A Supportive Environment is Necessary for Mindfulness to Lower Stress and Increase Well-Being at Work
By John M. de Castro, Ph.D.
“Mindfulness is not about living life in slow motion. It’s about enhancing focus and awareness both in work and in life. It’s about stripping away distractions and staying on track with individual, as well as organizational, goals.” – Rasmus Hougaard
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, social, and physical health. But, nearly 2/3 of employees 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. These programs attempt to increase the employees’ mindfulness at work and thereby reduce stress. The research is accumulating. So, it makes sense to step back and summarize what has been learned.
In today’s Research News article “Mindfulness-based programmes to reduce stress and enhance well-being at work: a realist review” (See summary below or view the full text of the study at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7986896/ ) Micklitz and colleagues review and summarize the published research on the effectiveness of mindfulness training to improve the psychological well-being of employees. They identified 75 published research studies.
They report that the published research found that mindfulness-based programs in the workplace significantly reduce employee stress and improve well-being. They report that these benefits appear to occur as a result of mindfulness training producing increases in awareness, self-regulation, acceptance, compassion, permission for self-care, growth, and goal attainment. But, in order for this to work, the employees must feel comfortable sharing with peers their emotional difficulties, see that the program aligns with existing goals and practices, and be comfortable with a potential loss of productivity during training.
These findings suggest that mindfulness training at work can be effective in improving the employee’s ability to cope with stress and thereby improve their well-being. But a supportive environment must be present in order for the benefits to occur. These include managements acceptance of the program, employees seeing it as management caring for their well-being, and the programs alignment with the employee’s aspirations.
So, a supportive environment is necessary for mindfulness to lower stress and increase well-being at work.
“When we constantly flit from one task to another, the quality of our work can suffer. By practicing mindfulness — simply coming back to the present moment over and over again — we can train ourselves to become more focused.” – David Gelles
CMCS – Center for Mindfulness and Contemplative Studies
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Study Summary
Micklitz, K., Wong, G., & Howick, J. (2021). Mindfulness-based programmes to reduce stress and enhance well-being at work: a realist review. BMJ open, 11(3), e043525. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-043525
Abstract
Objectives
To understand how and why workplace mindfulness-based programmes (MBPs) work or do not work.
Design
A realist review.
Eligibility criteria for selection
We considered any studies (experimental quasi-experimental, observational, qualitative and mixed-methods studies) of workplace MBPs as long as they provided data to explain our programme theories. All MBP formats and delivery modes were included.
Analysis
Consistent with realist review methodology, we systematically screened and analysed data to explain how and why workplace MBPs work or do not work. These explanations were consolidated into a programme theory augmented by theories from organisational literature, such as conservation of resources theory.
Results
Findings from 75 primary studies suggest that workplace MBPs enable participants (including healthcare professionals) to deal more skillfully with stressful events and improve their well-being. The mechanisms involved can be grouped around awareness/self-regulation, acceptance/compassion, feeling permitted to take care of self, sense of growth and promise of goal attainment. In order for professionals to invest in an MBP and benefit from it, it is important that they feel safe to engage with self-care at work and share emotional difficulties among peers. It is also important that employees are able to link the programme and its activities to existing goals and practices. Concerns of being non-productive, of not getting work done or of being exposed in front of colleagues can result in strategic use of brief mindfulness exercises, non-adherence or drop-out.
Conclusions
Simply offering an MBP to (healthcare) professionals in order to reduce stress and enhance well-being does not suffice. A supportive environment must exist in order for the programme’s benefits to be reaped.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7986896/