Workplace Mental Health Standards

Regarding the judgment of mental health in the workplace, there is currently no universal, quantifiable unified standard in the industry. The core criterion is actually "the dynamic balance between individual emotional feelings and social functions in the workplace" - to put it simply, if you don't feel particularly uncomfortable, and you can complete your work normally and don't let the troubles at work spill over into your life, then you basically meet the standard.

This may be different from the "Five Iron Rules of Mental Health in the Workplace" and "You should resign immediately if you meet 3 of them" that you have read before. After all, in the early years when industrial psychology was in power, capital actually gave a very "practical" judgment standard: as long as you can stabilize output, don't be late and leave early, and don't affect team efficiency, you are considered to be completely mentally healthy. I talked with the HRBP of a major factory two years ago. Their EAP (employee assistance plan) trigger threshold before 2020 is really set like this. Unless employees actively mention that they are prone to depression, even if they complain about overtime in the department group every day, as long as the requirements can be delivered on time, it will not be a problem. Until that year, there was a young man who worked on the front end in their department. He worked on three major version iterations, worked overtime until two o'clock every day, and delivered all requirements without bugs. The leader also praised him for his good condition at the weekly meeting. As a result, he sat in the subway station and cried for 40 minutes after get off work on Friday. He couldn't even remember which direction he lived. It was only after he was sent to the hospital that he was diagnosed with a severe anxiety attack. After that, they changed the judgment criteria.

On the other hand, many researchers in positive psychology now like to focus on individual feelings, saying that to be healthy, you must gain a sense of accomplishment at work, feel self-worth, and get along well with colleagues and leaders. This statement is actually a bit unrealistic. I used to know someone who did To The eldest sister from sales B, her child is going to the UK to study for an undergraduate degree, with a tuition fee of 400,000 yuan a year. She is busy with PUA every day, and customers throw plans in her face at every turn. She also smiles. People around her think her job is too tiring, but she thinks more openly: "I just sell my time in exchange for money, and there is no sense of accomplishment. I feel the most accomplished when my monthly salary arrives. After get off work, I lock my work phone in the drawer, go to square dance with my little sisters, and forget all the troubles. ”Are you saying she is mentally unhealthy? She eats well, sleeps well, has no problems with her annual physical examination, and has almost saved up for her children's tuition fees. She is in a much better state than many young people who are looking for a "sense of meaning" every day but are internally exhausted every day.

To be honest, I have been working as an employee psychological aid for almost six years and have contacted thousands of people in the workplace. In fact, you really need to judge whether there is a problem with your condition. You don’t have to apply those fancy standards. Just check whether there is any physiological generalization - that is, you can obviously go to the hospital to find out organic problems, but when you think about going to work, you have a headache, nausea, panic, or even start to have insomnia as soon as Sunday afternoon. Don’t think about it, your mental state is already calling the police. A young girl who works in content operations came to me before and said that she had been vomiting on Monday mornings for three months in a row. She had had gastroscopy twice and there were no problems. After asking, I found out that their leader would hold a two-hour criticism meeting every Monday morning, and he would scold her every time. She could bear it for the first two months, but by the third month, her body couldn't bear it. Later, she changed departments, and the vomiting problem was cured the next day.

Of course, this does not mean that as long as there is no physiological reaction, there will be no problem. Another sign that is easily ignored is whether you can't help but spread your negative emotions at work to unrelated people. I used to have a technical friend who had a very good temper and doted on his daughter. During that time, he was scolded by his boss several times while working on projects. When he came home and saw his child scattering toys on the floor, he scolded the child and cried. After scolding him, he regretted it and hid on the balcony smoking for half an hour. It was then that he realized that something was wrong with him, so he quickly took three days off to go on a self-driving trip. After he recovered, he returned to the company.

Nowadays, many people on the Internet like to say that "a truly healthy workplace state is one that is completely free of internal friction and not angry at anything." On the contrary, I think this standard is too harsh and even a bit anti-human. Anyone who encounters a colleague who blames others or a leader who gives blind instructions at work will get angry. As long as you have somewhere to vent your anger (whether it's yelling back on the spot, or going to the boxing gym to punch a bag for half an hour after get off work), then forget about it, and won't lie in bed thinking about it for a week, "Why didn't I scold him like that?", then it's totally fine. On the contrary, those who force themselves to "I want to be emotionally stable, I want to be professional" even though they are being cheated, and who hold all their anger in their hearts, are the most likely to cause problems. I once met a girl who was robbed of her promotion spot by her colleagues. She suppressed it and smiled at the person who robbed her of her spot every day. As a result, half a year later, the physical examination revealed grade 3 breast nodules. The doctor asked her if she usually sulked, and she burst into tears.

After all, mental health in the workplace is a very personal matter. There is no one-size-fits-all standard, and you don’t have to rely on online terms and conditions to limit yourself. Some people are very enterprising and feel great working on projects in the company every day. You can’t say that they are workaholics and have psychological problems. ； Some people just want to find a 9-to-5 job and go out to walk their cats and dogs and go to the night market after work. You can't say that they are not motivated.

To put it bluntly, going to work is just a way to make a living. As long as the job doesn’t make you a human being or a ghost, and you still have the energy to do something you like after get off work, that’s good. How come there are so many perfect “health standards”.