Our work life may not be as impersonal as we thought, and a new study proves this. According to the research 'Work Culture and Mental Wellbeing', conducted by US-based mind research organisation Sapiens Lab, work culture impacts employee mental health and wellbeing.

Work culture and mental wellbeing

The research took into account things that impact employee engagement, well-being, and stressers like ‘control and flexibility over time, control & flexibility over job, workload, learning and growth opportunities, relationship with manager/supervisor, relationship with colleagues, being informed about what’s going on, being valued and recognized, and pride and purpose in work’. They used data from 54,831 employed, internet-enabled respondents across 65 countries, including India, where the sample size was 5,090 employees.

The study found several interesting aspects. One was how our work life is every bit as personal as our home or family life. In other words, the relationships and meaning we find or fail to find at work are important to our mental well-being, like our relationships at home. Additionally, working at office might just be better for your mental health as compared to a remote working setup.

The results

According to the research, people working remotely fared worse in the nine factors important for workplace well-being as compared to those working from the office or hybrid. Additionally, people working in larger teams fared better than those working alone. Lastly, those in jobs involving customer service and physical labour fared worse than those in human care, knowledge work and business management jobs.

The report found that "having poor relationships with colleagues and a low sense of pride and purpose in one’s work are associated with the biggest decreases in overall mental wellbeing, on par with having challenges with family relationships."

Additionally, respondents who rated the nine aspects listed in the research poorly suffered the most with 'feelings of sadness and hopelessness, unwanted, strange thoughts, reduced energy, decreased drive and motivation, physical health issues and a sense of being detached from reality, even after controlling for other factors'.

Additionally, workload and flexibility over time - two important work-life balance factors - had different impacts. While excess workload resulted in poor sleep, diminished self-worth, worse appetite regulation, and even increased nightmares, lack of flexibility over time had much smaller impacts on these factors.

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