Employee Wellness Plans Are Likely Making No Difference
Recent research from the University of Oxford makes it clear. All those lunch yoga sessions, wellness apps, webinars on mental health, etc., aren’t making any difference in the rates of burnout, stress levels, and other mental health struggles of employees.
As this TikTok explanation makes clear, that should have been obvious. After all, if the workplace is causing all this stress and burnout, how does making the employee responsible for fixing that make a difference?
@4dayweek Show your boss this research ?#workculture #worklifebalance #wellbeing #wellbeingatwork #research #wellbeingresearch #rto #flexibleworking #futureofwork #futureofworktrends #4dayweek #remoteworking #wfh #workfromhome #worldofwork #ukresearch
The research from the UK seems to indicate that many of our workplaces are just spinning their wheels with these programs while ignoring the real issues. The things that cause the high stress and burnout are systemic, and we’re just telling people to meditate. That’s not a solution; it’s offloading the responsibility of creating a sustainable workplace for individual employees.
So here’s an app, but your manager is still going to expect you to answer emails 24×7, customers will be given your cell phone number to reach you whenever, and you’ll be expected to produce 8 hours of work while also attending 4-5 hours of meetings every day. All while not making enough money to pay for childcare or pay off the loans you took to get the degree that was required to get the job in the first place.
Gee, I wonder why that yoga class isn’t helping.
H/T to the Make Work Better newsletter for the TikTok video on this topic. This issue has a lot of quality stuff; read it.
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