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Healthy Environment

No not just the environment at large, but your office environment. Is this a healthy place to work?

Some Back Story

A healthy working environment wasn't something I ever really thought about beyond it being safe. Safety is healthy.


…Or is it?

Yes, it is healthy as far as safety committees are quite typically concerned, no one at work is going to get hurt or sick. Now, what about the mental and emotional well being of a healthy environment?

This is sadly often overlooked as a safety and health concern. This may have something to do with labour markets still being stuck in the industrial age of operations. ”Suck it up at least you have a job to miserable at” kind of mentality.

There have been quite a few places in which I've worked that we're only concerned with the bottom line and getting every drop out of the employee without even considering what the employee may need. Some of the costs that were endured by employees were ridiculous work schedules; 11 pm-7 am or 12 am-5 am, and insane workloads without any letting up and the better you were the more work you had.


So what? Nothing can be done!

Well, that's not true things can be done. There are a plethora of things that can and should probably be done to make sure you are truly getting the best from your people, and creating a healthier work environment for everyone.


A healthier work environment doesn’t consist of just positive vibes and smiling all the time. This isn’t something that’ll change the environment, as a matter of fact, it can make it worse as people are trying to force something they aren’t feeling. So what can be done to create a healthy environment?


One of the most difficult ways is to figure out the environment is to check out whether employees are happy where they are at, and figure out if the position they are in the nest for them or not. The reason this can be more difficult is it requires a deeper and more complex conversation with people, and then trying to find out where the best fit is for them, or if there is one; maybe one has to be created, or if there is one somewhere see if they are available to transfer. Perhaps this is a promotion that isn't going to their liking and they preferred the previous position in they were in before. Would they be willing to take demotion? Probably, but they may not want the pay cut that could come with it, and that is something that may need to be fixed as well.


The other thing that can be more difficult to fix is workload expectations. Some of the workload is related to not enough people hired either due to space issues, or budget issues. These are fairly common reasons and are difficult to overcome. For the extra person to help alleviate the workload can be done with temporary workers or temps. They don't always require a lot of extra training they may require some access and hopefully, they have been placed in your type of work environment before. They can have the tasks that aren't time-consuming but need to be taken care of. This can be pretty tricky to accomplish though especially if you are located in a smaller community.


So with being in a smaller community how do you get a better environment for work if you don't have the resources that bigger areas have? Workload may be an issue; however, you can do other things to make sure the work environment is healthy. So what is it that can be done?


Well, a couple of ideas is springing for lunch on Monday afternoons, or perhaps one on one lunches so you can get to the people you are working with a more intimate light (Not like that sicko). I read one idea which was pretty awesome which was rewarding the employee who had the biggest improvement in an area with free parking or paying their parking for a month or year. Some times it is the small things that can help you build a healthier environment.


So let us make a pact to find ways to help make our work a healthier and friendlier place to work. I would love to hear some of your ideas in the comments below.


Thank you for reading, I hope you have enjoyed this article as much as I have enjoyed writing it for you. To show your appreciation please feel free to like, share, and comment.


Ride Hard, and Live Long.


Sincerely,

Rob Hicks


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