How much does job satisfaction impact mental health? This is a question that makes sense to ask, because of the amount of time, physical and mental resources expended in the workplace. Often the conversation about how someone is doing mentally revolves around how they are doing at their job. Depression, anxiety has an impact on engagement in one’s work, and fulfillment and meaning in work can have a positive impact on mental health.
There are many factors that contribute to fulfillment in the workplace. Ironically, often one of the primary reasons that individuals cite as a positive characteristic, being challenged, is also cited as the main source of disappointment. This leads to the next question, are there good challenges that one can have at work? A lack of challenges is one of the reasons that up to 70% of American workers feel “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” from work.
Challenges in the workplace can run the gamut. Challenges can range from interpersonal conflict, lack of resources, or problem solving for task completion. When challenges are surmountable and consistent with one’s skillsets, they can feel very rewarding. Interpersonal conflict is rarely cited as an enjoyable challenge, unless it leads to greater growth and connectivity. When a challenge takes away one’s attention from focusing on their originally stated job description, it can feel like a hindrance to job satisfaction. But challenges that involve voluntarily investing attention into one’s primary line of work can be very satisfying. A constant high state of problem solving, without any downtime for creativity and mindfulness, can also contribute to feelings of burnout. The variety in one’s position, where there is potential for moving to a different task then back to the original task, has a specific purpose: to allow you to become more creative and think of a new solution to the original problem.
Thus there is much detail to be inspected when identifying challenges in the workplace. Some challenges are appropriate, achievable, and rewarding. Other challenges are not appropriate, insurmountable, and contribute to burnout. It not only depends on the type of challenge, but your perspective on which category the challenge falls in. Approaching a challenge with the expectation that you will fall short will lead to a confirmation bias and an artificially high focus on your failures. Your approach to a challenge will change depending on how you perceive opportunities for growth. With the optimism bias phenomenon, we are more likely to predict a positive outcome if we are a good mood, and conversely, a negative outcome if we are in a bad mood. So our current state at the time of approaching a situation will change one’s level of persistence and cognitive flexibility to solve a problem.
There are many reasons to discuss work satisfaction with your therapist. Many mental health problems can become more evident in the workplace. If you would like to discuss your mental health in your employment, or difficulty in finding a job during unemployment, please contact our office to set up a session with our therapists.
