The importance of work to an individual’s mental health

The workplace is one of the key environments that affect our mental wellbeing and health. There is an acknowledgement and growing awareness of the role of work in promoting or hindering mental wellness and its corollary – mental illness. Although it is difficult to quantify the impact of work alone on personal identity, self-esteem and social recognition, most mental health professionals agree that the workplace environment can have a significant impact on an individual’s mental well-being.

Employment provides five categories of psychological experience that promote mental well-being:

• time structure (an absence of time structure can be a major psychological burden);

• social contact;

• collective effort and purpose (employment offers a social context outside the family);

• social identity (employment is an important element in defining oneself);

• regular activity (organizing one’s daily life).

Many large companies now realize that their employees’ productivity is connected to their health and well-being. However, more emphasis has traditionally been placed on physical health than on mental health and well-being.

Several factors at a workplace can promote employees’ psychosocial well-being and mental health. Especially important in this respect is the opportunity to be included in planning and carrying out activities and events in the workplace (e.g. the opportunity to decide and act in one’s chosen way and the potential to predict the consequences of one’s action). A related feature is the degree to which the environment encourages or inhibits the utilization or development of skills. Physical security, opportunity for interpersonal contact, and equitable pay are also important.

Source:

http://www.who.int/mental_health/media/en/712.pdf