This is a sponsored post by FATJOE. However, all opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view.
Working in an office can be surprisingly stressful. A lot of people don’t realize the impact working in an office has on their minds, and they often ignore the topic of mental wellness in the office because it’s just not something they relate to. After all, an office is a workplace, so should it really be causing mental health challenges? Are some offices really so bad that they actually reduce the quality of life of their employees?
Unfortunately, yes.
It’s actually incredibly easy to make some of these mistakes too. That’s why we’ve put together this helpful guide on how to transform your workplace into a stress-free haven that uplifts your team and ultimately makes them more productive.
Source: https://unsplash.com/photos/5U_28ojjgms (CC0)
Making your office a comforting and welcoming environment
The first thing to consider is making your office a more comforting and welcoming environment. Creating a modern office space should be one of the first things on your mind.
It’s surprisingly easy to create an office that reduces stress and maximizes productivity. You just need to think of your workplace through the eyes of your employees. It helps to add color, introduces more light, and also makes things more open and less corporate-like. Open-plan offices tend to help with mental wellness because it doesn’t force people into small rooms or cubicles. Instead, it gives them more space to work in and actually helps with communication.
Changing the way you manage your employees
It’s also important to change the way you manage and speak to your employees. For example, looking over their shoulder constantly is going to make things difficult for both of you. You want to ensure that you’re not becoming too overbearing and you want to be able to help your employees if they’re having trouble.
The language you use and how approachable you are will have a drastic impact on how stressful or stress-free your workplace is. Uplifting your team requires you to get to know your team, so it’s always a good idea to speak to them more regularly and discover their quirks and strengths so you can better understand your staff.
Communicate with your employees and keep everyone in the loop
Communication is important in the workplace because it helps to keep everyone on the same page. There could be difficult situations in the workplace that require everyone to focus and work together in order to get through them.
However, a stressed-out team isn’t going to have the teamwork to make things happen. It’s just going to cause chaos and when things don’t go right, people are going to start throwing blame around.
Make sure you encourage your team to communicate and consider team-building exercises when you have spare time. This will create a much stronger and more resilient team that will have an easy time overcoming adversity.
Breaking down physical and social barriers
We briefly touched on the concept of cubicles in offices and how they create walls around people that make them feel enclosed and shut off from the rest of the world. This isn’t a good design choice when it comes to creating a stress-free workplace as it can make people feel trapped. These types of physical barriers don’t help with the productivity of your team and it’s important that you try to remove any kind of wall that blocks your employees from seeing the outside world.
In addition, you’ll want to make sure that social barriers are also removed. An employee should never feel intimidated when they want to speak with someone higher up the chain. They should always feel welcome and they should have no trouble speaking with seniors when they need to.
Encouraging healthy eating and exercise
Lastly, don’t forget to encourage healthy eating in the workplace. This can be achieved very easily by offering healthy options at your cafeteria if you have one. If you don’t, then you could suggest having healthy food delivered to your office whenever you’re on a lunch break. You could even consider going out as a team if your office is rather small. Next, make sure you encourage your staff to move around a bit.
Standing desks are great because they allow your staff to move their legs instead of just sitting in place at their computer. Regular breaks are also a great idea as they encourage your staff to get away from their desk to walk around, get a drink, and reset their mind for the rest of the workday.
