Crina and Kirsten Get to Work

Workplace Mental Health Takes Center Stage: A New Priority for the Surgeon General

The US Surgeon General has called-out workplace mental health and wellness as a public health priority! Woot Woot! And a huge shout out to their new Framework for workplace mental health and well-being!   
 
Here is the link:
Workplace Mental Health & Well-Being — Current Priorities of the U.S. Surgeon General
 
SHOW NOTES
 
And don’t forget to read Surgeon General Murthy’s letter introducing the framework.  He discusses his parents’ experience in coming to America and what work meant to them. It meant connection and meaning - and helped them thrive - and provided for their family.  Sounds a lot like ease, meaning and joy!
 
The framework starts by citing the statistics on workplace mental health.  The vast majority of people are experiencing a mental health symptom due to stress at work, yet most are unwilling to seek help, which means people suffer.
 
Dr. Murthy then lays out the five components of workplace mental health and wellness.
Protection from Harm: Human needs: Safety and Security 
Protection from harm covers everything from adequate ergonomic equipment, safety in performing tasks such as lifting, clean air and water, sufficient light - and being free from impacts to our psychological safety, such as bullying and intimidation and discrimination.
Connection & Community  Human needs: Social Support and Belonging
Creating connections, relationships and networks at work offers all kinds of support to employees and can mitigate the tsunami of loneliness that is facing many Americans.  Creating a culture of belonging supports mental health and wellness.
Work-Life Harmony Human needs: Autonomy and Flexibility
The work-life harmony component of mental health and well-being at work acknowledges that most workers have more responsibilities than their work. Employers need to see workers as whole people with responsibilities outside of work, whether it is time needed for routine physical and mental health care, an unexpected family issue that requires urgent attention, or for regular time and space for rest, exercise, educational pursuits, and hobbies. Workers also need as much flexibility and autonomy as possible as to how their work is done, which helps them balance work on personal obligations.
Mattering at Work Human needs: Dignity and meaning
Workers want to know they matter and they make a difference.  This is about compensating workers in a way that acknowledges and communicates value as well as building a culture of gratitude and recognition.
Opportunity for Growth Human Needs: Learning and Accomplishment
Lastly, workers need opportunities for learning, accomplishment, and growth to support mental health and well-being in the workplace.  Workers become more optimistic about their abilities and more enthusiastic about contributing to the organization.  This can be education, mentoring, training or advancement opportunities.
 
Kudos to Dr. Murthy for bringing the issue of workplace mental health and wellness to the forefront of important health issues in the United States.

Putting Your Imagination to Work--Creativity Improves Your Mood, and Your Job!

Creative activities such as painting, writing, drawing wood-working, playing music, cooking and landscaping will make you healthier, reduce stress, help you problem solve and boost your happiness. Creativity also appears to make you more generous toward others and easier to be around! 
 
SHOW NOTES
Creativity is an activity that occurs by connecting the activities that occur in various parts of our brains.  Anna Abraham, a neuroscientist and author of The Neuroscience of Creativity said in Scientific American that one of the things that’s unique about creativity in the brain is that it draws from both sides. This is actually what makes creativity unique compared to other brain functions, like language or motion, that originate in a specific region.
 
In a 2018 study researchers determined creativity is higher in people who are able to connect the parts of our brain that provide imagining with decision making and focus and the ability to switch among these functions.  Usually brain activity doesn’t occur much between these networks, but in highly creative brains, interactions were strong. 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     
There are many studies supporting the link between creativity and happiness.  See the links below.  Participants who undertook a creativity priming task that required them to recall three situations where they had behaved creatively before completing another creativity task, reported a higher level of subjective well-being after the task than the control group. In a study of women with stage 1 and 2 breast cancer, creative arts therapy intervention enhanced psychological well-being by decreasing negative emotional states and enhancing positive ones. The authors of a 2019 article concludes creative individuals tend to be better problem-solvers, which in turn lowers their stress levels and promotes happiness. 
 
Creativity is also good for your performance at work and it is good for those around you.  A new study by San Francisco State University organizational psychologist Kevin Eschleman and colleagues found employees who pursue creative activities outside of work find these activities boost their performance on the job.  Creativity again makes us better problem solvers, and it also appears to make us more generous with our co-workers in terms of lending a hand.
 
The most effective way to increase creativity to make space for it, whether journaling as part of a morning routine or wood working in the evening after dinner.  If you cannot carve out the space try to build it into existing activities - maybe doodle when taking notes or focusing on creativity when preparing your evening meal.  
 
Doing routine activities in a different way can also fuel creativity, such as taking a different route to work or using your non-dominant hand or refraining from swearing - these kinds of changes “mix it up” in your brain.  
 
