Transcription:
Workplace Wellness

Deborah Howell: Welcome to Stoughton Health Talk. I'm Deborah Howell, and I invite you to listen as we talk about workplace wellness. Joining me is Dana Ellis, a licensed psychotherapist. Dana, it's such a pleasure to have you with us today.

Dana Ellis: Yes. Thank you for having me.

Deborah Howell: Well, it's our pleasure. And we're talking about workplace wellness, which is such a timely topic, especially during these days when so many of us are still a bit stressed out from the pandemic and from all the life changes it's put us through. And are we in the office? Are we out of the office? What's going on? So can you define for us what workplace wellness is when we are in the office?

Dana Ellis: Yeah. So when we're in the office, when we think about workplace wellness, we're kind of thinking about how can I take care of myself at work. At work, we're so much about taking care of our duties and reaching the goals that are set for us by our bosses or our supervisors. And so really, when we're talking about workplace wellness, we're talking about stepping back and looking at "How am I taking care of myself?" And when we do that, we can achieve those other goals that people set for us.

Deborah Howell: That makes total sense. So how did the workplace wellness movement start and who came up with it?

Dana Ellis: I think it really derived mainly from over the years, you know, burnout has been a topic that's been around for many years. And so when we're talking about wellness, we're talking about taking burnout, adding kind of some self-care and some mindfulness in there. And self-care and mindfulness has really come about in the last, I'd say 10 years or so. And as that's coming full circle, we're kind of noticing as studies come out that we have a good workplace wellness going on. Whether it's company policies or whether we're incorporating our own things, we see less burnout, we see less turnover and we see a better overall happiness in the workplace. And so really, it's just developed over the years. Many different studies have been done and lots of professional opinions put in there.

Deborah Howell: Yeah, and we all know a happy workplace is a productive one, right?

Dana Ellis: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. There's countless studies that show that is a very true statement on how we need to look at the workplace in a different format.

Deborah Howell: Yeah. I think the people at Google and Yahoo and in the Silicon Valley kind of understood that from the get-go and created, you know, ping pong tables and playrooms and, you know, sunroofs and all that good stuff.

Dana Ellis: Yeah. Yeah. They really started incorporating, like understanding, like "What do I need?" And when they started doing, you know, kind of that open concept of not having dividers between offices and, you know, really encompassing the whole company as one team, you really started to see all the research put into practice and you're seeing the positive outcomes from that.

Deborah Howell: Right. Now, you mentioned mindfulness awhile back. Can you give us, you know, an example or two of how to be mindful at work?

Dana Ellis: Yeah. Mindfulness really starts with being where your feet are, right? So that's a good way to kind of look at that, as being where your feet are. So when we're being where our feet are, we're very present in what the task that we're doing. You know, It was said, like, if you can multitask, then you can get so much done. And now we know that actually multitasking makes us less productive. And so if we can focus on what we're doing and noticing, yes, we have our task lists kind of off to the side, but if we can focus on one of those at a time, we're really being mindful. We're really going to get it done a lot faster. It's going to be a lot more fluent and we're going to reach those goals a whole lot faster if we just focus on that.

Deborah Howell: That's fascinating. So what's the process that a company goes through to start working on increasing workplace wellness if they don't have ping pong tables and sun decks and things like that?

Dana Ellis: Yeah. So as a mental health therapist, what I really try to focus on is what can the individual do, right? So a lot of times, workplaces aren't there yet, or maybe it's in progress, but it takes a long time. And so really focusing in on what can you do as an individual is really the best place to start and kind of getting that for yourself the best that you can.

Deborah Howell: Can you give us a couple examples of how to do that?

