work environment when you have a demanding job. Ask your colleague about their ideas regarding wellness and you’ll probably hear a lot on the subject. But what are the tried-and-true methods to achieve wellness when everything around you seems to be veering off a cliff?
Focus on a Healthier Work-Life Relationship
This is a rather complicated topic at hand as there are those who continue to advocate for a stricter separation between personal life and work life. In this way of thinking, you should consider your time outside the office as sacred where you don’t answer phone calls and don’t do emails. Although applicable in certain contexts, such a balance is an artificial construct that creates more tension and is not really viable when you’re in a managerial role or an entrepreneur.
The higher you climb up the corporate ladder the more the demands of your job will encroach in those times when you should be technically resting. How do you resolve this situation? Another school of thought has other ideas on how to avoid the spillover from the office in other aspects of your life, or rather work with it.
The idea is simple – become efficient at your job. Some of you are already defensive. Trust us. To be busy and overworked does not mean that you’re working at your full capacity and it’s exactly this buildup of tasks that causes the spillover. If you’ve been in your line of work for a long time, then you should already know you work and what tasks are non-essential to your workday. It’s time to reevaluate your working processes and prioritize what really needs to be done by you and what else can be delegated. In other words, you should strive to be in full control in a career sense.
Organize Your Workplace for Stress Reduction
Stress can be found in the environment just as much as in the work requirements. The good thing is that while you can’t change your job description, you can change your workspace. If you’re an employee without the power to trigger a full office renovation, there are small things you can do for your desk – remove clutter, get noise-cancelling headphones, bring in plants to freshen up space and bring in a good old-fashioned stress ball.
If you have more control over the environment as a manager or owner, then be sure to brighten the colour scheme with cheerful, though non-intrusive colours and make sure there’s plenty of natural light. Upgrade shared spaces. Offer healthier snacks and drinks. Space out your employees so no one is intruding on someone else’s personal space.
Give Your Employees Access to Do What They Want
It’s true that a cohesive team will work better together, which helps reduce overall stress especially during a larger project with a looming deadline. So there should be spaces where colleagues can freely socialize and interact. Team-building outings are all the rage right now, but you should also take note that not everyone can be equally social and on good terms with every single other team member. Socialization works best when it’s offered, not enforced.
Some workers manage stress through working out, so offering perks to help their training whether that’s flexible times for them to go and exercise or access to facilities will increase their workplace satisfaction and boost productivity. Others may react best when they take some quiet time away from their desk to recharge. Both options should be available.
If you happen to feel stress at your desk, then what we recommend is to just stand up and go for a short walk for a few minutes to clear up your head.