10 Studies Show Why Creativity and Happiness are Linked (trackinghappiness.com)
3 science-backed reasons having a hobby will help your career (cnbc.com)
Why Do We Treat Women's Creativity Differently? | Psychology Today
How To Be More Creative And Boost Happiness: 6 Ways To Get Inspired (forbes.com)
The Creativity Bias against Women - Scientific American

The Entitled (white, male) Co-Worker...How to Spot em and How to Deal

Entitlement is an excessive self-regard and a belief in the automatic right to certain, usually privileged, treatment…hmmm…who does that remind you of?  
 
SHOW NOTES
 
White male entitlement exists because society has a dislike, contempt or ingrained prejudice against women  - also known as misogyny.  It is difficult not to reach this conclusion when we look at statistics about women’s health, women at work, women as parents, the economic status of women, women in elected and administrative governmental offices etc . . .. In each of the areas, the results for women are inferior to those of men.  Kate Mann, assistant professor of philosophy at Cornell University, writes misogyny is “the system that operates within a patriarchal social order to police and enforce women’s subordination and to uphold male dominance.” Misogyny is like a shock collar used to keep dogs behind an invisible fence, misogyny, Mann argues, and aims to keep women—those who are well trained as well as those who are unruly—in line.”  Mann asserts that misogyny is not directed at every woman, but rather is a system in which women exist.  Mann distinguishes sexism, which she defines as the ideas society has about women, with misogyny, which is the patriarchal system of enforcement of those ideas.
 
The misogynistic culture allows male entitled to thrive.  Male entitlement can be as simple as men acting like the master of the castle and treating women as there to serve and pamper. It can be seen in the policing of what women wear lest they leave a man unable to control his sexual desires.  We see it at work, much as we do at home, with the delegation of certain kinds of tasks to women, the frequency and duration that men speak - even the learned incompetence that we sometimes see in men who believe they are not required to be competent.  And this kind of behavior in the workplace negatively impacts job satisfaction and leads to burnout both for the entitled and for their co-workers.
 
This is a problem for white males to resolve.  And it requires white males to be aware of their behavior - their expectations, how much they speak, how much room they take up.  It requires active listening and a desire to give support as much or not more than they receive it.  Ideally, men call other men on entitled behavior.
 
Women can set good boundaries about what they are willing to do and not do and what behavior they are willing to be on the receiving end and what behavior they are not willing to tolerate.  
 
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Kate Manne
Being a good listener is an important learned skill.
What do we mean by male entitlement and male privilege? - SAFER (a resource to help Australian churches deal with domestic and family violence) (saferresource.org.au)
Healthy Entitlement: The Key to Gender Equity in the Workplace — Composure - The Art of Executive Presence

Own Your Mornings–They Matter More Than You Think!

Today on Crina and Kirsten Get to Work, our duo digs into mornings!  Don’t mornings mean hitting the snooze and leaping out of bed at the last minute?! Of course, and that is what 69% of us do.  However, how we start the day influences our well being and productivity for the rest of the day.
 
SHOW NOTES
Nancy Rothbard of Harvard and Steffanie Wilk of Ohio State University found that the start-of-the-day mood can last longer than we might think—and has an important effect on job performance. They studied the moods of customer service representatives (CSRs) as they started the day, how they viewed work events such as customer interactions throughout the day, and their mood during the day after these customer interactions. How a CRS started the day was the mood that stayed with them throughout the day.  For those CRS who started out the day in a calm and happy mood, customer interactions tended to enhance those positive feelings.  Those who started the day in a bad mood did not really climb out of it even after interacting with positive customers.  Quality and quality of work was also better among those who reported more positive feelings.  How Your Morning Mood Affects Your Whole Workday
 
Owning our mornings means we start our day in meaningful activity. To have time, we need to wake up earlier, but that does not mean we should cut back on sleep, it really means we go to bed earlier.  Over 60% of Americans hardly ever wake up feeling energized or rested, according to a 2020 survey conducted by RestoreZ.  We are already tired so moving our bedtime earlier is essential to preserving sleep and having a morning routine.
 
To wake up earlier …”we’re trying to not just shift your bedtime, but actually shift your entire circadian clock to be earlier,” said Kimberly Fenn, a cognitive neuroscientist.   This is a gradual process, say 15 minutes earlier to bed every night to allow our bodies to adapt.
 
Now that we are up, bright-eyed and bushy tailed with time before we have to be at work, what do we do with that time?  And here is the beauty of this - we get to create a routine that makes us happy, that is meaningful to us.
 
