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8 Dimensions of Wellness

Shaz51Senior Contributor22 July 2021, 4:50 pm AEST

8 Dimensions of Wellness

I recently came across this graphic of the 8 dimensions of wellness and wondered if anyone would like to join me in discussion around these tackling one topic a week going clockwise starting with "Environmental"

@MDT, @Snowie , @Faith-and-Hope , @wellwellwellnez , @bipolarbunny , @BPDSurvivor , @outlander , @frog , @NatureLover , @jem80 , @ShiningStar , @Zoe7 , @Daisydreamer , @TideisTurning , @Former-Member , @Former-Member , @Former-Member . @Fizz , @HenryX and anyone who would like to join in xoxo

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In response to: 8 Dimensions of Wellness

Shaz51Senior Contributor07 Aug 2021, 2:30 pm AEST

Re: 8 Dimensions of Wellness

Today we move onto our next topic of Occupational wellness

Occupational wellness refers to the personal satisfaction and enrichment that is derived from ones work whilst maintaining a balance in our lives. Whilst we often think of occupational wellness in terms of paid employment, it can also apply to volunteer work and indeed to our caring roles.

Occupation wellness encompasses things like job satisfaction, healthy work environment, healthy work choices, job performance, productivity, efficiency, professionalism, job skills, job improvement, knowledge sharing, problem solving, accomplishment, appreciation, agency (perception of having control), companionship and pleasure.
There is an expected staff movement/ turnover in any organisation, some jobs are temporary in nature, examples include roles that are often filled by students (which can vary greatly from apprentices to medical interns, junior shop assistants to lab techs etc). There are also vacancies created by people moving up the corporate ladder or if someone was to get fired etc.

It is perhaps at looking at the reasons as to why people stay or leave jobs that gives a clearer picture as to what people see as important in relation to occupational wellness and most of this seems to revolve around various aspects of management or work culture.

Mediocre management encompasses a number of the top 10 reasons that people left their work in this article.

I have had only one new employer each time I have moved interstate with only one exception and on that occasion I left a company voluntarily because I was unhappy there. I was not really suited to the job as it was in a sales environment, however it was poor staff management decisions and the discomfort I felt with the widely known fact that the daughter of the business owner was stealing from the company that were the reasons I started looking for work elsewhere. In more recent times, following a corporate takeover, I was made redundant and subsequently became self employed with some regular contract work that an old boss helped me obtain.

In retrospect, I have really enjoyed most of the jobs I have hd and can see that the things that contributed to my job satisfaction are exactly those that are shown in the graphic – being appreciated, valued, given a variety of tasks and having had suggestions that I have offered being implemented. In more recent times and directly related to my caring role, flexibility has been an important factor.

Volunteering
Volunteer organisations have learned a lot from their paying counterparts are now providing more training or extending wellness programs to their unpaid workers. As there is no financial incentive for staying, "job satisfaction" is a key factor in keeping unpaid workers happy. There are challenges that come equally with volunteer work as they do in paid work and occupational wellness is no less important.

What if we work for ourselves or are not in paid employment?
Being self-employed along with our caring roles adds another aspect to occupational wellness and that being that the responsibility of this dimension falls squarely on ones own shoulders and it is important that we do not neglect this.

Improving our occupational wellness
How can we improve our occupational wellness? Whilst there are things that employers can and should do if they want to retain staff and maintain a happy work environment, we do need to take some responsibility for ourselves which could include taking advantage of in-house programs or doing what is necessary for us to find a more suitable job. For those of us who are self employed, who volunteer, who care, there are things that we can do too. Being self employed, some of the questions we can ask that will help us address this include - do we look at ways where we can work smarter not harder that will reduce effort or increase output and our job satisfaction? How do we go at problem solving? Do we recognise our own accomplishments? Do we ask for feedback from our clientele or the person we care for as to what we have done right or what we could do better? Are there training programs we could attend?

Finally, I will make brief comment in relation to employee wellness programs. Different to staff training or dedicated work safety programs, many companies these days provide employee wellness programs which often focus on workers physical/mental health and can include things like on-site gyms, smoking cessation programs, “parking” for push bikes, mini massages, yoga or other fitness classes, walking groups, stress management, opportunity for team participation in charity bike rides/ marathons etc and flu vaccinations. It is important to note that whilst these programs are helpful and enjoyable these can put the onus on the employee for occupational wellness and in some cases can lead to employee discrimination if they do not participate in popular programs, neither do they address the often-poor management that leads to employee dissatisfaction.