When we spend so many of our waking hours at work, our relationships with colleagues become a fundamental source of wellbeing in the workplace. It’s about more than just “tolerating a co-worker,” or “getting along.” Rather, it’s about fostering meaningful connections ...
Overcoming Interview Anxiety
It’s natural to be anxious about a job interview.
The process itself can be overwhelming – from perfecting your handshake, to choosing the right outfit, drilling in power poses and answering questions competently, there is a lot to consider.
For those with social anxiety disorder (SAD), a job interview can be even more difficult. Interview anxiety can be a significant obstacle when looking for work.
Could sugar be feeding your depression?
It's highly addictive and wreaks havoc on our bodies. We all know too well that sugar is a bad guy. It can affect our teeth, our weight, the clarity of our skin and many other aspects of our health. But could we go so far as to say that it's impact reaches beyond our physical health, and negatively affects our mental health? Some scientist believe this could be the case.
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).
"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?
The "Do What You Love" Mentality
We’ve all heard this advice at least once: “do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life”. Sounds pretty simple right? Create a job out of your life passions and you’re going to like going to work so much, that it won’t even feel like you’re working! But don’t go quitting your job just yet. The do what you love (DWYL) mentality has not been immune to criticisms...
You Are Your Clothes
Unless we wear a uniform, one choice we make is the outfit we are going to wear to work. Some of us work from home in pajamas, others wear a crisp suit, and still others are somewhere in between.
Researchers Galinsky and Hajo studied what they call “enclothed cognition”, where those who wore a doctor’s coat (as opposed to painter’s coat or no coat) actually performed better in attention tasks, showing that the symbolic meaning of the clothing plus the physical experience of wearing it had an effect on participants (Hajo & Galinsky, 2012).