Transforming Workplace Cultures for Career Well-Being and Personal Joy

The idea of employee wellness is not new and it's currently $8 billion industry. But is it working?  I believe workplace wellbeing and extends to career wellbeing because my wellbeing has to extend and carry me beyond my current workplace so I can show up and create value in the world. In this episode, we'll discuss:

• What is career wellbeing and why it’s more important than the trendy 'Workplace Wellbeing'
• How to create and maximize your career wellbeing
• How career wellbeing is connected to burnout - and how to reduce it
• The difference between workplace climate and workplace culture
• Tips for checking the health of your workplace culture

Mentioned on the show: 

Podcast Episode: Company Culture Part 1: How to identify a positive company culture

Podcast Episode: Company Culture Part 2: How to identify a positive company culture

Podcast Episode: Why Celebration is Key to Your Success

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:51

Hey there, I'm Jill Griffin and this is the Career Refresh Podcast. I'm a former media and marketing executive, turn career strategist and strengths coach. I spent my career working my way up and through the ranks of global organizations and startups, and today I show others how to do the same. Join me each week as we discuss the strategies to leverage your strengths, increase your confidence and visibility and reset your career with actionable steps towards a finer future. Ready, let's do it. Hey all, how are you? Thanks for being here and welcome back. So I want to ask you how you are doing. Really, pause for a second, stop. Answer that question for yourself. How are you doing this week?

Speaker 1: 1:51

I am talking about career well-being, well-being and work. So many of us and what I hear from clients is that we are at a very heightened level of burnout and our well-being is taking a hit. The term workplace well-being can mean different things to different people, but generally speaking, it refers to a work environment conducive to the health and well-being of all the employees and the people in it. There's data that states that well-being at work can increase productivity for a team and an organization as much as 12%. I look at workplace well-being and extend it to career well-being, because well-being has to extend and carry me. It has to go beyond the workplace, it has to stay with me wherever I go. It has to support my values and how I choose to show up in the world every day. I've spent years giving the best of my well-being to the workplace and sometimes it worked out fabulously and other times it took a toll on my health, and even if I wasn't a traumatic brain injury survivor, it probably would have taken a toll on my health. So, ultimately, all is good today, but the one takeaway, the one tip that I would want you to take away from this podcast, is don't do this to yourself. The diminishing returns. There's no amount of cash and prizes that will make up for a lack of health and a lack of overall well-being. There are a few dimensions to well-being, and Gallup has been defining and studying well-being for years. They look at it through the lens of career well-being, social well-being, financial well-being and then physical well-being. Today I'm going to stick to the area of what I call the career well-being discussion. Okay, so people, everyone I know over the last 18 months it has been hard for so many people and the uncertainty of life and the pandemic has taken the toll on many of our psyches. Our brain was not wired for this long of uncertainty.

Speaker 1: 3:55

And the idea of employee wellness it's not new. I mean it's been, you know. I think it's about an $8 billion industry, is what I've read, in which employers subsidize fitness memberships, meditation classes, apps and sort of. In the before times we got healthy, created meals at work and that became the norm. And research shows that workplace culture is the biggest roadblock employees face in their efforts to feel healthier and happier within the workplace. And, according to Harvard Business Review, less than 50% of employees trust their companies. So, on average, an employee spends approximately 50 hours of their work week within the work environment in some capacity, and whether that work environment is a physical environment or you're on, you know teams or zoom, you're still spending that much of your time within the workplace. So that's about a third of your waking life.

Speaker 1: 4:54

And while it makes sense that the work environment should be a place where employees can feel comfortable, valued and maybe even nurtured, sometimes the workplace can also be a place of stress with no end in sight. So I know for myself that I used to leave work, take a crowded New York City subway home and then many times I would walk around the block if I had a stressful day or I was feeling a lot of anxiety because my roommate might be home and I didn't want to bring my stress and energy into the apartment. Clients often tell me how the work that we're doing together on the mindset and career strategy is not only helping them in the workplace, but they're also seeing a difference in their personal relationships too. Parents have told me that their kids are showing up differently because their own personal career well-being has improved, and then they're showing up differently to the relationships in their lives. Think about it if you end your day in a better mood and therefore have different interactions and results with the people around you, you are using a positive career well-being and it has shifted in this impact in the others around you, and here's what I've seen from working with hundreds of clients that burnout around career well-being is real and there are a couple of signs that I want you to take notes. So grab your notes app and you know, take note of these. Your relationships, personally and professionally, are changing.

