Mentally Healthy Workplace
Staying healthy and calm
Mentally healthy workplaces work better for everyone – employees and business owners.
Why a workplace should be mentally healthy:
- At any given time one in five employees are likely to be experiencing a mental health condition.
- Untreated depression results in over 6 million working days lost each year in Australia.
- Research shows that for every $1 invested in creating a mentally healthy workplace the average return on investment is $2.30.
Mental health in the workplace can be improved by:
- Scheduling meetings during core work hours, not your personal time.
- Getting out of the office during lunch breaks.
- Taking your full holiday leave.
- Avoiding bringing work home too often.
- Setting realistic deadlines and keeping them.
- Restricting overtime hours.
- Being willing to say ‘no’ when requests are unreasonable.
- Adding enjoyable activities to your ‘to-do list’.
- Avoiding checking your email or answering work calls out of hours.
- Making the most of slow or quiet periods to restore balance at work.
- Finding someone to talk to can help.
- Learn to relax and allocate time to do the things you enjoy, such as exercising, meditating and reading.
- Looking after your physical health. A balanced diet, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep and avoiding harmful levels of alcohol and other drugs.
With busy schedules, it’s easy to become overwhelmed with work or business and not find time for anything else. The trick is achieving a balance that promotes overall health and the success of your career or business.
