Occupational Wellness

Most adults work to make a living to cover their living expenses. As a result, they end up spending a third of their lives within the workplace. Keeping this in mind and the fact that they spend a third of a day sleeping, every working adult is eventually present, in the workplace, half of their awake time. That’s what makes occupational wellness essential: everyone has to know how to improve their health. 

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What is occupational wellness?

When you feel a sense of purpose while being highly productive at work, you are witnessing occupational wellness. Such a pillar is essential for anyone to have a work-life balance that will promote health and wellbeing. When such a balance exists, any faced difficulty would fade away as you will have the proper tools to face anything.

We all experience success and failure during our work-time. Both are very common; but, it is the attitude to what happens throughout the day that affects your occupational wellness. Many factors contribute to stress, such as having arguments with co-workers, needing to exert ethics, physical and emotional fatigue; and, lack of common sense for the purpose of one’s job, among others.

A study published by Ohio State University in 2016, examined about 6500 Americans. Findings indicated that their mental health was highly associated with how they were feeling at work. Those who were not happy at their jobs showed a high probability of depression. They were more likely to have sleep problems and anxiety. The same group was also more likely to have emotional problems and lower mental capabilities. The study also explained that those who could not connect with their peers within the workplace had a negative work outcome. 

The Harvard Business Review added to this notion that those who usually feel lonely and not connected with their peers are less likely to get promoted. They have lower job outcomes and are more likely to change their jobs frequently. 

In a nutshell, occupational wellness is the maximization of happiness at the workplace by making sure an employee is focused on their work while experiencing joy and satisfaction at the same time.

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Why is occupational wellness essential?

It is essential to make sure you find pride and accomplishment in what you are doing if you are spending most of your time at work. That alone makes carefully looking for the right career path an essential task. Before choosing your educational degree, do your best to explore what kind of work and life balance you will be facing. It is also wise to understand how colleagues work together and what type of collaboration is expected from every team. Then, you assess if this is the type of work for you.

Before taking a job, it is imperative to understand both short- and long-term expectations. Your duties, how much you can grow, and what programs you will be placed on to support your health and well-being. For example, some workplaces offer a gym membership or may even have a small exercising area on their office floor. These are all critical factors to address before picking where and how you will spend most of your awake time. When you focus on occupational wellness, you are improving both your health and professional life. 

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How do you know that you are occupationally well?

Occupational wellness has many signs. You will be engaged in exciting and motivational jobs. You will be able to balance your career and your personal life, delivering what is needed for work while offering yourself some leisure time. When you are well at work, you tend to communicate and collaborate with your peers effectively. You tend to succeed in working both independently and in groups, feel inspired and challenged at work, and finally, have a feeling of satisfaction by the end of the day. 

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How to improve occupational wellness?

There are many adopted ways to help you maintain occupational wellness. These include not settling for a job, but rather looking for a workplace that keeps you motivated into accomplishing work most efficiently and effectively. You may also want to boost your skills and knowledge required to keep you on top of your goals. It is always recommended to find the good and the bad in the current job and find plausible solutions for what could be bothering you.

It is essential for you to always enjoy what you are doing and, in turn, do what you tend to enjoy. Make sure you write down your goals and expectations in order to develop a plan of action to accomplish each one. Once you set the plan, you will need to begin acting upon it.

Creating connections with your colleagues can surely help keep your work environment less tense. So is always finding a new career counselor if you felt stuck in a workplace with which you do not associate.

Whether or not you have any mental or emotional disorders, occupational wellness can help you improve your life or end up wrecking it further. Accepting a job that makes you feel happy and accomplished is essential for every employee. While not every job can be perfect all the time, try to prevent the downsides of certain difficult moments. You need to find the positive of every situation while defocusing on the negative parts that may have wrecked your peace of mind. Do not let a phase of stress, at a workplace, ruin your wellbeing and professionalism. You can adopt many anti-stress techniques like exercising mindfulness and doing breathing exercises. Both can help regulate your mood and wellbeing. 

Now, more than ever, we need this branch of wellness. After a novel virus invaded the nations incapacitating populations, the wellbeing of workers and employees shifted from being an added value and turned into a necessity. No matter what your field of work is, an effective plan can be developed and properly implemented: you just need to validate its necessity and have the will to abide by it.