Dr. Norman Fried, Clinical Psychologist, joins On The job to discuss how the pandemic changed the way we approach mental health in the workplace, why employers need to keep mental health at top of mind, and what symptoms of burnout to be on the lookout for.

On the Job

These are the Signs of Workplace Burnout to Look Out For

Welcome back to on the job presented by ADP May is mental health awareness month and conversations surrounding mental health in the workplace or taking the forefront research finding that nearly 20% of workers in the U. S. Report having a mental health condition. So how can employers prioritize mental wellness at work? Well joining me now is dr norman freed clinical psychologist Dr freed. It's great to have you on the show. How has this pandemic changed the way that we approach mental health in the workplace. Wonderful question, christian and I want to thank you for asking because mental health has not really been as as attentively addressed as it has now. Because of the pandemic. I think the most important thing to remember is that because of the lockdown because of the isolation and potential loneliness that comes from the hybrid or the working at home situations. Mental health has really plummeted and many of our patients, many of my patients present a sense of malaise or a lack of interest or self satisfaction in the work itself and so it's very important that we maintain an ethical as well as a psychological i on the well being of our of our workers. So there's greater productivity as well as greater satisfaction in the job itself and doctor. What do employers need to be doing to support their employees with mental health conditions. So it's very important that we begin the conversation and allow employees to say this is how I feel. I'm a little tired today. I'm feeling a little bit disconnected some of them to be aware of some of the signs and symptoms of burnout in the workplace, which would be showing up late or leaving early or a lack of interpersonal connectedness. Sometimes even a hypervigilance that I'm going to get sick or I'm not going to be happy or I've lost my mojo and my work productivity is down to be aware of these signs and symptoms and to offer as much support, either inter personally or through the firm itself would be very important for employers to be aware of. Um of course it's the right thing to do, but I'm sure it's also a good business decision. And so why do employers need to keep mental health at top of mind? So the first answer to my question, Kristen is that is that we're talking about the ethics, right? That every one of us needs to be ethically caring about our employees and those that are struggling with feelings of depression and malaise or lethargy because of being in an isolated kind of workplace for 18 months to two years. really will be impacting their own well being on top of the fact that when a person enjoys his work as well as maintains a sense of satisfaction from the work he does, there's going to be greater productivity. So we want our employers to be ethical in their in their behavior towards employees as well as concern for the productivity and the output that every one of our employees is able to give to the company's doctor, what are some of the symptoms of burnout that employers should keep an eye out for? That's an amazing question. There are so many symptoms, but I will for the sake of this argument, remind everyone that there's diminished work functioning. People will show up late or leave early. There may be certain projects at work that that an employee may find themselves staying away from these feelings of lethargy or malaise, almost like wading through wet cement to get from one side of the room to another. There's sometimes a hypervigilance to the fear that I'm gonna either get covid again or I'm gonna lose my mojo and I'll never come back. I've lost my my enjoyment, I've lost my my competence. And so all of these are signs and symptoms of the burnout. And we want to make sure that we can help people with this so that it doesn't impact them in terms of their medical and wellness and mental and mental wellness, as well as the way they're handling the work that we expect of them. Mhm. Now, what are some ways that individuals can manage or even prevent burnout at work? So as to protect themselves and their jobs? So the first thing I would say is that it involves greater self care and that includes getting in touch with the elements of nature, going for a walk and feeling the wind on the back of your neck. Because being outside some of the day increases the neurotransmitters in our brains that make us feel better? Such as dopamine and serotonin. So getting in touch with elements of nature reminding your employees as well as yourself to get to the gym or do something that involves cardio, fitness for the oxygenation of the blood, which makes the brain feel better and when the brain feels better, we operate better at work. Also, there's, it's important that perhaps employers allow space for people to sit and talk about how they're feeling to allow them to say, look, I'm not having a good day and I need to have this conversation. There is something which we call skills acquisition whereby employers can help their employees maintain greater skill development through going to conferences or online meetings where they can learn more about how to be better at what they do. The minute we acquire greater skills in the work that we are trained to do is the minute we lose that burnout and feel more motivated and excited to get work done. Of course, maintaining a chance to talk about your feelings is probably the most important feature in recovery from burnout is what is called the power of Story. When you're feeling sad, you have a story to tell. Find someone that will hear your story holds space for you and allow you to come up with solutions that will be effective for the future as such, good advice, their doctor and lastly, how can remote work impact our mental health? I think a lot of people still not yet back in the office. What's the impact the impact? Is that number one, there's a real difficult separation between work and home events. If you're doing work from your bedroom, if you're making your office the room right next door to your kitchen, you're gonna have a hard time separating the feelings, the pressures that come from work with, the pressures that come from home. So we have to be careful that we create better boundaries and the way we do that is we increase structure, structure, regulates emotion. So the more structure we have in our day, even if we're just sitting in our kitchen doing our work, the more organized we're going to be entropy disorganization. All of that comes into play when we are doing our work specifically from home. The other problem is that this lack of contact with other people, it's so important that we have some sense of work family so that we can meet with others during the day and not allow isolation and restriction to take over. All right. Doctor norman freed clinical psychologist dr thank you so much for coming on the show and to learn more about the top trends that are reshaping the future of work visit a Bp dot com