Speaker 1: 6:18

You're in an overconsumption or an underconsumption, so you're either oversleeping or under sleeping. You're over consuming media and social media and Netflix, or you're under consuming, you're over consuming or under consuming food, exercise the things that you're doing, or you're totally venting out in any time. That's not working and you have multiple screens going. Right, you have the screen in which you're watching, you know video content and then, of course, you have the screen next to you, which is usually your phone, in which you're scrolling. These are signs in which you're burned out. Also, signs like if you put the timer on your particular cell phone or your particular cell phone app and see how often you're using particular apps, you start to realize that, oh my God, I have opened and closed this app multiple times and I'm still watching the same episode, right? You're constantly seeing how you're trying to escape what it is that you're currently experiencing.

Speaker 1: 7:14

So these are some examples of how burnout shows up for others, and maybe you can identify with some of them. I mean, 18 months ago, burnout wasn't really a thing that was talked about regularly. It was talked about in some cultures and some circles, but I really have seen that COVID has brought the idea and the experience that many of us are having around burnout much more into the forefront. So here's some other ways that it might look like for you. You keep finding yourself trying to power through. You just get through this. You know what? I'm just going to work this week and I'm just going to get this done. I've got to get this done. Or you stop and share a meal with your family and then you get back to work after the evening meal, right? So those are some of the ways in which this type of constant striving because there really isn't that much of a difference between the office at home anymore, with so many of us working remotely that you may find that that's the way it's showing up for you. Or maybe you think you're just going to quit, but it's not available, meaning you need that income or you need those benefits to support yourself and your family. Or so many of us will power through because we're natural achievers and we're driven for more. We just have to keep doing more and more and more.

Speaker 1: 8:30

And what happens here and I've talked about this before on this podcast is that when we don't focus on what success looks like for us and we're looking at success for what it means externally, or we're tying success to our job title, that is one of the reasons why we keep chasing something more, but never actually feeling like we achieved it. So we really want to think about what does success look like for you? And when you celebrate success, that is when you could complete that reward cycle. We've also talked about this before that dopamine right is the is the want molecule, it's the anticipation molecule. It's that dopamine, that rush, that you're chasing. But if you don't let your brain know that you got the thing by taking a pause and acknowledging the success or having a small celebration or even a large one, your brain doesn't complete the reward cycle. It doesn't know it got it, so it keeps wanting to chase it. So this is what happens so often. It leads us also into burnout.

Speaker 1: 9:31

So what do you do? Well, first, I want you to redefine success. Success so often is tied to these external factors, and success for me is no longer tied to work. Yes, I love what I get to do and I love the people that I get to help, and help refresh their mind and up-level their careers and create what success looks like for them. But the important thing is that if I wasn't getting paid to do this kind of work, I would still be successful, because I would be finding other ways to help people in this way and again, success wouldn't have to do with my job title. Second is really getting clear and questioning your mindset. Many people come to me saying that they feel like they can either have a great life or a great career and for some reason, they can't have both. And it's not true, this idea of either or. There's plenty of examples around us in which it is either or, but there's just as many examples around us in which you can have both, and I will tell you as an example of what's possible I have both.

Speaker 1: 10:40

Next, I want you to think about leadership. So you have to create a climate and a culture of career wellness and career well-being, and if you are in leadership, I am talking to you. First, you need to be looking at your mindset. You need to be creating healthy habits and helping yourself make decisions that are part of the vital day-to-day work that you're doing that impacts others. So doing this for yourself first and then setting an example of what's possible for your team is so important. So I suggest that you start with ideas of creating a culture of well-being and empowerment and, if you're a leader, asking your team in the right way, in the right style, with some frequency. Hey, joanne, what are you experiencing? Maybe even ask them what they're feeling right now, or what two emotions they're experiencing right now. This will help you drive discussions, make decisions, and, if you need to pivot as a leader, you need to check on that.

