SELF CARE: THE ROLE AND INFLUENCE OF MENTAL HEALTH IN ONLINE WORK ENVIRONMENT

 Originally written to be part of my internship report 

As a requirement to opt to the Bachelors Degree in Modern Languages in the University of Los Andes

The issue of mental health has gained increasing relevance due to the important role it plays in a person both as an individual and as part of society; as well as the direct influence it has on their development and behavior within social systems such as work. In fact, Ginter et al (nd) state that stress in the work environment is quite common and it should not be neglected due to in many cases it can lead to consequences for mental health such as anxiety disorder and depression (para. 1 ) that could not only influence the emotional condition of the worker, but could also decrease the ability to concentrate on the activities and finally, reduce the productivity of the person. This supports the argument that a good mental state is something vital for the development of an individual in his/her professional life since it could enormously affect the performance of the person in the workplace. With this, depression currently represents a reality that many people have to deal with daily. In fact, in some environments depression tends to be more common than in others, among those, circumstances of political or economic tension tend to enhance more this type of underlying illness. As an exemplification, Rebecca Clay (2019) points to the current situation of Venezuela: “there’s a growing mental health crisis […] citing the frustration, stress, fear and despair brought on by insecurity, resource shortages and sociopolitical conflict.” (Para. 4). Thus as a marketing intern working remotely from home, here in Venezuela, I found myself as completely dependent on a non-reliable Internet connection along with the inherent disadvantages of living in the current Venezuelan context to be able to complete the assigned responsibilities of this position. With all this, the greatest difficulty to overcome during this challenging experience was not allowing aspects of underlying depression such as demotivation, difficulty of concentrating, frustration and surrounding obstacles define the quality of the work delivered. In addition, in this paper it will be taken into account the importance of taking care of mental health in the professional environment from the point of view of the experience of an intern.

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Demotivation and communication in the workplace

Demotivation is commonly listed as an effect of depression; it is described as a lack of interest in daily activities, even when they were activities you used to enjoy doing. Similarly, the Exploring Your Mind website in its article “What's behind demotivation” (2016) compares the demotivation with the snowball effect since by stopping constantly doing the designated activities they accumulate to the point of being impossible to catch up. Thus, in the workplace, demotivation has an important consequence. In fact, Hedges (2014) states that “lack of satisfaction and motivation costs us billions in lost productivity.” Therefore, at present it would be naïve to claim that personal matters do not affect working life.

As an intern, having motivation is a vital factor when maintaining the productivity standard that oneselves, as professionals, need to meet the assigned goals. In my experience on many occasions, demotivation as a side effect of depression hindered my performance in the moment of contacting possible clients and writing persuasive, light and friendly emails to start communicating and building a rapport with them. In this matter, I spent a considerable amount of the time trying to characterize a light, dynamic and interactive personality that in reality was not present. In other words, this lack of motivation delayed my process of writing and producing more than expected. Hence, in my opinion it was mandatory to solve the problem of demotivation before it permanently affected the development and image portrayed as a professional.

Consequently after researching the issue of demotivation in the work environment, it showed that one of the most common reasons for this phenomenon in young professionals is due to lack of communication regarding the form in which things needed to be done. This, creating a sense of disconnection and confusion regarding what goals are expected to be achieved. In that sense, due to the online format of the internships I was performing, almost all correspondence with the institutional supervisor was via email. For this reason, the communication was not as constant as it would be in a face-to-face internship. This situation generated the constant impression of not being clear about the goals that were required for me to achieve in the short and long term, which resulted in general demotivation and uncertainty about the quality of the work I had been sending to my superiors. Therefore, personal objectives to achieve were implemented in order to solve this situation. Moreover, a schedule of more regular correspondence with my superiors was established for us, as a work team, to improve our communication. In other words, planning weekly activities and monitoring my progress were important steps to take in solving the issue. Besides, the organization of my schedule helped in noticing the real progress of my tasks. I could realize, in more tangible forms, the status of the goals I had set for myself as an intern. All this created a motivating environment in which I felt in control of my achievements and looked forward to surpassing my previous goals.

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Difficulty in concentrating in the online workplace

If the aspect of demotivation plays an important role as a side effect of depression, difficulty in concentrating also competes among these factors that make the difference between a more or less productive labor. In fact, depression causes constant and important changes in the brain of people who suffer from it. As Healthline (n.d), states:

“The volume of the hippocampus shrinks, which affects attention span. The neural circuits also function differently. Multiple untreated episodes of depression usually increase the severity of the symptoms. These changes in the brain make it harder to focus when you’re depressed.” (para. 4).

With this, it is unlikely that issues in concentrating would not be reflected in working life. Theobald (2013), explains that the difficulty in focusing on specific aspects of working life can lead to misunderstandings or reduction in the person's productivity. Thus, he argues that "Comprehending what you are reading may become difficult, resulting in missed information from written instructions" (para. 7). According to this last point, This represented an important challenge during my internships since the job required me to be constantly alert and willing to help and dissipate doubts of current and possible clients via email.

