Gen Z’s Impact on Mental Health and Work-Life Balance in The Modern Workplace

Gen Z is transforming workplace culture by prioritizing mental health over traditional career markers, treating wellbeing as a non-negotiable requirement rather than a perk. Zoomers are much more informed about health and wellbeing issues and research shows they prioritise it. Mental health expert Noel McDermott looks at what we can learn from this generation and we can protect and prioritise our mental health in the workplace.

Noel comments:

“There is a generational issue here and Gen Z in particular are leading the way with these issues. We used to talk about feminising the workforce but then noticed that women were getting the same industrial diseases as their male counterparts so it wasn’t an issue about gender but about culture.

“In some ways as the boomer promises have not been passed down to the Gen Z generation they have had to live more for now rather than the promise of a well cared for retirement. And indeed that makes more sense. The move into workpreneurism involving a career spanning multiple companies and even industries has brought to stark relief the issue of quality of work life. Any workplace wanting to attract this generation needs to take these issues seriously. This is the generation that doesn’t expect you to give it all to them but will go and get it for themselves. Tapping into that energy as a smart employer means learning from them and transforming the work environment”.

Protect your mental health

Prevention is better than cure is an oft repeated truism and with the examples of Manon Bannerman taking a break from Katseyes, Alysa Lui retiring then coming back to her sport, Emma Raducanu publicly putting her health and mental health first before ’success’ we may be seeing this being applied at elite levels. This can provide an example to us all. All three women have other issues in common such as the misogynist death threats and racism aimed at them. All three have chosen to ensure they put their health and wellbeing before other considerations. And certainly in Emma and Alysa’s case they have clearly done the right thing and come back stronger. One hopes for the best for Manon and applaud her decision to ensure her health is protected.

Prioritising mental health

It’s maybe instructive for all of us to protect what money can’t buy, which is our mental health and wellbeing. And whilst poverty doesn’t help success at any cost is hopefully being consigned to the dustbin. Success as a concept is being reformed and as a society we are moving to a more holistic definition which moves beyond simply picking up the mantle of previous generations’ industrial diseases such as alcohol misuse or mental illness and an acceptable outcome for a successful career.

Helping staff to become ambassadors

Thinking about work and making it more person friendly is the same. We have a predictable set of mostly male commentators predicting the end of days for work as ‘snoflakism’ avalanches over hard work. All evidence points to the opposite though. As smart employers have adopted flexible working, healthier work life boundaries, support for health and wellbeing initiatives we find productivity increases, absenteeism drops. There is also a shift from deficit systems to asset systems. Investing in staff wellbeing and supporting time off, EAP etc encourages other staff to seek help sooner. The staff you help become ambassadors and role models of help seeking as they are more likely to stay in the job rather than leave. The earlier a person seeks help for any health issues the easier it is to treat and the less likely it is to recur. Unhealthy behaviours that require HR intervention emerge sooner in workplaces that emphasise health and wellbeing.

Highlight the success stories

So what can we do? The single most effective tool that costs very little is to highlight the success stories. Asking staff and leaders to share their stories of help seeking, of taking a break to care for themselves is evidenced to encourage copying. Highlighting the stories above through staff journals for example is a great way to set the cultural tone of health staff means healthy business. Have lunch time lectures of people with lived experience of prioritising health and through that success. Wellbeing and health produce success; they are not things to be sacrificed for it.

Key Mental Health Tips Outside The Workplace

Connections to others – strong networks of engaged, loving and supportive people in our lives is an absolute must, prosocial activity and activity in groups is highly rewarding neurologically. Networks form on the basis of an overlap of shared values, purpose (activities, interests) and proximity. Proximity is often the key feature in developing friendships for example, so look local for these opportunities!
Active lifestyle – the single biggest health improvement you can make is to have regular exercise, ideally 3 times a week for 20 minutes, raising your heartbeat is what you want to aim for, anymore and that’s a bonus! Getting out, being active, participating in sports activities maintain overall health and wellbeing. High intensity activities such as this as well as HIIT help manage stress hormone build up. Stress hormones have a huge negative impact on mental health.

Improve your diet – having a healthy balanced diet contributes massively to a healthy mind and body. Try to reduce processed foods, eat a mix of 80-20 vegetables and fruit to meat, control portion size and reduce sugar.

Practice good sleep hygiene – this is essential to healthy living. Sleep deprivation is a form of torture due to the psychological consequences of missing REM sleep cycles. So, work together to practice good hygiene in your sleep habits; don’t drink stimulants at night, exercise, have a simple and regular bedtime routine, reduce blue screen activity at night and don’t use your phones in bed.

DOSE yourself up! Dopamine, oxytocin, serotonin, endorphins are reward hormones that promote health and wellbeing and engaging in activities that promote these will make life much more pleasant and rewarding. Some of these hormones you will get from the lifestyle medicine suggestions, endorphins come from exercise for example but using the DOSE mnemonic you can get more bang for your buck, for example, if you start running outside you will get extra serotonin hormones for free. So, learning your DOSE activities really can pay off hugely.

Noel comments:

“As we live longer, who really wants to have an older age with little to no quality of life? Let’s learn from our younger counterparts and achieve a better mental health and work life balance by protecting and prioritise our mental health in the workplace and at home.”