Workplace Mental Health Report Sample

Nearly 60% of people in the workplace suffer from varying degrees of emotional exhaustion. The core trigger is not the "excessive overtime hours" as popularly believed, but the triangle squeeze formed by "misplaced role expectations, lack of personal value, and lack of organizational support systems." There is currently no universal adjustment program, and the intervention paths of different psychological schools have their own adaptation scenarios.

This survey covers five categories: Internet, manufacturing, finance, media, and local state-owned enterprises. The age of the respondents ranges from 22 years old when they first entered the workplace to 52 years old when they are about to retire, and their working experience spans from 3 months to 30 years. The representativeness of the sample does not cover the entire industry, but they are all front-line workers who have actual contact, and there is no invalid data mixed with college students to make up the numbers.

Don’t believe it, working overtime does not necessarily mean you will have psychological problems. The 985 graduate operation girl who came to consult with me last month is a 27-year-old working as a content developer for an Internet company in Hangzhou. The company's clock-in is flexible and she rarely gets off work after 9 o'clock. Her monthly salary of 20,000 yuan is not low in the same industry, but she just said, "Every morning when I wake up and think about going to work, my stomach starts to hurt." When I asked her what specifically bothered her, she couldn't tell how big it was: one moment, her boss asked her to make "a big hit that could break out of the industry, the crazier the better." When she came up with the marginal plan, the boss turned around and said, "It has to be in line with the brand's tone and there must be no risks." She went through 8 revisions and finally used the first one. This kind of indescribable frustration is more labor-intensive than working three consecutive days of overtime.

Regarding this kind of situation, the common feedback from many managers born in the 1970s is that "young people today are too squeamish and have poor ability to withstand pressure. We worked overtime until 12 o'clock and didn't have so many things to do back then." Among the 28 middle and senior managers born in the 1970s I interviewed, 62% held this view, but when it comes to managers born after 1985, , this proportion dropped directly to 21% - after all, many people born after 1985 have been low-level employees who have had their plans repeatedly changed, and they know that this kind of "useless work" consumes more than physical fatigue. In essence, it is the vague requirements of superiors that pass all the "trial and error costs" to the grass-roots employees.

Don’t think that only young people have emotional problems. The 34-year-old state-owned enterprise process engineer I received last year has been in the company for 10 years and has been awarded as an outstanding employee for five consecutive years. He is a recognized technical backbone in the department. When he came to me, he said that every time he walked to the door of the company in the past six months, he didn’t want to go in. "The work I am doing now, I can go through the entire process with my eyes closed. To put it mildly, the technology is mature. To put it bluntly, I am a skilled worker. A newly graduated student can do it after 3 months of training. I have been doing it for 10 years and 3 months, and the final output is the same. I don't know what the meaning of my stay is." This hollowing out of the sense of value is a hurdle that people with longer working experience are more likely to encounter, and it has nothing to do with salary or rank.

The two mainstream adjustment ideas on the market actually correspond to the views of two schools of psychology. It is impossible to say who is right and who is wrong. Scholars from the school of positive psychology will advise you to "take the initiative to find small blessings at work." For example, if you deal with a difficult customer today, buy yourself a cup of milk tea as a reward. Even if the work as a whole is meaningless, you must create positive feedback for yourself. ； However, most counselors in the psychoanalytic school do not agree with this idea. They feel that this is essentially "self-PUA". It is obviously a problem with the work itself, so why force yourself to adapt? They also suggest that you do "boundary cutting" and completely untie your work from your self-worth - you are here to sell your time in exchange for money. Whether you do a good job or not has nothing to do with whether you are a good person or not. You don't need to hold yourself hostage with the evaluation of your work. My own practical experience is that if you have just entered the workplace for 1-3 years and are still accumulating experience and looking for direction, it is very useful to find more small positive feedback. If you have been working for more than 5 years and have fallen into long-term job burnout, you can draw clear boundaries first, which can reduce internal friction.

Let’s talk about the issue of lack of organizational support that is rarely mentioned. Nowadays, many companies say that they have EAP (Employee Assistance Program) and provide free psychological counseling to employees. This sounds very high-end, but few actually use it. I have previously taken on an EAP project for a leading Internet company. To make an appointment, you must first report to your direct leader, then go to HR for approval. Finally, you have to fill out a "psychological consultation type registration form". The options clearly list "anxiety, depression, job burnout, and family conflicts." Who do you think dares to fill it out? In the end, half a year after this project was launched, the usage rate was only 0.8%, which was basically a display. Regarding this matter, HR’s stance is also very aggrieved: “We spend hundreds of thousands a year on services that our employees don’t use. What can we do? ”But the employee's thoughts were more realistic: "If I really fill out the form that I have a tendency to be depressed, I will be the first on the layoff list next time. I'm not stupid." ”The positions of both parties are not wrong. What is wrong is the system that ties "mental health" and "workplace assessment" together. No matter how good the support system is, as long as it is linked to occupational risks, no one will dare to use it.

I have been providing workplace psychology-related services for 5 years, and my biggest feeling is that there is really no universal "workplace mental health secrets." It is said on the Internet that "you have to quit your job to take a gap and go travel". I have seen people quit a big factory to open a pet store. They gained 10 pounds in half a year and their overall condition improved. I have also seen people who can't find a suitable job after quitting their jobs. They are anxious at home every day and lose more hair than when they were at work. ； It is said on the Internet that "to learn to paddle, you must catch fish." Some people feel comfortable fishing and start a side job after get off work, while some people feel guilty when fishing, which makes them more internally consumed.

Finally, I would like to say something honest: If you have been unable to sleep for more than two weeks in a row, are no longer interested in the things you used to like, or even often have thoughts of not wanting to live, don't hold on to it, and don't read poisonous chicken soup on the Internet. Talking to a certified psychological counselor is better than anything else.