Well-being: 5 tips to feel better at work.
30 September 2013
Read by 2152 persons
On average, a French person spends almost 40 hours a week at work and almost 1500 per year. When you add to that the hours spent sleeping, doing housework, taking care of children, there is (too) little time for oneself.
So, to avoid a nervous breakdown and reserve moments of joy in this rough world, it would be good to make your work environment a little more pleasant. We're not talking here about dressing up as a rabbit or baking muffins every day. But a few little things can make a difference. Proof by 5.
1. Turn your anger into something positive.
This is called "office rage", and it can happen very quickly. A remark, a poorly worded email, a badly adjusted office chair, a nervous breakdown looms.
But how to manage anger? According to a study by Harvard Medical School, it would be useless to repress it. It's a bit like Aristotle's catharsis principle: expressing one's passions would allow one to find personal fulfillment... and avoid throwing one's keyboard across the open-space.
As psychiatrist George Vaillant, who led the study, explained to our colleagues at Capital.fr: "People equate anger with a terribly dangerous emotion and are encouraged to practice positive thinking. We find this approach devaluing and damaging insofar as it consists in denying reality."
According to the study, anger could even be used to advantage. It would give the necessary strength to say no or to ask for that promotion one has been dreaming of for years. "Anger allows one to dare, to set limits or to make demands," explains Etienne Roy, author of the book "The Right Use of Emotions at Work."
Be careful, however, there is no point in being aggressive. You just need to channel enough courage to move forward. Not always easy when you have colleagues who are a little too noisy:
2. Take the time to get some fresh air.
We have just seen that it is possible to transform one's frustration into something positive. But to achieve this, it is better to clear your head to take a step back. Hence the benefit of breaks.
Of course, the legal break time is 20 minutes every 6 hours of work. But many studies show that productivity at work is increased by a short break per hour. Not surprisingly, therefore, to see large companies like Apple, Facebook or YouTube open relaxation areas to allow their employees to rest, read, play or exercise between work sessions.
It has also been proven that changing environments increases creativity. So seize every opportunity to escape the office. Visit those in the next office, go get a coffee, make a phone call in the building lobby... The point here is not to fall into a counterproductive routine. "When the external context is varied, the information is enriched. This slows down memory loss," said psychologist Robert Bjork to the New York Times.
Let us also remember that a 10-minute walk would help increase concentration for the next two hours.
3. Don't torture your body.
It has been proven that staying several hours in a row on an office chair can have serious health consequences: colorectal cancer, diabetes, obesity, back pain, etc.
It is therefore advisable to get up from your chair at least once an hour to resume a normal position. Any pretext is valid: throwing papers in the trash, chatting with the receptionist or going back for a coffee (nothing to do with the one you had for the break, see our point number 2). This also allows you to stretch and massage your eyes for a moment. Not a luxury when you know the eye lesions that computer screens can cause.
4. Create a space of solidarity.
On its website, the Ministry of Labor published "10 solutions to improve psychological health at work". Among the solutions, there is this one: "Give employees the means to fulfill themselves in their work. Restore spaces for discussion and autonomy in the workplace."
Discussion spaces? Even if this proposition is primarily addressed to managers, it must be noted that it also applies to employees, because, as speaker Philippe Laurent points out in an op-ed published in Lexpress.fr, "the work atmosphere is as vital as oxygen in the air."
Hence the usefulness of avoiding conflicts with colleagues or, if it is impossible, to break the abscess immediately, all with the aim of creating a climate of trust. As the specialized magazine La Vie Eco points out, a good atmosphere in the office will prevent jealousy and allow you to work without the pressure of others' judgment.
And, unparalleled advantage, even if it sounds a bit like a cliché: when the atmosphere is nice, you still drag your feet less to go to work. We imagine that these people, for example, don't drag their feet:
5. Separate work and private life.
A survey published in 2012 concluded that the work domain increasingly encroaches on private life. The chapter entitled "destruction of daily life" specifies that "the intensity of work makes daily life more painful and demands the person's involvement, which is not unrelated to his or her fatigue. Any such work then involves moments of respite that private life must be able to offer."
Here, the logic is the same as for short breaks every two hours (see point number 2), but in the long term: to avoid overheating, it is better to completely disregard work when you return home and to arrange for rest periods and sleep.
Good news: this year, the Ministry of State Reform, Decentralization and Public Service published a report with several solutions to reconcile professional and personal life: flexible working hours, better parental leave, annual part-time work...
