Behind the screens there are people surviving a pandemic: specialist
This article was translated from our Spanish edition using AI technologies. Errors may exist due to this process. Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Adriana Ortiz is a psychoanalyst who, among the various things she does in her work, gives workshops on work-related psychology topics. In this interview he talks about how to improve the work environment , the impact of the pandemic on mental health and the application of NOM035 – which forces bosses to be aware of the mental health of their workers-, in the return to employment. normal.
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The expert comments on how much things have changed in terms of mental health in the work environment with teleworking. As he says, it is not sure how the rule will have to be modified because we continue to face situations never seen before.
Entrepreneur en Español (EN): How difficult has it been to convince people that the work environment rules will be different in the new normal?
Adriana Ortiz (AO): It depends on the leader. It is important that you have positive leadership, it can be negative. We need transformational leadership, which seeks to help employees develop their potentials. People believe that a worker who exceeds himself, never rests, is present in everything, you are a good worker, but in reality that person, sooner or later, is going to have a burnout . Everything you could believe you won you will lose. That person is going to be mentally tired. It is still an easier issue to deal with with female leaders. It has to do with why finally we have more capacity, given that we are educated in that way. This is how female leaders are, they tend to think of others. Yes it has changed and many men are understanding, but it still weighs on them.
EN: Has the situation gotten better or worse?
AO: It has been more visible, as a result of the pandemic, the importance of mental health to do any activity was evidenced, but note that this is not something new because Freud himself said that the requirements for good mental health are ‘to love and work’. Work is finally something very important in our lives because it not only allows you access to what is necessary for survival (money), but it is also a form of self-realization that directly impacts your entire life. Not only economically, but socially, even culturally.
EN: How to create a beneficial work environment for mental health?
AO: NOM035 arises from the need to improve the impact on productivity and the economy. Companies lose a significant annual sum due to aspects related to mental health. This is focused on protecting not only employees, but also companies. It seeks to regulate psychosocial factors that favor the needs of employees: work environment, workloads, lack of control at work , work hours and excessive shift rotation , interference in the work-family relationship, leadership and relationships negative and workplace violence l . With the pandemic, many issues have changed because we are teleworking all the time, for example workloads. These can be excessive. The working day is maximum 8 hours, but many now do not care what time they send you an email. If that is not regulated, it causes stress. The workloads have to be fair because otherwise you fall into exploitation. It is also important that the worker can have an adequate relationship between work and his family space (free time). Both men and women, it is important that work allows it because if not your quality of life is not fulfilled.
Image: Courtesy Adriana Ortiz
EN: You mention that the norm will have to be modified by teleworking in general, what changes have been seen in this issue with the pandemic?
AO: It has definitely worsened, there are still no exact figures, but there is talk that depression has increased up to three times more. They are impressive amounts. Depression is related to losses. Not only have there been losses that are very clear, worldwide there are many people who lost their lives, but also many people lost their jobs and that still represents a loss. Maybe you didn’t lose your job, but you already saw that three colleagues were fired and even though you’re still there, it causes stress. There are many factors that were not contemplated in this standard that was just being processed in 2020 and suddenly it must be modified because it was applied to face-to-face work.
There are many issues that were not taken into account because of the new. The problem of mothers who, in addition to working, have to pay attention to their children’s online school, among other issues, also arose. From the beginning, work favors mental health, imagine now that maybe it was your only way to leave home and be happy, calm, and it was what made you feel fulfilled. For many people, work was their refuge.
EN: Why is mental health important for productivity?
AO: It is important because we need all of our abilities to be able to execute a job. You will have more energy, more availability, you will feel fulfilled, it is also true that there are jobs that if you are not in your five senses you cannot do it. There are certificates where they ask psychologists to sign certificates to affirm that they do not have depression or anxiety because they have a lot of responsibility. Mental health helps reduce risks, the person can work better under pressure. “If you think about it in financial terms, you are going to lose more if you don’t give your employees adequate attention.
EN: What advice would you give entrepreneurs to take care of their mental health?
AO:
1. “We are not robots, we have a mind and it is important to take care of it because all your potential will emerge from there. You can’t prioritize work if you really want to excel, you have to work on a personal level. “
2. “Allow yourself to fail. There is no reason to be so hard on ourselves. “
3. “We have to be flexible with ourselves and tell us today I want to rest and the world is not going to fall, sometimes we think that we do not deserve to rest because we feel guilty. We have to learn to give ourselves moments of relaxation to charge batteries and be able to continue working. “
4. “Disconnect a little every day because teleworking can dysregulate our sleep, among other physiological impacts. It is important to have moments of silence. “