Speaker 1: 11:47

The next thing I want you to think about is networking and creating professional relationships. I'm sure you have friends and people around you. I have a lot of friends who love and support me, and it's amazing, but they don't do what I do. So there ends up being a knowledge and an understanding gap that, at times, can be filled with having professional networking and professional friends that you can tap into. And since you're spending about a third of your time at work, the idea that the people you spend the most time with are going to have an impact on your well-being. So finding people both within your organization and external to your organization who do similar things, I have found, really helps create the connection and understanding of what it is that you're going through. Finding ways to make a conscious effort and to reach out to others over the years, and creating those relationships has been such a fulfilling part of my own professional journey. I also want to remind you, though, to watch out for connection expectancy.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Many of us default to this right. You come into an organization or you're wondering why other people are creating relationships or maybe they're a smaller clicks at work and you're thinking to yourself like, well, how come that people don't reach out to me, or how do I get involved in this? And I'm going to say that there's no hero and you're the hero and you have to start that. So you get to be an example, and this can show up again in ways where you're all in the team's meeting and someone's trying to get in and someone's trying to say something, and they can't quite break through, but you're making that connection and you're making room for them, or you're suggesting that wait, wait, wait. Did you want to say something? Get in here, right. So you're finding ways to bring other people and to make the circle wider and to bring other people into the fold, and if you are interviewing or looking for a job, ask them how do they collaborate and promote relationship building, especially in a working from home environment? Find out about the culture.

Speaker 1: 13:46

When I was an agency land, it was important to have allies and strategic partners in many areas, both within the company, within my vendor partners and within clients. And as an entrepreneur, it's even more important for me to have other entrepreneurs around me. Find your people. You can find them in groups on LinkedIn. There are tons of networking groups. I'm starting a group, but find your people, because this helps you with your career well-being. Again, because it's not about the one work environment. Your career well-being has to travel with you and if you nourish these relationships, you're going to have an opportunity to create a beautiful network.

Speaker 1: 14:26

All right, the next thing I want you to look at is is the workplace you're in impacting your career well-being to such a level that it feels toxic, and this idea of a workplace being toxic is absolutely going to erode your career well-being. There is one definition that's going to work for everyone, because everybody has a different level of tolerance and what's acceptable. What I dealt with going up in my career at times as someone who's Gen X, would be a total non-negotiable today for my niece and nephew, who are Gen Zs and very early on in their career. I love their sense of values and their sense of self that the Gen Z generation has brought forth and that they have a different set of non-negotiables in the workplace than many of us have had previously. We can learn from them.

Speaker 1: 15:12

There are also a few questions to ask yourself to determine if you're in a toxic workplace. One of them is around this concept of psychological safety. You know there are times where you know I've worked for the same company, but by simply rotating from one team or one account to another, I either gained or lost psychological safety. Next, in corporate, there is climate and culture, and I mentioned this earlier. Sometimes the climate is stressful and it blows over eventually and the culture is what stands. Culture is what stays around and it's what you need to help create.

Speaker 1: 15:51

So ask yourself questions within your current department and again, if you're going to a new company or you're interviewing somewhere, is there diversity of both people and of thought? Is there a clear mission? The company may clear what their values are. Do you know your own workplace values? Some of us may have values that fit in our personal lives, but we don't necessarily need them in our professional life. The example I've given many times is that I need innovation in my professional life, but I don't necessarily need innovation in my personal life. So getting clear on what values you need, depending on the environment you're in, is another way that you can really help build your own career, well-being and then, ultimately, your culture.

Speaker 1: 16:34

You also want to find out within the company, if you're interviewing or do this. If you're in a company now that's not doing this is celebrating the baby wins Remember we talked about how we're always chasing it if we don't acknowledge it and accept it and realize it and celebrate it. You have to celebrate the wins I also want you to think about is there transparency in the organization? Yes, there are some things that are not meant for consumption, for everyone's ears and eyes, but is there a feeling of transparency or does it feel a little sketchy? That's also going to help you see if the workplace that you're in is sort of toxic or if it's a healthy workplace. I also did a two-part series on how to spot a positive workplace culture and I'll put that link in the show notes if you want to dig in. It's possible for ourselves and our career well-being if we get to be in a group where we're learning what we're good at, we're finding ways to strengthen it, and then we're networking with others who have like minds and we're helping each other get to our goals.

Speaker 1: 17:30

Then I want to come back to the burnout conversation. When you're thinking about burnout, it comes in forms of physical, mental and emotional stress and it comes in waves. There's the stressors and then there's the stress response. Let me take that a step further. Your body is going to take care of the stressor. This is because you are in the process with the stress response. This is the fight or flight you are going to fight.

