One of the greatest by-products of the otherwise awful period of COVID-19 was a more universal workplace emphasis on well-being. Whilst some companies did have wellbeing on their corporate agendas before the pandemic, there was often no formal protocol to follow on how to safeguard or advocate employee wellbeing. As a result, attempts were often sporadic, lacking in structure, and done on a trial and error basis. The pandemic, which forced the convergence of home, health, and workplace, turned wellbeing initiatives into foundational drives in almost every organisation.
This article does not seek to discredit these wellbeing initiatives, but will instead consider what can happen when we have too much of a good thing.
Before the pandemic, there was a stark separation between home and work. Work was a place where you did your job, and home was a place to air your dirty laundry – literally and figuratively speaking. In other words, if you were experiencing any problems at work, including any negative emotions associated with those problems, the place to deal with those issues was at home. To share negative sentiments at work was deemed unprofessional and could put your career in jeopardy. This kind of secretive and closed workplace can now often seem foreign in a post COVID world where we are encouraged to talk about our problems and gain support for them at work.
A large and growing genre of self-help books and self-improvement podcasts that can help you to ‘know your mind’ have accompanied this increased interest in wellbeing. This had led to a world where people are so aware of their wellbeing that they often become hyper-focused on it, obsessing over their wellbeing in a way that can become counterproductive. For instance, if you have a bad day, or a bad week, the omnipresent drive to be happy can make you feel as if there is a real and existential problem that needs to be discussed, dissected, and dealt with in fine detail. This can leave many people feeling worse rather than better. In essence then, the wellbeing drive may be damaging the wellbeing of the very people it claims to help; encouraging them to dwell on misfortune when they may have otherwise thought little of their bad day, passing it off as part of the normal cycle of life.
Just as managers are sometimes accused of micromanaging employee tasks, they should arguably now also be accused of micromanaging employee wellbeing. Some firms go so far as to take weekly surveys of employee wellbeing. Whilst these wellbeing initiatives are of course motivated by good intentions, they must ensure that they don’t take things too far.
In order to avoid micro-managing tasks, managers must allow employees agency over their work and workload. In a similar way, managers must learn to step back and moderate the degree to which they are intervening in the wellbeing of their employees. It is not too surprising that bombarding employees with constant reminders and prompts about how wonderful their lives should be can have the exact opposite effect.
It goes without saying that it’s important for employees to maintain a baseline level of happiness. All of the reminders, drives, initiatives, books, and podcasts should only be consumed as wellbeing supplements, and not as a substitute for meeting your own needs by pursuing a balanced and meaninful life. Don’t feel pressured into happiness FOMO. Just because someone in an expensive suit is telling you that you can be richer, fitter, happier, more educated, spiritual, or popular, doesn’t necessarily mean that you aren’t already on the right path. You are the agent of your own emotions, and everything else is external.
By remembering that wellbeing initiatives can sometimes take things too far and become counterproductive, you will be able to benefit from these well-intentioned messages of motivation and progress as a force for good in your life and work.
Sukhi R. is a graduate from Warwick Law School currently studying an MSc in Business with Consulting at Warwick Business School. She has a keen interest in the business psychology of consulting and plans to enter the industry in the near future.
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