Mental Health At the Workplace: Let’s Talk

The world has battled against COVID-19 pandemic through the whole year of 2020, and it will continue to put it as the priority in the new year.

A 100m run has become a marathon, and we need more resilience than ever to overcome challenges in the long run. It is predicted that mental health will be the biggest concern as people begin to recover from the physical challenges.

We do need more than ever psychological resilience to continue running in this marathon.

No one expects to put up with such demand. Many workers, especially frontline staff are burnout. Many have further suffered significantly as businesses have permanently been shut in this difficult time.

Some of the small things you may notice as signs of burnt out are:

1. You are dreading to get out of bed each day. Your mood starts low as soon as you become awake.
2. You feel tired throughout the day or you suffer from body fatigue.
3. Your work performance has been affected and it is not just a day thing. You may argue some days you perform well, but then you realize you are in a cycle of high/low.
4. You start to think that the job is too much. You do not see hope in changing your current situation. You are just working to get through the day.
5. You start to have significantly negative thoughts, such as giving up the whole job task, or even quitting the job.
6. You notice you have changed your eating habits – either binge eat, or you no longer find your favorite food pleasant.
7. You find it hard to manage your emotions, or you notice some emotions happen more recently and they cause you exhaustion, emotional burden. Some examples are: you may have lost temper more easily as ever, you cry when suddenly everything seems too much; you have unusual mood swings, meaning you get extremely high for some days/even some hours, before you hit low.
8. It is hard to admit but you are aware you may have used some habits to cope, such as drinking, shopping or online browsing. You are concerned you spend much more money and time on it and you rely on it to ‘boost your mood’.
9. You struggle to share about your emotions or experiences to the others. Sometimes you feel very alone and no one would understand.
10. You do not feel like talking to your colleagues anymore. You have lost trust in your team or your supervisor.

Mental Health Support is useful for workers – to build awareness of their own wellbeing and situations, to develop coping skills and to apply positive habits. In a painful and down time like this, a space is particularly needed for many to heal.

Let us encourage workers to open up about their challenges. Only when we share, we realize we are not alone.

Look after ourselves.

Feel free to drop a message and share. Let’s talk and support each other.