Speaker 1: 17:59

The stressors activate within your body and it can be anything from thoughts, people, your environment. You're going to have a physical reaction. It could be the bully, it could be a boss, it could be a tough deadline, a social gathering that is going to cause the stress response in your body. When the stressor materializes, your body is going to kick in with a rapid and involuntary response. Blood is going to pump quickly to your heart, your muscle, your lungs. Your lungs are going to take in more oxygen and neurochemicals and hormones are going to flush your system. This is where you sort of move, you outsmart, you atlas, you do better. This is that stress response.

Speaker 1: 18:37

And to deal with the stressor, your body's non-urgent system, take a back seat to save your energy so that you can have your defenses ready. Have you ever experienced a very intense argument and found that you're a bit shaky afterwards. That's the stress response that needs to cycle through your body. So when the threat is over, the body doesn't necessarily know that it's safe to function normally and your body is still waiting for the signal that's like okay, all clear, folks, we're good, roll on. And if you don't give your body that signal, the stress response keeps rolling and in the meantime your body's immunity and digestive system, just to name two, have slowed down because they're secondary to deal with stress response. So if we knew we mean under stress for weeks or years.

Speaker 1: 19:23

This is going to take a toll on your body and this is what the burnout is, and it doesn't always have to take weeks or years. It could be a really intense month that can get you into a level of burnout. On the benign side, you might just feel run down, maybe get sick a lot, feel really exhausted and you let it hit yourself on weekends. But on the other side, the constant flush of hormones and neurochemicals really does wreak havoc on your body. It causes anxiety, stress. You may get into a level of depression.

Speaker 1: 19:53

Your body needs to complete this stress cycle. There are two ways. I mean there are probably more, but the two ways that I know to complete the stress cycle is one mindset see the theme questioning your thoughts, rebuilding your beliefs and practicing breathing exercises or meditation are just a few of the mindset tools that prove that are proven to help you complete the stress cycle. And the other way is physical. This can be exercise, this can be walking, this can be laughing, this can be affection, creative expression. It's anything that is going to allow the neurochemicals and hormones to flush through your body. And you need to address both the mindset and the physical impact in order to stay healthy.

Speaker 1: 20:42

So when you're thinking about career well-being, it has to be on a few different levels. You need to think about the burnout you need to be thinking about what is it that you want to question? That is not necessarily working for you. I want you to redefine success that does not connect to your own personal title, but it's success in your life and in your work. Again, I want to think about the relationships that you're building and how you're networking, because that will feed your career well-being and it's portable and those relationships will come with you. And then I want you to also think about if your current organization is toxic. What do you want to do about it? How do you want to rethink this? All right, it is really possible to create an environment that works for you. I promise you it's possible. I've seen many of clients do it. I have done it myself.

Speaker 1: 21:36

But finding it does require work and mindset. Listen, before I wrap, I want to kind of give you a little bit of a career wake-up call. Maybe the one you've been waiting for. Do you ever go from wondering is this it? And then you want to know and own your genius and design your career trajectory, but you're like how do I get there? I want to help you develop the confidence you need to secure whatever future and career well-being that works for you, whether that's in your current company or whether you want to leave your current company and find another opportunity. I want to help you find the job that reflects your talents and who you are.

Speaker 1: 22:15

If you are constantly job hopping, hoping that this next job is going to be the one, or you get promoted and you roll into a new department and you're thinking that's going to be it, or if you're struggling to understand why you're always miserable with a job that looks really good on paper or on LinkedIn, but even though it checks the boxes, you're constantly frustrated or you're figuring out why can't you nail the presentation or why can't you show up the way you want to with executive presence. If you've experienced any of this, I'm going to offer you that you are suffering from what I call the corporate identity crisis. But here's the good news On the other side of every good crisis is clarity, direction and the possibility for a totally different life and career. I've helped hundreds of clients amplify their strengths and increase their visibility. They are working on career narratives. They are designing a bigger and better future based on the proven framework that I have used with hundreds of clients.

Speaker 1: 23:11

This program is starting soon and, if you want to be the first to know, I'm going to put the link to get on the list for the show notes so you can get your email on that list. All right, everyone, I'm wishing you an amazing week and I'll see you next time. Thanks for listening to the Career Refresh podcast. If you're enjoying this podcast and you want more career and mindset tips, get on my email list by going to JillGriffinCoachingcom. I'll also put that link in the show notes, but before you go, please rate and review this podcast, as it helps me get the word out to people everywhere so they can also thrive in the workplace. I'll see you next time.