Is it difficult to advance your career without compromising your mental health? However, it needs to be protected. And you can start by following these 6 tips.
Work overload, constant interruptions, bad atmosphere or uncertain atmosphere… Our professional life can have serious consequences on our morale and state of mind. Last year, 31% of French people felt so stressed that it was impossible for them to go to work, according to an Ipsos study published in October 2023 (1). At the same time, 39% of French employees cited the “real” problem: an impossible work-life balance that turns their weeks into wires. Are you ready to hack? 30% of employees thought about leaving their jobs in 2023 to avoid “rape”. This observation, compiled by Teale, a mental health platform for employees and companies, makes a good point. professional field.
The definition of the World Health Organization is clear. this well-known “mental health” actually means a state of sufficient well-being and sufficient stability to allow everyone to fulfill their potential, to work successfully and efficiently. Not taking care of it, especially at work, “means facing negative emotions such as sadness, irritability, but also problems with attention, memory and isolation,” warns Anais Rou, a professional psychologist specializing in neuroscience and science, manager Teale. to whom Eventually, he says, “we’re headed for chronic stress, burnout, or burnout.” To avoid this, you should take several measures to protect yourself every day.
Look for the warning signs
The first is harmony. “Knowing our own functioning in a balanced state will allow us to be attentive to possible warning signals sent by our bodies when our mental health is deteriorating,” says Anais Roux. This self-awareness comes first through listening to your body and your state of mind. We can start by asking ourselves: “How am I feeling at work today? And when I come home in the evening? This habit can also be combined with the practice of “journaling” or therapeutic monitoring. The more we know about how we feel, the more we can track potential mood swings.
Manifestations of intense stress vary from person to person. According to the psychologist, “weak signals can be behavioral and reflect a change in behavior or a certain aggressiveness. They can also be physical, manifesting as headaches, digestive or sleep problems. Finally, they can be psychological or cognitive and accompanied by anxiety, concentration problems, memory problems, hopelessness or cynicism. Their expression can also affect the collective, this is, for example, the case of people who will absent themselves from the group, will be absent more and more or will suddenly participate in the deterioration of the working atmosphere…” To avoid, if: they do not get worse, these symptoms should not be ignored. They are often a sign that it is time to slow down or make some changes.
Adopt a healthy lifestyle
And consider the three foundations of overall good health: sleep, diet and physical activity. “In the long term, sleep debt prevents us from being functional and affects us psychologically, cognitively and physically,” warns Alice Collin, a clinical psychologist at ICAS specializing in workplace mental health prevention. In the same way, lack of sports activity and poor diet risk anxiety, irritability and stress and impair our cognitive abilities (concentration, attention, learning, memory, etc.). Let’s remind that the World Health Organization recommends 170 minutes of intense physical activity or 300 minutes of light work per week.
Invest in disconnecting your privacy
While it’s good to take the time to move, it’s just as important to invest in your personal life. “If work is our only source of fulfillment, the danger is that we collapse and face a great void as soon as we encounter difficulties, and this inevitably happens in a career,” warns Alice Collin.
Reading, cooking, walking, going to the cinema, having dinner with loved ones… All this hobbies which provide positive emotions, have a restorative function. Switching off is key to taking care of mental health because it allows the brain to rest from overstimulation and restore energy, thus avoiding fatigue, emphasizes psychologist Anais Roux. Proper shutdown isn’t about “doing nothing.” The neuroscientist, on the other hand, recommends engaging in “intermediate activities” such as gardening, creative hobbies, or crossword puzzles. “All of these activities promote brain relaxation by stimulating the brain without the constraints of working on it, time, or multitasking,” he explains. Two reflexes that also help: Respect your work hours and don’t check your email on the weekend…
Keep in touch with your peers
We are social beings. At work, making connections is fundamental. First of all, avoid suffering from isolation and provide support from our peers on a daily basis, secondly. “Maintaining positive and supportive relationships strengthens our bonds of belonging, acceptance, and safety, and helps increase job satisfaction, which maintains our mental health,” affirms Alice Collin. So we will be able to get help when needed, but also help others. “Many positive psychology studies have shown the beneficial effects of mutual support on happiness and mental health,” says Anais Roux. A virtuous circle.
say no”
Creating a healthy work environment also requires setting certain boundaries with our coworkers and our employer. “Otherwise, we risk becoming overwhelmed with work, which can lead to psychological burnout,” warns Alice Collin. Here again it is useful to know how to recognize one’s own needs, limits and difficulties, so that we can communicate them to our superiors and thus (re)find a balance that suits both parties.
Since no one can guess what we’re feeling, “it’s good to communicate from the ‘I’ point of view to describe how we’re feeling at the moment,” encourages the clinical psychologist. Then, “we review with our manager the range of tasks to be carried out in the short or long term, let them know where the overload is and ask for help on certain hook points,” he notes. The important thing is to know how to say “no” when presenting alternative solutions. delegate, get more time to complete a certain file… If we feel the need, we can also ask to change our schedule, sometimes temporarily, even if it means transferring. certain obligations if they no longer apply to us.
Seek outside help
If our unhappiness still does not improve, then it is quite possible (and advisable) to contact the company’s HR services, occupational medicine or even a clinical psychologist or psychologist at work. “If our mental or physical health is too weak, we should not hesitate to ask for time off work,” emphasizes Alice Colin. Taking a break for a week or two is better than burnout or long-term unemployment.” In some cases, you should consider changing jobs. “Because if we are not always involved in the organization of business, we continue to be involved in it,” concludes the psychologist.
(1) Source: Ipsos World Mental Health Day is a global survey of 23,274 adults in 31 countries between July and August 2023.
Source: Le Figaro
