6 Things To Do If Your Job Is Harming Your Mental Health

At work, many of us often struggle in silence. We take on as much work as we possibly can, often pushing ourselves beyond our limits because we want to impress our boss, get a promotion and possibly get a salary raise. We all want a promising career. Yes, it is commendable to work hard for your goals. Yes, it is admirable to strive for something you want to achieve. And yes, only you can make your life better through perseverance, BUT never at the expense of your mental health and well being. In this episode of On Purpose, Jay Shetty shares tips on how you can identify when your mental health is at risk and how to get out of it without losing your job. Sama Tea is now available! Go to http://samatea.com/onpurpose to order a box of Sama now and get access to our free live monthly tea parties, be the first to try out new tea flavors and receive a free exclusive download that shows my personal routine and rituals. Key Takeaways: 00:00 Intro 01:05 When your job is harming your mental health 07:00 Step #1: Become aware of how your work affects you well-being 10:21 Two big mistakes entrepreneurs make 13:03 Step #2: If you’re in an atmosphere you feel that is toxic 17:55 Step #3: Become a mental health ambassador 20:35 Step #4: Take the time off if you need it 21:16 Step #5: Being careful about how much you take on 22:28 Step #6: Make sure that you speak to someone Like this show? Please leave us a review here - even one sentence helps! Post a screenshot of you listening on Instagram & tag us so we can thank you personally! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by AG1. Are you feeling September reset too? Shorter days, longer to-do lists, earlier alarms, all those routines you promised yourself you'd pick back up. It can feel like your whole life is recalibrating. And when everything around you is changing, it helps to have a few things you can rely on. AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet,

• 0:44Jay Shetty?

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• 1:29Jay Shetty?

  AG1 Next Gen is one of those easy habits to keep. It's the clinically-backed, comprehensive daily health drink that supports your gut health, energy production, and foundational nutrition all in one scoop. AG1's ingredients are sourced from quality partners for absorption, potency, and nutrient density to deliver the foundational nutrition your body needs. And alongside a proper diet, AG1 Next Gen meets 94% of nutrient requirements and it's clinically shown to enrich the gut microbiome. For a limited time, save 20% on your first subscription order of AG1 Next Gen or AG1 Pro at drinkag1.com/onpurpose. That's drinkag1.com/onpurpose.

• 2:16Jay Shetty?

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• 3:00Jay Shetty?

  Give your clothes a second life with Vinted. Download the Vinted app for free to start selling with no seller fees, so you keep every dollar you earn. Knowing that you have more options than the place you're in right now can give you such a sense of security, knowing that, hey, even if things go wrong here, I have plenty of other places I could go. And often what we do is we become so artificially tied to where we are that we feel guilty for doing that. But the truth is that your work could tell you tomorrow that they no longer need your services and not feel any guilt at all.

• 3:41Jay Shetty?

  Hey, everyone, how are you doing? Welcome back to Unpurpose, the number one health podcast in the world. Thanks to each and every single one of you. And I am so happy, so excited that we're getting to connect today because this is a subject that I think so many people have been struggling with recently. And it's stress, pressure, or any sort of mental weight or overwhelm that you're feeling because of work.

• 4:14Jay Shetty?

  So when your job is harming your mental health, or when your work is harming your mental health, what do you do? Now, I read some really fascinating statistics about mental health and work on stress.org. And it talks about how 83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress. Now, listen to this. US businesses lose up to $300 billion yearly as a result of workplace stress. Stress causes around 1 million workers to miss work every single day. Only 43% of US employees think their employers care about their work-life balance.

• 4:59Jay Shetty?

  Now, I'm sure that induces a lot of stress. Just reading that, that only 43% of you think that your employer cares about your work-life balance. And depression leads to $51 billion in cost due to absenteeism, and $26 billion in treatment costs. Work-related stress causes 120,000 deaths and results in $190 billion in healthcare costs yearly. Wow. The reason I'm showing this to you is not to depress you, it's not to bring you down. It's to make you aware of how seriously we have to take this. You wouldn't fall over,

• 5:44Jay Shetty?

  break your ankle or break your leg, and continue walking on it, day after day after day, thinking that it wasn't important, or that it was normal, or that it would be okay. You just wouldn't do that. Right? If you were physically injured, God forbid, but if you were physically injured, I'm sure you would take time off work. I'm sure you would adapt your schedule. I'm sure you'd have conversations to find a better balance. But it's incredible how, because we can't see our mental health, we let it pass by. Because it's not obvious to us and obvious to the people around us, we let it go.