Dana Ellis: Sure. So one of the best ways to do that is to set healthy boundaries. I think in the workplace we often think about, you know, "I got to get this done. I got to get this done." And as your bosses or your leads come to you and they want to give you more and more tasks because you're efficient. And so a lot of times boundaries is like learning to say no, right? We need to learn to be able to say, "I can't handle that right now. Can we delegate that to somebody else?" Identifying your priorities, right? Like knowing what are your goals for the workplace? What is your purpose there? Taking time off, right? A lot of times, we don't take our leave time, our sick time. We kind of at the end of the year, "Oh, we can roll it over," right? But if not now, when, right? And so really taking that time off, really looking for that. Looking for examples of professional boundaries. So noticing like your coworkers or your bosses and learning from them. Having very clear communication is another important one. Being able to communicate what you need, what are your needs and hearing them, that provides that overall like good boundary that you can communicate. Also, the final one is like having healthy boundaries with your coworkers, right? Not all coworkers are going to match your personality style. However, we can all have like healthy boundaries with one another and have that good work environment.

Deborah Howell: Maybe one of those boundaries could be, "No, you know, just don't text me after eight at night or whatever the hour is."

Dana Ellis: Right? Yeah. Because a lot of us, you know, and that kind of brings us into that balance of work-home life, right? How do we unplug, right? How do we set up those healthy boundaries and create that nice home-work balance where "This is my limit," right? "Eight o'clock at night," whatever or "I won't," "If I don't answer you, I'll get back to you," that kind of thing. And then with balance too, you know, learning to leave work at work. Some of us have that capability and some of us don't. But if we can, leave work at work as much as possible and not bring that into our home life. And one of the ways to do that is on your way home to like take that time to recharge, again, taking those vacation and sick days. And then one of the things that I have found super helpful is when I get home, I don't go in the house right away. I just stay in my car and I take five to ten minutes to myself and just relax. Maybe I'll look at my phone a little bit, but just relaxing and recharging my battery, kind of myself in the quietness of my car. And then when I go into the house, I'm ready to do that.

Deborah Howell: That's a beautiful thing. So how does workplace wellness improve life for everyone at the office and even at home after the workday is over?

Dana Ellis: Yeah. So how it improves is it improve their overall health, right? So when we're taking care of ourselves and we know our purpose and our goal, and we know how to say no, and we don't feel guilty about taking our vacation time, we're not feeling guilty about "I need a mental health day" and taking that, when we know who we are and we know what our goals and purpose of the workplace is and how that relates into our life, we get this overall better sense of self, sense of purpose and we know how to nourish our bodies and take care of ourselves.

So when we do that, we're going to be more productive. We're going to have a better overall outlook on coming to work, on being successful in our workplace. So when we go to work and we're not recharged and we haven't taken that time to take care of ourselves, we come into work groggy or we come in dreading the day. You know, we may love our job, but then we come in and we're feeling yucky about it, right? We have to be able to take that step back and look at ourselves and say, "Hey, what do I need? What do I need because this is out of my character? How do I get more successful? Do I need to go have a conversation with my boss that so much is being put on? Do I need to take a mental health day?" And just really being aware for yourself of what do I need?

Deborah Howell: I think companies are getting the message. More and more of them are doing flex time and a flexible vacations scenarios. Can you speak to that?

Dana Ellis: Yeah. So from what I know about, that's not my professional area, but that is very great that companies are starting to do that because that means they're starting to become aware that some jobs don't have to be such cookie cutter jobs. And that's one of the positive things that have come out of COVID, is workplaces have really learned how to make the workplace look so different and how they can still be successful as a company with having all this flex time. And it'll be interesting as research starts to come out about how that's affected the workplace. Having these flex times, "You can work at home this day or you only have to be in the office 50% of the time" or "You can do that from home," that has become, you know, out of all the craziness going on with COVID, I think that's one of the positive things is workplace balance. Work and home balance has really become this focus of how can we still run our jobs and it look a little different. And so that flex time really says we're open to allowing you the opportunity. And with that, it gives kind of some power back to the employee, which again, makes them feel great that they have a little power over their lives, over how they influence work. And again, you're going to see that morale go up.

