What is the relationship between work and health?
Work and health are directly related to each other, forming the
work-health balance.
Impact of Health on Work
An employee’s state of health can positively or negatively
affect their ability to carry out their duties at work. Some employees may
require extended leaves of absence, alternative or restricted duties at work,
special work-form-home considerations, or in some instances, early retirement
due to ill health. Conversely, an employee’s work can have the same two
effects.
Impact of Work on Health
Acquiring and remaining in work can allow a person to meet all
their basic needs, afford extra luxuries in life, and give a person a sense of
accomplishment when tasks are completed. However, the demands of work or the
work environment may result in physical exhaustion due to high demands, mental
and emotional stress due to toxic work environments or an employee’s inability
to achieve targets or promotions. These stressors may manifest physically with
body aches, loss of focus and decreased well-being.
How can an employee make their work-life healthier, happier,
and more productive?
Health is an overall state of well-being, including physical,
mental, emotional, and financial. Having a balance between work life and
personal life improves an employee’s health, happiness and productivity as they
can manage doing the essential things they have to do (work), with doing the
extra things they want to do in their personal life.
Here are some tips for creating a healthier work-life balance:
Be Present by showing up to work on time, thus giving yourself enough time to complete your tasks throughout the day.
Scheduling your duties to complete work on time gives you worry-free time to enjoy your personal time.
Prioritizing your major duties first as these are more time-consuming to complete.
Rewarding yourself both mentally and tangibly by congratulating yourself for a job well done or giving yourself a small treat of your choice.
Exercise fuels your body and mind to complete both work-related tasks and personal activities throughout the day.
What is work-related stress?
Stress occurs when an individual has an adverse mental or physical response to a situation.
Work-related stress occurs when this situation involves an employee’s work demands. An
employee may feel stressed if they perceive the demands of their work to be more than
they can personally handle, or if the resources at their disposal to complete their work are inadequate, increasing the difficulty of the task. Alternatively, some stress may positively
affect an employee, challenging them to meet their targets.
How can an employee deal with work-related stress?
For work-related stress that leads to decreased health and productivity, here are some tips for managing this:
Recognize that you are stressed. Some signs of work-related stress include decreased productivity, increased absences, lack of concentration, reduced effort with teamwork and mood swings.
Talk about it. A trusted co-worker or counselling from your company’s Employee Assistance Program may reveal solutions to issues you may not have considered.
Be open with your manager about the aspects of your job that may be decreasing productivity.
Be willing to accept help.
Take time off to focus on yourself and do something that you enjoy.
Dr. Irvinelle Moore
Occupational Physician – GP
BMedSci, MBBS, DOccMed, LLM (Healthcare Ethics and Law), OEUK Cert.
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