Mental Health Sick Day? No Problem!

Mental Health Sick Day? No Problem!

Mental health days are vital to many professionals' long-term work performance and well-being. Many employees opt to stay home due to pronounced feelings of distress, burnout, anxiety, depression, etc. A common misconception of a mental health day is the admission of feeling overwhelmed, being unable to cope, using an excuse to stay home and do something fun, or portraying an act of corporate disloyalty. However, this is NOT the case by any means ...

The 2018 "Employee Recommended Workplace Award"

The 2018 "Employee Recommended Workplace Award"

Is your workplace a mental health champion? Are your employees productive, engaged, and well supported in the work they do?

If you answered yes to these questions and you recognize the importance of workplace wellness, consider nominating your workplace for the 2018 Employee Recommended Workplace Award

Shared Offices: Helpful or Hindering?

Shared Offices: Helpful or Hindering?

Gone are the days of the cubicle. Many companies now are switching to office layouts that are open and shared, with no permanent spot for each employee. A recent survey found that two-thirds of 400 global companies were planning to implement shared offices by 2020 (Sander, 2017).

Shared offices often make people think of trendy, progressive companies where an intern can share the same desk one day as the senior manager the day before. This is called hot-desking, when employees can switch from desk to desk each day (Sander, 2017). There are also activity-based spaces where employees have the choice between quiet workstations or open desks, depending on what task they are trying to accomplish (Sander, 2017).

"Living Office": The Pinnacle of Workplace Design?

"Living Office": The Pinnacle of Workplace Design?

There has been a significant shift in the understanding of how people work, founded on elements that are innately human; security, autonomy, belonging, achievement, status, and purpose. These six elements reflect how we tend to experience the world and what motivates us to do our best work. Informed by this understanding, renowned company Herman Miller has recently transformed workplaces to consider the arrangement of surroundings, furnishings, and tools that match the diverse needs of employees while delivering an elevated human experience of work.

Workplace Absences Due to Mental Health Issues: An Update

Workplace Absences Due to Mental Health Issues: An Update

The numbers are in from a new poll conducted in April that details Canadian's experiences with mental health issues and how they impacted their lives, especially work. The main findings certainly do indicate that a large number of Canadians are dealing with mental illness and it is affecting their lives. The results include these staggering stats....

Beating the Sunday Night Blues

Beating the Sunday Night Blues

It's Sunday afternoon. You've spent the morning slowly rising out of bed, running errands that you've put off during the week, and have even managed to hit up your favourite brunch spot.

Then it sinks in ... tomorrow is MONDAY. 

You suddenly feel a wave of anxiety rush over you. The relaxation and enjoyment of the weekend's activities come to a halt. You begin to preoccupy your thoughts about the upcoming work week; thoughts of upcoming projects and meetings, colleagues that you need to attend to, conflicts that are unresolved. Your mood takes a down turn, and you begin to feel irritable and restless. You may even have a tough time falling, or staying asleep as those ruminating thoughts about your upcoming workweek invade your mind. If these feelings resonate with you, you might have a case of the 'Sunday Night Blues.'

"Can Work Make You Mentally Ill?" Research Update

"Can Work Make You Mentally Ill?" Research Update

Our experience at work will always have an impact on our mental health, either in a positive or negative way, and to lesser or greater extents. The relationship is indisputable. Yet, it is difficult to draw direct causation between the two. Is it even our job that is causing harm to our mental health or is it something else in our environment? Are some jobs worse than others for our mental health? If so, what makes them so bad? Do only specific workplace factors have an effect while the others are irrelevant? 

Games for Mental Health & Mindfulness

Games for Mental Health & Mindfulness

With the increasing use of technology in our everyday lives, electronic games have become accessible enough and are of enough quality that it is not uncommon to see a child walking down the street playing Pokemon Go on their phone or a working mother playing Candy Crush on her laptop after dinner. Electronic games are often designed to be stimulating, based on progressing through levels or achieving rewards, are available on phones, computers, tablets, gaming consoles etc., and are often linked to social media, which help enable them to be highly addictive. Although electronic games can have a bad reputation for being "mindless" or harmful, there are newer (and often indie) games designed to be therapeutic, mindful, or simply relaxing.