Popular knowledge on mental health in the workplace

Mental health problems in the workplace have never been "glass-hearted" or "hypocritical". They are occupational accompanying symptoms that more than 60% of people in the workplace have encountered. Most cases do not require hard work and can be effectively alleviated by adjusting the environment or cognition. Less than 10% of cases require clinical medical intervention.

I just accompanied Xiao Meng from the Operations Department for a psychological evaluation last week. She had endured three consecutive months of promotions. She had always felt that she was just "tired" until the leader casually mentioned during the weekly meeting that "the conversion rate of posters this time did not meet the standard." She suddenly broke down in front of more than 20 people in the entire department and couldn't stop crying. Afterwards, she felt guilty for a long time, feeling that her professionalism was too poor and she couldn't even control her emotions.

In fact, many people, like Xiao Meng, cannot distinguish between "normal mood swings" and "workplace psychological problems that require intervention." On this point, different schools of psychology have different judgment standards: the standard of the clinical psychology school is more rigorous, and it is considered as long as there is a situation that "affects normal social functions for more than two consecutive weeks" - for example, drinking the full-sugar milk tea that I originally loved is not enough. It’s boring. It takes three hours to complete a report that can be completed in half an hour. Even when I wake up in the morning, I feel sick to my stomach at the thought of going to work. This has reached the point where I need to adjust. The standard of the school of positive psychology is much looser. It believes that as long as you have the resistance mentality of "going to work is like going to the grave" for a week in a row, you should take the initiative to do something. There is no need to wait for physical reactions such as headaches and insomnia to remedy the situation.

I have been providing psychological support to corporate employees for more than five years. Among the hundreds of cases I have come into contact with, the first reaction of more than 70% of people is "I need to adjust my mentality and be more resistant to stress." But to be very honest, the root cause of most workplace psychological problems is not that you are not strong enough, but that there is something wrong with the environment. Last year, a young man who worked on algorithms came to me and said that he was self-motivated every day. He felt that his ability was too poor to complete the KPIs, and he thought about resigning every day. After chatting for a long time, he discovered that his department leader had raised the KPIs of the entire group to 2.3 times the normal level in order to improve performance. Two colleagues in front of him could not bear it and left, and he was the longest among the remaining people. Later, he resigned after getting an offer from someone working on the same track. Within two months, he met him again. The fatigue that had been on his face every day was gone, and even the nervous headache that had bothered him for more than half a year was gone.

Of course, some people say that the current environment is so complicated, how can we just change jobs when we change jobs? You can't just run away when things don't go your way. This is true. I have seen many people who are temporarily unable to change their environment, and the "homespun methods" they come up with are much more effective than the techniques in textbooks: There is a little administrative girl who specially puts a soft durian squeeze in the drawer of her work desk. When the boss gives her work that does not belong to her, she lowers her head. I squeeze my head for two minutes and then raise my head to speak when I have squeezed enough. I have never lost my temper in the workplace. I also have a friend who is a successful customer. He specially registered a WeChat account. When he encounters unreasonable customers, he will go to the account to post complaints in Moments. He will scold them as hard as they want and delete them after they are scolded. He will never take negative emotions home. To put it bluntly, you have to find an outlet for your emotions. Don't hold them all in your heart. If you keep them too much, something will happen sooner or later.

There is also a prejudice that many people have: they think that going for psychological counseling is a "psychological illness", and they are afraid that colleagues will find out and point fingers. It’s really not necessary. Nowadays, more formal companies have EAP employee assistance programs, which provide free psychological counseling services to employees. Many HR people I know make regular appointments. To put it bluntly, it’s like getting a shoulder and neck massage after sitting for a long time or getting skin care when the season changes. It just relaxes your emotions. There is no shame at all. Of course, if you have suffered from long-term insomnia, chest tightness, significant decline in memory, or even occasionally have thoughts of harming yourself, don't hold on to it. You must go to the clinical psychology department of a regular hospital and follow the doctor's instructions to make adjustments and take medicines. This is the same as taking antipyretics when you have a fever or wearing a plaster when you have a fracture. It is really not a shameful thing.

Harm, in fact, after all, the workplace is simply a transaction in which you exchange your own time and skills for labor remuneration. You cannot put your emotions, health or even your entire personal value into it. There are so many people you have to care about and so many things to do in this life, and going to work is really just a small part of it. Don’t embarrass yourself too much, really.