Improve Well-Being in the Workplace with Mindfulness
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Toxic emotions disrupt the workplace, and mindfulness increases your awareness of these destructive patterns, helping you recognize them before they run rampant. It’s a way of reprogramming your mind to think in healthier, less stressful, ways.” – Drew Hansen
Work is very important for our health and well-being. We spend approximately 25% of our adult lives at work. How we spend that time is immensely important for our psychological and physical health. Indeed, the work environment has even become an important part of our social lives, with friendships and leisure time activities often attached to the work environment. But, more than half of employees in the U.S. and nearly 2/3 worldwide are unhappy at work. This is partially due to work-related stress which is epidemic in the western workplace. Almost two thirds of workers reporting high levels of stress at work. This stress can result in impaired health and can result in burnout; producing fatigue, cynicism, and professional inefficacy.
To help overcome unhappiness, stress, and burnout, mindfulness practices have been implemented in the workplace. Indeed, mindfulness practices have been shown to markedly reduce the physiological and psychological responses to stress. As a result, it has become very trendy for business to incorporate meditation into the workday to help improve employee well-being, health, and productivity. For example, Google offers “Search Inside Yourself” classes to teach mindfulness at work. But, although there is a lot of anecdotal evidence of meditation improving well-being and work performance, there is actually very little systematic research on its effectiveness.
In today’s Research News article “Acceptability, Feasibility, and Efficacy of a Workplace Mindfulness Program for Public Sector Employees: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial with Informant Reports.” (See summary below). Bartlett and colleagues performed a pilot study of mindfulness training effects on well-being in the workplace. They recruited adults employed in the public sector and assigned them to either receive a 5-week, 1.5 hours per week, mindfulness training, based upon Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program, tailored for the workplace, or self-help education program regarding workplace issues including coping with stress. The participants completed before and after training measures of mindfulness, observable mindfulness behaviors, perceived stress, psychological distress, health-related quality of life, sleep quality, job stressors, absenteeism and presenteeism, social functioning, and job demands and security.
They found that the mindfulness trained group had significant improvements, with moderate effect sizes, in mindfulness, perceived stress, psychological distress, health-related quality of life, and social functioning. They also reported significantly less absenteeism, presenteeism, and lost productive days. An analysis of the participants’ reports regarding their participation revealed that the mindfulness training produced improvements in relationships, attention, productivity, stress, emotional regulation, and vigor. Mediation analysis indicated that mindfulness mediated, wholly or in part, the effects of the training on well-being.
The results are impressive for a pilot study that did not have a large group of participants. Of course, a larger randomized controlled trial with an active control group is needed to conclusively demonstrate the benefits of mindfulness training. But, the results suggest that mindfulness training produces marked improvement in public sector employee physical and psychological well-being. Although, not measured, the results suggest that the mindfulness training would reduce workplace burnout and improve health and productivity.
So, improve well-being in the workplace with mindfulness.
“Mindful awareness is an extremely important business skill. It creates a solid foundation for all other Human Resources and Learning and Development initiatives, from sales training to leadership development. By first teaching teams to manage their attention, all other training is maximised. It’s a win-win for both employee and employer.” – Smiling Mind
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Bartlett, L., Lovell, P., Otahal, P., Sanderson, K. Acceptability, Feasibility, and Efficacy of a Workplace Mindfulness Program for Public Sector Employees: a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial with Informant Reports. Mindfulness (2017) 8: 639. doi:10.1007/s12671-016-0643-4
Abstract
Mindfulness training appears to reduce stress and distress, but little is known about whether it results in changes that can be observed by colleagues, family, or friends or its appropriateness as a workplace stress management intervention for a large and distributed public sector workforce. This study evaluated a pilot 5-week Mindfulness at Work Program (MaWP) for acceptability, feasibility, and efficacy in relation to stress and related mental health and productivity problems for public sector employees. A parallel group randomized controlled trial compared the MaWP intervention (n = 20) with an information-only control (n = 100). Exploratory qualitative and quantitative methods were used to assess changes observed by informants (n = 63). Results suggest a high degree of acceptability, although location and inflexible work schedules presented feasibility obstacles. Compared with the control, the primary outcome of mindfulness improved for MaWP participants (d = 0.57, p < 0.001), as did perceived stress (d = 0.97, p < 0.001), psychological distress (d = 0.61, p < 0.001), health-related quality of life (d = 0.51, p = 0.002), and social functioning (d = 0.08, p = 0.019). All secondary outcomes were at least partly mediated by changes in mindfulness. The intervention thus appears to have potential merit as a workplace intervention for public sector employees across a range of outcomes. Obtaining informant observations was feasible and while qualitative analyses indicated positive changes that supported self-reported outcomes, quantitative analyses returned ambiguous results. A seven-item scale adapted from a popular self-report mindfulness scale for use by informants showed promise, but further work is needed to establish validity, reliability, and scalability of this method of assessing observable changes following mindfulness training.