For some people a morning routine may be five minutes - a glass of water, an affirmation or intention for the day.  For others, a routine can be an hour - or even two - and include meditation, journaling, exercise - and a really good breakfast.  A morning routine is about priming our brains for positivity.  For women with children at home, caretaking obligations or lots of overtime, the five minute morning routine may be perfect.  The opportunity is to begin the day in a way that brings positivity to our day - and maybe even joy!
 
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
 
5 best morning routine ideas of productive people | Trello
Psychologists: Morning habits to help you be happier, more productive
Perfect Your Morning Routine With 10 Research Backed Steps
My Morning Routine

Overwhelm–Settle Down, Sister!

Overwhelmed means that you are experiencing intense emotions you don’t have the capacity to fully manage or process. Most people are overwhelmed by negative emotions, like anxiety, fear, anger or shame. These feelings leave little room to figure out what is the next best step.  When we are overwhelmed, performing every-day tasks is difficult - and it compromises our ability to act rationally, remember things, solve problems or think. 
 
The “overwhelm” has physical, cognitive, and behavioral effects. Our bodies can feel shaky, or have those anxious sensations such as a racing heart or an upset stomach or that antsy skin-crawling sensation.  Cognitively, we can be slower to process information and even become confused and our judgment can be affected.  Our behaviors can also be impacted - we may eat more or less, we may treat others poorly, we may procrastinate or isolate ourselves.  In short - just feel and act in a way far from our best selves.
 
Overwhelm is a significant issue for women at work and about a third of us seek professional help to deal with overwhelming stress.  
 
Some strategies for dealing with overwhelm are:
Make time for the emotion, as we know, strong emotions usually only last a few minutes
Consider how the emotion feels in your body
Consider the emotion in the context it arose, was is it a reasonable response to the situation or was it really about something else 
Emotions are messages, which may be as simple as being tired or hungry - or something much deeper
Be careful not to “grind” on this think piece - sometimes we just need to let things go
Be really kind to yourself - we are not alone on overwhelm - it is a common experiences
 
Sometimes calling a friend can help manage and strategize through overwhelm.  Kirsten has “borrowed a brain” from a friend when hers was not working.  Sometimes completely mixin’ it up can also help - like heading out the door for a walk in the fresh air - or even just in different surroundings.  We can change overwhelm into something different - or at least alleviate its intensity - a critical piece to ease, meaning and joy at work.
 
Women Continuing To Face Alarmingly High Levels Of Burnout, Stress In The “New Normal” Of Work
Stress in America 2022: Concerned for the future, beset by inflation

Friendship at Work--Your Direct Line to Ease, Meaning and Joy!

Friendships at work make you feel better about your job, more creative, able to solve problems more quickly and so much happier. Having friends of any kind–from casual acquaintances to besties–will lead to more ease, meaning and joy in your job and in your life, not to mention help you feel less lonely in this crazy world!
 
SHOW NOTES  
Revisiting the very first episode of Crina and Kirsten Get to Work, our hosts take a deeper dive into material they discussed so many years ago. First, let’s review the three types of friendships, all of which contribute to the ease, meaning and joy we experience at work.
Friendships of utility: which exist between people who are useful to each other in some way. 
Friendships of pleasure: which exist between people who enjoy each other. 
Friendships of the good: which exist because of mutual respect and admiration. 
 
Our hosts wanted to take a deeper dive considering what is something of a loneliness epidemic in the United State.  Three decades ago, Gallup reported that three percent of Americans had no close friends.  In 2021, an online poll put the number of people with no close friends at twelve percent.  And over the pandemic thirteen percent of women report they have lost touch with friends over the pandemic.  
 
Loneliness at work can keep people “out of the loop.” Interacting with other people at work makes the office more enjoyable, it also provides a conduit for critical information. The informal conversations and communications we have with people at work is how information is shared - and friendships really “grease the wheels” of this communication.
 
Friendships at work create more committed employees, who are more productive and are better communicators.  According to the 2021 Workplace Friendship & Happiness Survey by Wildgoose, 57% of people say having a best friend in the workplace makes work more enjoyable, 22% feel more productive with friends, and 21% say friendship makes them more creative. 
 
There are some key strategies to creating friendships at work, according to research by Shasta Nelson, friendship expert, there are three principles behind any strong relationship:
 
Consistency: how regularly and frequently you interact with each other. 
Vulnerability: how you get to know and feel close to each other. Sharing, revealing, let people “in,” 
Positivity: how much you enjoy each other’s company….kindness, validation, gratitude, affirmation, acceptance, love.
More good reads:
 
The State of American Friendship: Change, Challenges, and Loss
 
How Many Close Friends Do You Need in Adulthood? - The New York Times
 
The 2021 Workplace Friendship & Happiness Survey | Wildgoose USA
 
Why Having a Best Friend at Work Matters - businessnewsdaily.com
 
The Power of Work Friends
 
Frientimacy: The 3 Requirements of All Healthy Friendships | Shasta Nelson | TEDxLaSierraUniversity

Rest Requires a Revolution

Our Western culture has created a focus on work and accomplishment - to the detriment of our physical, emotional, mental and spiritual well-being.  Instead, we offer that each and every one of us need…deserve…or rather, should demand more rest and relaxation. In the words of the Nap Bishop herself, “rest requires a revolution.” 
 