Deborah Howell: You've mentioned a couple of times, even with flex time, some people just don't take their vacation days. What does that do to a person?

Dana Ellis: So we know that leads to burnout. So when people do not take, you know, I always tell you if your company didn't want you to take it, they wouldn't give it to you.

Deborah Howell: Right.

Dana Ellis: So they give it to you because they know research has shown that you need it. And more and more companies are handing out a little bit more vacation time or this flex time that, you know, you can flex your holidays or you can, you know, add extra days here and there. And so what that does when people take that vacation is it allows for you to recoup. And so you'll see a lot of people, they just take it at the beginning of the year, right? Because they're so burned out from the year before. Where if we spread that out and we take the time and we make it very purposeful and we take that, you know, vacation time and we make it purposeful, we have an agenda for it as much as we can. There are unforeseen things, but for the most time, we need to take that and we need to say, "This is for me. These are my days to help me nourish myself, to grow in my self-care and to take that time for myself."

Deborah Howell: And not for nothing, but to come back with some creative ideas and solutions and just to kind of be a better employee because you're refreshed.

Dana Ellis: Absolutely. Absolutely.

Deborah Howell: So I'm hearing in summation, be where your feet are, not so much multitasking, set your boundaries, work-life balance, try to achieve that, and be aware of self-care on the job. Is there anything else you'd like to add to our conversation today?

Dana Ellis: Yeah. So when we're talking about self-care, that seems like a really big thing, right? Self-care is so many dynamics. But when we're talking about self-care in the workplace, it looks a little different than our general self-care, right? So some ideas are like taking exercise breaks, right? So standing up and stretching, walking around. Maybe instead of calling your colleague, you get up and you walk to their office, and get that blood flowing a little bit. Making space for your breaks for drinking water.

And also when we're talking about space, we're talking about your workspace. Now, for people that aren't in an office, it may look a little different. But for people that have an office, really thinking about what are your furnishings in your office, right? "How can I make that like a zenful place for me? How do I do that?" And so really thinking about your furnishings.

We talked about making sure that you're drinking water versus soda and all that. So we all know that sugar kind of might take us up, but it also brings us down after the fact. So making sure, like we're giving enough water.

Setting goals for yourself, right? And they can be short goals, but then celebrating those goals. I think a lot of times when we're talking about self-care, we may say, "Oh, I'm doing self-care," but if we don't recognize it, if we don't think about it, then our body doesn't even know that it happened. And so we really have to celebrate those goals that we make.

You can think about doing like simple meditation at your desk or out on the floor. You know, meditation doesn't have to be sitting on the floor and doing this whole thing. A lot of times we can learn to self-meditate in just a short amount of time.

Deborah Howell: There's so many apps out there right now for that.

Dana Ellis: Yeah, I was going to say, yeah, there's apps like Headspace or Calm. They're all really good ones. And then, you know, really making sure of your nutrition throughout the day. Again, those sugary snacks, they taste great, but as they bring you up and give you energy, they also bring you down a little later.

And one of the last things, you know, really is to seek help if you need it. Sometimes jobs are super stressful or companies are going through growing pains, or you're not sure if you're on the right track. You can always seek help. There's counselors, there's therapists, there's mentors. And so really reaching out for help if, you know, you're struggling with some of this workplace wellness. Those professionals are there to help you get back on track to reach your goal.

Deborah Howell: Well, this has been incredibly wonderful. Dana, thank you so much for joining us today. I learned so much. And I know my listeners did too.

Dana Ellis: Well, thank you for having me. And I hope, yeah, that everybody learned a little something and some new little tricks and hopefully we'll see some offices being spruced up.

Deborah Howell: I would love to see that. And for more information, head on over to our website at stoughtonhealth.com to get connected with one of our providers. And that concludes this episode of Stoughton Health Talk. Please remember to subscribe, rate and review this podcast and all the other Stoughton Hospital podcasts. I'm Deborah Howell. Have a terrific day.