As an online intern, the learning process was assisted and supervised by my institutional advisor. Still, I was mostly responsible for fulfilling the assigned tasks at a very flexible timeline. This versatility in my schedule, in combination with the persistent attention problems, made daily responsibilities a difficult challenge to complete since, in my situation, quick activities took longer to fulfill. On many occasions, due to lack of concentration, my tasks were postponed or remade until there was little time left for the deadline. In terms of productivity and results this could be a long-term consequence, since finishing the assignments with urgency would leave me with no time to review calmly and avoid errors that would not be noticed at first glance as in the case of specific information and procedures I was not familiar with.

For this reason, it was important to find and implement strategies to combat the situation before it was noticed and reflected in my work. Thus, making daily lists, schedules of the activities and prioritizing the ones that needed to be accomplished more urgently over the ones that were set to be done in longer term helped me avoid getting distracted and delaying the tasks that were needed to work harder on. Similarly, maintaining a specific time and place setting of work was significant in order to be more focused on the projects. Moreover, although the format of internships was online and hence required me to be constantly connected to the internet, the act of avoiding any network and application on my devices that were not directly related to work ensured my productivity and concentration. This stated, in my opinion, organization and awareness of my problem were the decisive steps that made the difference between succeeding and failing on work.

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Frustration and palpable limits: my great challenge in productivity.

Finally, it is important to mention a challenge that is not only part of the life of a person with a disorder of depression but also part of many people in different situations, especially those who begin in the workplace: general frustration. Berger (2005) defines it as "is an emotion that occurs in situations where a person is blocked from reaching a desired outcome." (Para. 2). This "block" or impediment of accomplishing things as we wish or hoped on many occasions becomes a sensation of anger. In some cases, this emotion is considered to be a poorly understood and studied aspect of depression and frustration even as it is importantly reflected in many aspects of the person's life.

In my experience dealing with demotivation and difficulty concentrating as constant interference to a desired professional performance, frustration became a persistent emotion since there were inflated standards that I had set for myself regarding the result that should be achieved and the amount of time it would take. This situation, in my opinion, emerged as counterproductive sinceI would not try to acknowledge the factual progress and achievements. With this, frustration by the perspective of utopian results made it impossible to understand the real progress of my work and locate my strengths in order to take advantage of them. In this form, one could argue that not acknowledging accomplishments disregarded the main reason as to why the experience of participating in professional practices is important for a student: that real field work includes constant setbacks and as professionals, it is necessity to have the ability to adapt our skills and expectations to different and not always pleasant situations.

With this, the best strategy to change this reaction to unpleasant results was to adopt another perspective. As Kane (2018) advises, “The key takeaway here is to modify the perception of stress and frustration to promote the development of resilience, the ability to handle whatever comes your way in the most effective manner.” In this sense, this involves not only accepting personal results, but also modifying one’s perspective in order to see another angle of the situation and thus leave room for a more dynamic improvement that is focused on strengths and how to improve them and not on personal weaknesses as limits and obstacles. In other words, concentrating on the aspects and skills that I exceeded and could use to contribute to the growth of the company and workplace helped me in understanding the higher value of improving constantly.

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The importance of taking care of mental health in the professional environment: my conclusions

With all this stated, it is safe to say that today, mental health care is important for a healthy and satisfying professional development. Some environments tend to be more prone than others to develop mental health problems such as in environments of high stress, tension, among others. However, although by general belief disorders such as depression seem more personal than something that involves working life, they could represent a large percentage of productivity losses in companies at a general level and at an individual level in a significant decrease in quality of work of the person. However, from the perspective of the intern it may not be as covered as it should considering the importance and influence it has on their general performance. Thus, on many occasions it could be considered that there is no direct or coherent connection between professional life and personal mental health care yet there is scientific evidence that lean towards the perspective that not taking care of mental health is a serious mistake in different senses.

In my opinion and experience, if the precautions and care are not taken into account, the quality of the results provided and the first experience in the field of work significantly affected. Thus, early awareness of the tools to deal with the setbacks of professional life in an effective and healthy way can be extremely beneficial. Finally, taking into consideration my experience as an intern, I could express that the work environment involves more than applying the knowledge and tools obtained during the course of the degree. Work life entails a complex mixture between technical knowledge and self awareness in order to balance ourselves as professionals and as healthy individuals.

References

Ginter et al. (n.d). Prioritizing Your Mental Health at Work. LearnHowToBecome.org. Retrieved from https://www.learnhowtobecome.org/career-resource-center/mental-health-at-work/

Clay, R. (2019). Despair in Venezuela. American Psychological Association. Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2019/01/venezuela

Exploring Your Mind (2016). What’s Behind Demotivation?. Retrieved from https://exploringyourmind.com/whats-behind-demotivation/

Healthline (n.d). MDD and Loss of Concentration. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/health/depression/managing-major-depressive-disorder/mdd-and-loss-of-concentration#1

Berger, V. (2005). Frustration. Psychologist Anywhere Anytime. Retrieved from https://www.psychologistanywhereanytime.com/emotional_problems_psychologist/pyschologist_frustration.htm

Kane, S. (2018). My Best Ways to Deal with Frustration. PsychCentral. Retrieved from https://psychcentral.com/lib/my-best-ways-to-deal-with-frustration/

Theobald, M. (2013). Depression, Memory Loss, and Concentration. Everyday Health. Retrieved from https://www.everydayhealth.com/hs/major-depression/depression-memory-loss-and-concentration/