Key Highlights
- Around 264 million people suffer from depression globally
- 1 in 5 Corporate India employees suffer from workplace/Job depression due to lack of support (Economic Times, 2019).
- Misaligned career choices later cause dissatisfaction and harm mental well-being.
- Job satisfaction stems from an employee’s pleasure in their work, creating a positive emotional state.
Have you ever wondered why parents and students are so worried about choosing the right career or job? Is it only for a stable financially secure future or is there any other factor too? If you ask, one of the answers will be ‘to be happy in life’. Yes, happiness is the ultimate pursuit, and finances in terms of a secure career are the means to the end! Voila! So it turns out everything is related to mental well-being, as happiness is an ultimate state of mental well-being. Therefore, it is very important that while choosing a career, one has to pay attention to being ‘happy’ in it rather than choosing it for the sake of good money, fame, or both.
Mental well-being: Is it a problem?
Mental health is indicative of how we think, feel, and behave not to mention that it is an impermanent state of mind since it keeps changing with the environment of individuals.
Around 264 million people suffer from depression globally, which is one of the leading causes of disability, with many of these people also suffering from symptoms of anxiety (WHO, 2019). In line with a recent World Health Organization-led study, depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy US$1 trillion each year in lost productivity.
Read: Indian employees complain about difficult work environment
Another report by the World Health Organisation (WHO) revealed that 7.5 per cent of the Indian population suffers from some form of mental disorder. Unemployment is a well-recognized risk factor for mental health problems and 1 out of every 5 employees in Corporate India is suffering from workplace depression due to a lack of support systems (Economic Times, 2019).
How and when does mental health turn into a disorder?
Mental well-being is a gradual process that starts from the womb-nature of the child, the environment where the child grows influences his/her mental health. As the child grows and reaches the career decision phase of life, stress and anxiety are at their peak, both for the child and the parents as factors including the child’s aptitude, attitude, inclination, financial considerations, etc., affect this most important phase of life.
The students and professionals largely choose their stream/career due to factors such as influence by peer groups, family background, and parental pressure. Ironically, at this most important decision-making stage, there are no reliable tools available to gain insight into their core interest areas.
Read: Mental Health Promotion in Children and Teens
This decision stays for the rest of life and if the choice of career does not synchronize with the talent, there is a gradual onset of personal and professional dissatisfaction that affects the overall mental health and well-being. Since people may not be able to cope with their failures/ shortcomings at the workplace, their performance further declines and the stress culminates into full-blown mental health disorders.
Factors at the workplace that affect mental well-being?
You read it correctly and here is why is it so.
Changes in the work environment are happening swiftly due to the application of modern technology leading to psychological and emotional problems in employees due to the inability to cope. Individuals are facing problems such as stress, anxiety, depression, negative attitudes, and interpersonal relations issues in offices.
Stress in a competitive environment affects employee performance consequently, hampering the overall growth of an organization. This explains the development of psychosomatic disorders like Hypertension, Diabetes, Hyperacidity, Peptic ulcer, and irritable bowel syndrome in office goers as compared to manual workers!
Is there a solution to optimize performance?
Yes, there is a solution and it is WITHIN OUR REACH.
Studies suggest that job satisfaction (the right person at the right place doing the right job) increases the productivity of an employee as well as the organization. Employees are satisfied in their jobs and work towards integrating and upgrading procedural changes to enhance the growth of the company.
Job satisfaction is a positive emotional state resulting from the pleasure an employee derives from doing a job (Locke, 1976; Spector, 1997). Job satisfaction is measurable, having cognitive (evaluative), affective (or emotional), and behavioural components. In several studies, researchers have elicited that job satisfaction measures vary within the extent to which they measure feelings about the job (affective job satisfaction) or cognitions about the job (cognitive job satisfaction).
Read: Religiosity and Employee Job Satisfaction
It is imperative, therefore, that the youth be given proper career guidance at the appropriate stage so that all their energy can be used to strengthen their innate potential and enhance productivity. Evidence-based career guidance results in highly focused thinking that further increases the aura energy as well as the power of the unconscious mind.
The role of Parents in creating positive mental health in children?
The onus is on the parents for obvious reasons, to create a positive reinforcing environment for children by understanding the psycho-social development/ basic needs in different stages of life be it infancy, toddler, childhood, teenage, and early adulthood as per Erikson’s Psychosocial Stages of development Children learn by observing parental behaviour and attitude.
Encouragement and positive reinforcement are capable of changing anyone. Besides, the existence of certain common traits among children, each child is unique. How best children can develop an understanding of their strengths may be assigned to the quality education imparted right at the pre-nursery school level. To encourage positive and healthy cognitive growth in the adolescent child, parents should include them in engaging discussions on a variety of topics, issues, and current events; encourage sharing ideas, and thoughts, to think independently and develop their ideas; assist them in setting goals after knowing their talent; compliment and praise for well-thought-out decisions.
Parents should also avoid basic evil- an undesirable form of parental behaviour so that the child can identify and work on his/ her potential and perform up to the optimum level. Basic evil refers to poor parenting the purpose of which is child abuse. It incorporates various inappropriate behaviours parents exhibit towards children such as indifference towards the child, rejection of the child, hostility towards the child, obvious preferences for a sibling, erratic behaviour, un-kept promises, unfair punishment, ridicule, humiliation, and isolation of the child from others. goals.
Whom to contact for cognitive, Emotional and Psychological issues in children?
If Children facing issues such as psycho-sexual developmental issues, difficulty in choosing a career, gadget or smartphone addictions, physical development issues, substance abuse, exam-related anxiety and stress relationship issues, having a childhood trauma, emotional, social, academic or school setting problems can contact clinical Psychologist, Child Psychologist, Educational Psychologist Counselling Psychologist, Community psychologist, Health psychologist, School psychologist.
If Parents are facing any issues in parenting their child such as working parenting their child such as working parents can be in a stressful situation and are trying to balance personal life, jobs and raising children while being left alone with no other options. Parents are more likely to experience distress as a result of this scenario, which may hinder their capacity to be helpful caretakers. For these problems, you can contact a psychologist, therapist, counsellor and other mental health professionals.
Leave feedback about this