• 6:26Jay Shetty?

  Fifty-five percent of Americans are stressed during the day, right?

• 6:32Jay Shetty?

  And this is twenty percent higher than the world average. So this is something to take seriously. Now, whether you work for yourself or whether you work for a company, this still applies to you because your work can still cause you stress. Sometimes entrepreneurs, their work causes them more stress because there's no clear lines between when work starts and when finishes. Right? If you work for yourself, even like I do, there is no start time and end time. There is no clear boundary between what's workspace and what's home space. Often, I'm making videos and creating content in my home space. So this applies to each and every single one of us. I don't want you to take this lightly. I'm going to be sharing some really useful insights with you about how to think about this.

• 7:15Jay Shetty?

  So there are two people who recently had to do this on the world stage. They had to speak openly about what they were experiencing. Now, one of the people I'm speaking about is Naomi Osaka, right? And I'm sure that whether you follow tennis or not, she opened up about prioritizing her mental health during the French Open. And that was such an incredible approach and honest, vulnerable way of sharing what she was going through and how she was struggling with it. And she talked about in an interview with Women's Health, she said, "Growing up, being labeled the quiet one,

• 7:58Jay Shetty?

  puts you in a box and even worse, makes you stand out when all you want is to blend in. But now I try to embrace and own it." And she chose to share her intention to step away from traditional press obligations on her Instagram, where she has 2.8 million followers. And in this interview with Women's Health, she goes on to say, "Of all the things I do, I find that when I'm doing my best to help others, it's the most fulfilling." And so it's incredible that she took that stance, that she wasn't going to do traditional press because she didn't find it to be good for her mental health. Now, another great example is Simone Biles. And I'm sure that you've been following

• 8:42Jay Shetty?

  or whether you watched the Olympics or not, this was such big news when it happened. And you know, Time Magazine talked about how the Tokyo Olympics changed the conversation about mental health. And it's incredible to see someone who decided not to participate because they didn't feel well. Now, when you think about these examples, they are huge for the conversation on mental health. They are absolutely huge. Why? Because we're seeing people who had never been allowed to pull out, or would have felt ashamed to pull out, or would have felt like they were doing something wrong, who actually did it when the whole world was watching. And guess what? They got criticized for it. There were people who didn't agree with them. There were people who laughed. There were people who called them weak.

• 9:25Jay Shetty?

  But there were also so many people who understood their strength. There were so many people who recognized just how incredible these individuals were. And so for you, I really want you to think about this when approaching this podcast. I know it's hard. I know it's not easy. I know that you feel like everyone will judge you and they won't be able to understand you properly, or they'll think you're weak. But I want you to recognize that ignoring how you feel will only make you weaker. Remember that. Ignoring how you feel will only make you weaker. So what I want to share with you today is a few methods of what to do when your job is harming your mental health.

• 10:09Jay Shetty?

  The first thing you want to do is become aware of how your work affects your mental health. How your work affects your well-being. How your work has an impact on how you feel. One of the first things is job security. Or one of the biggest reasons for our mental health challenges at work is because of our insecurity about what we do. Maybe you're scared that you get fired. Maybe you're scared that you'll be made redundant. Maybe you're scared that opportunities are gonna run out. Maybe you're scared that this sponsor or partnership you were waiting for is not gonna fall through. And let me tell you right now, those are all really valid concerns.

• 10:52Jay Shetty?

  I remember when I worked at a company, I had that insecurity. What if I don't perform? What if I don't get promoted? What if someone does, gets promoted before me? And I realized when I started working for myself, that scarcity came with me. It was the idea of, well, what if I don't get that partnership? What if my content doesn't get views? What if this doesn't work? How many of you can relate to that? How many of you really, really resonate with that? So the lack of security, whether you work for someone and get paid a salary or whether you work for yourself, is real. What do you do about it? What do you do about it? I found that one of the things that helped me when I was working at a corporate firm in the, in the city,

• 11:36Jay Shetty?

  was having a really up-to-date LinkedIn profile. I would update my LinkedIn profile with all my recent experience, recent projects, with an updated picture, and I would do this every quarter. So what you realize is when you update your LinkedIn profile and keep it up-to-date, you will get an influx of job offers. It will happen to you. If you keep your LinkedIn profile active and up-to-date and you're commenting, maybe you're even writing an article once in a while or you're uploading a picture of something that happened at work, you are going to constantly have an influx of recruiters interested in you. This is going to give you a peace of mind like never before.

• 12:18Jay Shetty?