SHOW NOTES
 
Dr. Trisha Hersey, known as the Nap Bishop, is spreading the good word about rest. Hersey’s movement on rest was inspired by studying slavery and realising that slaves working to exhaustion was part of the brutal origin of capitalism - and her own inheritance.  Hersey says her rest work is not just about the treatment of Black and Indigenous people, but fundamentally how Black and indigenous people are treated is a  bellwether for how society is functioning.  She believes everyone benefits when we question our attitudes around the “grind culture” of work and productivity.  Hersey’s message is literally about taking naps, but also about other kids of rest.  Her ministry comes with four tenets:
 
Resting pushes back on and disrupts on white supremacy and capitalism.  We’ve been programmed to believe that the more we produce, the more worth we have, which has negatively impacted our well-being.
Our bodies are a site of liberation. 
Naps provide a portal to imagine, invent and heal. 
Our dream space has been stolen and we want it back. We will reclaim it via rest.
 
Saundra Dalton-Smith is a medical doctor who was raised with the message that as a Black woman she would always have to work harder than others.  As a physician, she listened to her patients talk about fatigue and realized that her patients were not resting, which she turned inward to address her own deep fatigue.  Dalton-Smith, who wrote Sacred Rest - Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore your Sanity, focuses her work on the different kinds of rest we need - emotional, physical, social, spiritual, mental, social, sensory, and creative rest; and the gifts that come from that rest, such as boundaries, reflection, freedom, acceptance.  
 
The message is rest, listeners, rest.  It is good for all the parts of our human-ness.
 
The Nap Bishop Is Spreading the Good Word: Rest - The New York Times
Sacred Rest - Recover Your Life, Renew Your Energy, Restore your Sanity

Goals: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly

As the end of the year approaches, many of us turn our attention to defining our next big achievement; new areas of focus; things we want to check off our list next year. But what if goal-setting isn’t everything it’s cracked up to be? 
 
SHOW NOTES
 
A Harvard Business School Study found goal setting can create a narrow focus that neglects other areas; cause a rise in unethical behavior, erode the organization culture, and reduce intrinsic motivations.  The authors of the study suggest goal setting should be treated like pharmaceuticals, carefully dosed with attention to harmful side effects and under close supervision. It is with this research in mind that we consider goal setting for the new year.
 
We know that goal setting can be an effective way to create ease, meaning and joy in our work lives.  We also know that there are strategies for increasing the likelihood we will achieve our goals.  For example, writing down goals increases the chances of achieving them by 42%; people who follow a schedule of actions to achieve a goal are 76% more likely to achieve their goals; and presenting weekly progress reports to a supportive audience increases our success rate 40%.
 
Given all of this data and the importance of carefully choosing goals, what is a woman to do about goals?  Spoiler Alert - work on identifying and setting goals for more of what you want in your life.  It is important to be very intentional about what you are creating because we know that goals are also limiting.  
 
Step 1 – Make a list of what’s important - consider the financial and professional aspects of life; consider relationships, and of course physical, spiritual, emotional well-being.  For example, what is important may be more time with friends; or more financial security; or more engagement with community.
Step 2 – Ask “why is this important?” for each item on your list.  If more time with friends is on the list - answer the why.  Is it because friends are fun, supportive, interesting?  If you want more money in savings, ask why?  Does more financial security allow you to be better prepared and feel safer?  Does engaging with the community give a sense of purpose or meaning?  Maybe it just feels good to contribute.
Step 3 – Use the answers to identify your values.  The answers give us insight into the values behind what we want.  What we want may reflect that we value comfort, or fun, or helping others - or whatever.
Step 4 – Use your values to set your goals.  If we set goals in the context of our values, we are more likely to succeed in creating more of what we want in our lives.  Our goals should engage and inspire us.
2023 is an opportunity to create more ease, meaning and joy in our lives - goal setting is one way to intentionally direct our energy and resources.
Additional Resources:
Goals Gone Wild: The Systematic Side Effects of Over-Prescribing Goal Setting - Working Paper - Faculty & Research - Harvard Business School
Journal of Applied Psychology
Compared to men, women view professional advancement as equally attainable, but less desirable | Gender Action Portal (harvard.edu)
How to Find Your Goals in Life