The weather isn’t the only thing that changes with the season. Your mental health and mood also fluctuate in response to this cycle. As the warmth of summer fades into the chill of autumn, you might start to notice an uptick in stress levels. It’s not your imagination, it’s autumn anxiety. After all, this is a hectic, fast-paced time of year.
The shift to summer brings along the much-needed sunny, warm weather we all have been waiting for after a gloomy winter. But are you aware that too much heat (or too much cold, for that matter) can make you less productive on the job? If the temperature in your office environment causes discomfort, it can impair alertness, focus, energy and workflow. And there’s scientific data to prove it!
For almost a year we are going through what psychologists call collective trauma, which makes us live in fear and uncertainty. Hundreds of thousands of people lost someone they loved, millions got sick, and even more lost their job. The majority of those who are lucky enough to still be here and have a job are most probably working from home, doing the same thing every day, locked between four walls, with the same people. All of these are taking a significant toll on their psychical stability and are generating many mental health issues.
We’ve all heard the phrase positive vibes only. To be honest, it drives me nuts. It’s something meant to reinforce the idea that you should focus on all the good things that are happening instead of dwelling on the bad. Which is good in theory, if you don’t amplify it out of control. However, from a certain point on, it will turn into an ugly monster, also known as toxic positivity.
You’re sitting at your desk. The phone rings and breaks your concentration. When you pick it up, you notice it’s nearly lunchtime, and you’ve been working for a few hours, without distractions. While getting up from the chair, your legs feel completely numb. You take stock of the project on your screen and realize you’re almost done. At a quick glance, you also realize that it’s done well 😀 Congratulations, you’ve just experienced the flow state!
Company values are the core set of principles that your company stands by and promotes. Some might think these are just a bunch of nice-sounding slogans or a marketing stunt meant to attract customers. But when you stand by your values and place them at the core of your business, they can act as a guide for your employees in those unpredictable situations that aren’t mapped by your set of procedures.
Procedures are a well-established set of rules that let people know how they should behave in certain situations. These are in place to make the workflow predictable, the operations quicker, and the overall business more effective. However, you can’t possibly have rules for any possible situation, and you must make sure that your employees make the best decisions in those unpredictable situations. Therefore, both values and procedures are important for the prosperity of your business.
Do you have a coworker who always seems to have their headphones in, tapping along with the beat or mouthing the lyrics? Maybe you are that coworker who can’t get through the day without your favorite playlists. Have you ever thought about why music is so important to your workday, whether you’re only listening to a few songs or a whole opera?
It’s time to get out of the productivity box once again in a search for surprising new elements that can make our days at work better. In the past months, we discovered how coffee influences work efficiency, exercised our way into the flow, and learned to break the mental health paradigm at the workplace. Now, let’s take a deep dive into what nature has to offer.
The current workplace environment looks caught between a rock and a hard place. With 77 percent of full-time US employees working from home, we still have record-high levels of remote workers. Yet, in-spite of distributed locations, leaders want their teams to be highly productive. And all of this on top of a sanitary crisis. So, are you ready to dive headfirst into the mental health paradigm at work? Let’s do it!
Six months into the new Coronavirus pandemic and we still have no clue when this crisis is going to end. Medical experts like Dr. Lisa Maragakis, an infectious disease specialist at Johns Hopkins, think that the pandemic’s first wave is gone. Most likely, we are now at the beginning of the second wave. So what does that mean for how people work together and businesses operate?
