The employees of the media are prone to tremendous stress due to the nature of its work with endless news cycle.
Workplace wellbeing is defined as the conducive qualities of physical and mental/emotional conditions of a workplace. The physical aspects include the ergonomic comfort of a workplace. While the mental/emotional wellbeing means the qualities of having a nurturing, empowering and conducive condition for employees to discharge their duties and responsibilities effectively and productively. The leader(s) of the workplace should be setting the right tone for the workplace to be the place of empowerment, nurturing and trustworthy for employees to reach their fullest potential.
With the backdrop of pandemic, there is a heightened awareness on the mental health and wellbeing of employees. The nature of the media industry is such that it always searches for the next stories to be published, and with the endless news cycle coming in regardless of the hours of the day. Hence, the employees of the media industry is prone to tremendous stress.
“One of the ways to manage this stress and burn-out of employees is about the people and workforce management,” said Lynda Williams. “It is important for employers to let their employees to have proper rest so that they can be the best version of themselves,” added Lynda Williams.
“While physical burn-out is easy to be solved by just reducing the hours of work. One needs to examine oneself that self-identity is not tied with work validation,” said Grace Yeoh, the senior journalist of CNA Digital. “One should not take up excessive amount of workload just to please everyone,” she added. This is the unhealthy validation for self-identity.
“Try to switch off the devices when one is resting and let their mind be totally free from the thinking about the work,” said Tan Shiow Chin of the Star, deputy editor for Health section.
“It is important to manage expectation of employees, the public relations professionals and clients,” commented Lynda Williams on juggling stress from different parties.
In past 2 years during the pandemic, there was a blurred line for work-life balance and work-life integration especially most people were working from home. While everyone has a different definition of work-life balance, as leaders of a company or human resource department should be asking their employees the questions like, what is important for your team? How can we help for you to achieve the work-life balance? Tailor team activities and program that will help your team to de-stress as well as to help them alleviating re-entry blues as more and more employees are back to work.
“Giving the benefit such as medical claim for mental health to employees. As leaders of the companies, they should convey the message that it is normal in life to have ups and downs hence the need for mental counselling,” said Lynda Williams. Do not discriminate those who need such help in difficult times.
“Having a strong conviction and sense of mission in one’s work or job would always help people to cope better with workplace stress and burn-out,” suggested Rex Remitio, the correspondent of CNN Philippines. At the end of tired working day, it is crucial to practise mindfulness and being kind with oneself. Release stress by practising deep-breathing or just have quiet time for oneself. Soaking oneself in nature and sensory aromatics may also help to take the stress off your head. Sharing with friends over a drink or two and exercises are great ways to coping with stress effectively too.