Come on, let's go!
Huffingtonpost.fr
Posted online September 30, 2013.
So, to avoid a nervous breakdown and reserve moments of joy in this rough world, it would be good to make your work environment a little more pleasant. We're not talking here about dressing up as a rabbit or baking muffins every day. But a few little things can make a difference. Proof by 5.
1. Turn your anger into something positive.
This is called "office rage", and it can happen very quickly. A remark, a poorly worded email, a badly adjusted office chair, a nervous breakdown looms.
But how to manage anger? According to a study by Harvard Medical School, it would be useless to repress it. It's a bit like Aristotle's catharsis principle: expressing one's passions would allow one to find personal fulfillment... and avoid throwing one's keyboard across the open-space.
As psychiatrist George Vaillant, who led the study, explained to our colleagues at Capital.fr: "People equate anger with a terribly dangerous emotion and are encouraged to practice positive thinking. We find this approach devaluing and damaging insofar as it consists in denying reality."
According to the study, anger could even be used to advantage. It would give the necessary strength to say no or to ask for that promotion one has been dreaming of for years. "Anger allows one to dare, to set limits or to make demands," explains Etienne Roy, author of the book "The Right Use of Emotions at Work."
Be careful, however, there is no point in being aggressive. You just need to channel enough courage to move forward. Not always easy when you have colleagues who are a little too noisy:
2. Take the time to get some fresh air.
We have just seen that it is possible to transform one's frustration into something positive. But to achieve this, it is better to clear your head to take a step back. Hence the benefit of breaks.
Of course, the legal break time is 20 minutes every 6 hours of work. But many studies show that productivity at work is increased by a short break per hour. Not surprisingly, therefore, to see large companies like Apple, Facebook or YouTube open relaxation areas to allow their employees to rest, read, play or exercise between work sessions.
It has also been proven that changing environments increases creativity. So seize every opportunity to escape the office. Visit those in the next office, go get a coffee, make a phone call in the building lobby... The point here is not to fall into a counterproductive routine. "When the external context is varied, the information is enriched. This slows down memory loss," said psychologist Robert Bjork to the New York Times.
Let us also remember that a 10-minute walk would help increase concentration for the next two hours.
3. Don't torture your body.
It has been proven that staying several hours in a row on an office chair can have serious health consequences: colorectal cancer, diabetes, obesity, back pain, etc.
It is therefore advisable to get up from your chair at least once an hour to resume a normal position. Any pretext is valid: throwing papers in the trash, chatting with the receptionist or going back for a coffee (nothing to do with the one you had for the break, see our point number 2). This also allows you to stretch and massage your eyes for a moment. Not a luxury when you know the eye lesions that computer screens can cause.
4. Create a space of solidarity.
On its website, the Ministry of Labor published "10 solutions to improve psychological health at work". Among the solutions, there is this one: "Give employees the means to fulfill themselves in their work. Restore spaces for discussion and autonomy in the workplace."
Discussion spaces? Even if this proposition is primarily addressed to managers, it must be noted that it also applies to employees, because, as speaker Philippe Laurent points out in an op-ed published in Lexpress.fr, "the work atmosphere is as vital as oxygen in the air."
Hence the usefulness of avoiding conflicts with colleagues or, if it is impossible, to break the abscess immediately, all with the aim of creating a climate of trust. As the specialized magazine La Vie Eco points out, a good atmosphere in the office will prevent jealousy and allow you to work without the pressure of others' judgment.
And, unparalleled advantage, even if it sounds a bit like a cliché: when the atmosphere is nice, you still drag your feet less to go to work. We imagine that these people, for example, don't drag their feet:
5. Separate work and private life.
A survey published in 2012 concluded that the work domain increasingly encroaches on private life. The chapter entitled "destruction of daily life" specifies that "the intensity of work makes daily life more painful and demands the person's involvement, which is not unrelated to his or her fatigue. Any such work then involves moments of respite that private life must be able to offer."
Here, the logic is the same as for short breaks every two hours (see point number 2), but in the long term: to avoid overheating, it is better to completely disregard work when you return home and to arrange for rest periods and sleep.
Good news: this year, the Ministry of State Reform, Decentralization and Public Service published a report with several solutions to reconcile professional and personal life: flexible working hours, better parental leave, annual part-time work...
Come on, let's go!
Huffingtonpost.fr
Posted online September 30, 2013.
