Work culture can be toxic. Even if everyone is doing it, working eight hours every day is not easy. Companies try to wring you dry in the hours you’re there to get the most value for their investment, which is draining and discouraging.
Many long-term and short-term work issues can lead to more significant physical and mental problems that have to be addressed. While it’s essential to work hard, taking breaks is equally responsible.
You must identify what factors impact your well-being when you work in a company so that you can assess the damage, work on improving it, and live a healthier life.
1. Company Culture
One of the most significant ways in which work negatively impacts your well-being is when your company has an unsupportive and hostile culture that sucks the life out of you. According to Corporate Wellness Magazine, a workplace with a healthy environment has many benefits, including reduced turnover, improved productivity, and greater employee satisfaction.
If your company’s culture is stressing you out, it may be time to resign.
2. Workload
Burnout is real, and many people suffer from it when they push themselves too hard for too long. Being overburdened with work can affect your mental health and lead to physical consequences like headaches, dizziness, and fatigue. According to Umbrella Well-being, this reduces job performance, leaving you in a vicious cycle.
The moral of the story is not to take on a larger workload than you can manage comfortably.
3. Autonomy
You will be stressed out if you don’t have job autonomy. When workplaces don’t hand over control to their employees, those employees feel like nothing they do will have any meaning, and that’s a dangerous place to be.
According to a journal article published in Springer, work autonomy can improve employees’ job quality and decrease stress levels.
4. Job Security
Experts at A Place of Hope state that research suggests job insecurity often leads to moderate and severe depression symptoms, with workers being three times more likely to face depression if they don’t know if their jobs are secure. If any of this seems in line with what you’re experiencing, it might be time to move on and find a workplace that meets your needs.
Freelancing jobs, in particular, cause a ton of anxiety due to a lack of security.
5. Relationships at Work
Human beings need connections, even at work. If you feel alone and isolated at your workplace, you won’t feel fulfilled, which can impact your health. According to Atlassian, social connection prevents chronic stress and workplace burnout.
Working is stressful, but having no one to share your issues with makes it even worse.
6. Work-Life Balance
We’ve all heard about the importance of an excellent work-life balance, but many of us succumb to corporate pressure and compromise, which can lead to problems.
According to the Happiness Index, survey respondents were asked why they didn’t use all of their paid time off. The most common reply was that they feared falling behind. Most people don’t understand that if you’re mentally tired and physically exhausted, you’ll fall behind anyway.
7. Organizational Justice
Organizational justice is the employee’s perception of fairness in decision-making and workplace policies. If you think rules are different for different people, this can lead to psychological stress.
According to a journal article published in Hindawi, a lack of justice is a significant psycho-social risk factor affecting employees’ attitudes and health. Your mental health might be suffering because of it.
8. Meaningful Work
While working, a typical employee needs to receive meaningful work to feel valued by the organization. If you don’t get any solid projects, you may feel like you’re not good enough, which can affect your health.
According to BMC Psychology, meaningful work increases mental well-being by buffering the impact of work stress and by improving people’s sense of purpose in life.
9. Working Hours
Research by Frontiers suggests long working hours affect depression via occupational stress, while occupational stress has a positive direct impact on depression.
If you’re working overtime or juggling multiple jobs, it can lead to significant health-related problems. Burnout usually presents itself in both mental and physical symptoms. Similarly, odd working hours are also detrimental to health.
10. Flexibility
After the pandemic, people have realized the importance of a more flexible work environment. Flexibility gives you some leeway and makes you feel like the company trusts you.
Mercer reports that three in five (60%) employees say a flexible workday is highly valuable to their well-being. This can look like flexible hours, flexibility in location, or general flexibility regarding creative freedom.
11. Wages and Salary
In the current economy, everyone stresses about paying bills. When your work isn’t paying you enough money to keep afloat, it can cause crippling anxiety and money trauma that can last a lifetime.
Stressing about where your next paycheck will be coming from, how to meet your expenses, and how to take care of your family is not easy, but it is a common factor among workers.
12. Employee Benefits
If your workplace doesn’t offer a bonus or a raise, having employee benefits can relieve some of the burden.
According to Perci Health, employee benefits help boost morale, make employees happier, increase productivity, and even lower business costs. This is a win-win situation for both employees and employers who want to maintain an effective workforce.
13. Diversity
Representation in the workplace fosters a sense of community for underrepresented individuals. According to Harvard Business Review, underrepresented populations are more likely to face physical and mental challenges.
When employees feel unheard and invisible, it can lead to feelings of loneliness and chronic stress that can cause great harm to one’s well-being.
14. Managerial Support
You can do everything right with the best salary and employee benefits but still suffer from low self-esteem without managerial support. According to Mercer, people who felt supported by their employer during the pandemic reported a primarily positive experience.
If you feel like the top management just doesn’t support your initiatives, it can make you lose hope, which can cause mental challenges.
15. Consequences of Making a Mistake
While young people just starting might experience this more, everyone wants to please the people in charge. This means you’re terrified of making mistakes and letting everyone down, which can cause severe anxiety.
In the workplace, management that allows employees to make mistakes and helps these employees grow from them helps ease these feelings, creating a more productive, effective workfroce.
