Most of us spend almost a quarter of our lives at work.
Take into account the eight hours or so we spend asleep every night and this rises to a third of the time we’re awake. It stands to reason then that being happy in work is important for our well-being.
There’s an old saying “find a job you enjoy and never work a day in your life”. That said, not everybody is fortunate enough to be in this situation.
If you’re not, there are things you can do to make working an experience more in line with your overall mental health.
The first thing is to develop a mindset whereby you work at work but you leave it there. You don’t let the worries you have in the rest of your life affect your workplace and you don’t let your job-based concerns spoil the rest of your life. Easier said than done?
Maybe, but it is certainly possible. Emergency staff have to do this every day of their lives otherwise they would very quickly burn out. If they can do it, there is no reason the rest of us can’t.
Staying away from gossip and keeping things you would rather have private away from eavesdropping ears is good advice.
If you’re part of the gossiping set, you can be sure other people are also talking about you behind your back. You don’t have to be everybody’s friend and nor do you have to tittle tattle to get on amicable terms with other people.
Those involving themselves in everybody else’s business also almost certainly have their own agenda.
Perhaps they themselves don’t have a lot going on away from work either and gossiping is how they make up for this. Keeping away from those people can help maintain a healthy work-life balance.
Try to cultivate a harmonious workplace atmosphere. Most of us have people we dislike and maybe dislike us too.
If you allow this to fester, it’s only going to have a negative effect on your well-being. If a situation is especially difficult, you can look into the mediation processes in your place of employment.
The majority of the time though, it’s a case of picking your battles. You don’t have to win every single one to achieve what you are aiming for.
Obviously trying to be friendly, fair and polite to everybody, even the people you don’t like, is going to help too.
There are however other things like those above that assist in keeping everyone pulling in the same direction and most importantly protect your workplace well-being.
When you spend such a large chunk of your life in work, surely trying to make it a pleasant place for you to be is worth the effort.
SEE ALSO – You can check out all of Andrew’s columns here