  Knowing that you have more options than the place you're in right now can give you such a sense of security, knowing that, hey, even if things go wrong here, I have plenty of other places I could go. And often what we do is we become so artificially tied to where we are that we feel guilty for doing that. But the truth is that your work could tell you tomorrow that they no longer need your services and not feel any guilt at all. And all you're doing is making sure that you're presenting yourself effectively to the outside world so that people can always be interested in you and aware of the work that you do. So when you're worried about the security,

• 13:00Jay Shetty?

  when you're worried about the feeling or experience of, is this gonna last forever? Remember to keep your options open. When you're an entrepreneur, I was speaking to a friend the other day. He's a coach and he closed a corporate client. And the corporate client was closed for a really good fee and he was really excited about it. And I said to him, what I want you to do now is use this momentum and go and close five more clients. Go and close five more at the same rate. I said to him, there are two big mistakes entrepreneurs make when it comes to security. And I'm going to share them all with you right now, those two right now. The first mistake is that they only have one landmark client.

• 13:44Jay Shetty?

  They only have one big client. So let's say you're a speaker or a coach, you only have one big corporate client. Let's say you are a website designer, you only have one big client. You're a photographer, you only have one big client. When you only have one big client, you run the risk of that person closing down, that person going bankrupt, that person losing their money, that company finding a new agency. You're setting yourself up to fail. And yes, you may say, I wish people were more loyal, I wish people cared more. But the truth is, that's just not how it works. So you want to make sure that you are going out and repeating that work for other clients.

• 14:23Jay Shetty?

  The second mistake that entrepreneurs make is they only know one person at their client. One of the biggest things I've learned is that when I have a client relationship, I need to know multiple people that work at their company because you never know when your client will leave. You never know when that person may move on and do something else. You won't know if that person may take maternity leave or paternity leave. You just have no idea. And so it is so important that you connect with at least four people with clients that you work for, even if the client is your best friend and closest person, no matter what it is. Security is a big reason why we feel like our work drains us and harms our mental health.

• 15:07Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. I know how important every hire is for a business. If you need to make the right hire, this is a job for sponsored jobs. Indeed sponsored jobs helps find quality candidates when you need the most. You can reach who you need based on whatever criteria you're looking for, like skills, certifications, or location. In fact, people are finding quality hires on Indeed right now. In the minute I've been talking to you, companies like yours made 27 hires on Indeed. According to Indeed data. Worldwide. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast.

• 15:50Jay Shetty?

  That's indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. We talk a lot about intentional decision making and that extends to the practical stuff too, like making sure your coverage actually works for your life. State Farm is there to meet you where you are and they know how sweet it is to feel good about your decisions. Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with a personal price plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings and eligibility vary by state.

• 16:33Jay Shetty?

  This episode is brought to you by Whole Foods Market. If you're talking about quality food, you can't forget Whole Foods Market, who've been holding themselves to the highest standards since they opened in 1980. That means you'll see thousands of organic products across their stores from the produce department to the aisles. It also means you'll never see certain ingredients. They've banned artificial sweeteners and colors, high fructose corn syrup and more, so you can shop with peace of mind. Shop Whole Foods Market in-store or online. The other thing to be aware of is maybe you haven't been on vacation in a while. Maybe it's been a long, long time since you actually took a break.

• 17:15Jay Shetty?

  I want you to take a moment to count the amount of days that you have been to work without taking an official vacation. Studies show that more than half of Americans don't use all of their paid vacation days according to an annual report from the U.S. Travel Association, right? And the reason they don't take time off is because they're worried about work and they're worried that all they're going to do on their time off is worry about work. And so this may be your case. You may be someone who hasn't taken leave or vacation because you're worried about thinking about work on vacation. Well, here's the thing. Work will continue. It will always exist. There will always be a reason that you think you don't have time to take vacation.

• 18:00Jay Shetty?

  And the truth is, the world is not going to end. Nothing is going to be that bad if you take some good quality time for yourself. And you'll come back more productive, more effective and more creative, that you'll be able to catch up in no time. Now, another way to be aware of if our work is harmful to our mental health is if you're in an atmosphere that you feel is toxic. There's a lot of blame, if there's a lot of gossip, that can be a really, really difficult environment to work in. Because you may be sitting there going, Jay, I don't even know why I'm feeling this way, but now you're like, ah, that's what it is. There's a lot of negativity around me. If that's the truth for you, I really recommend that you speak to a boss, speak to a manager and share that with them.

• 18:41Jay Shetty?

  I know people on my team will share with me if they're encountering that with a particular team member or anything around us that's going on. I would encourage you to do that, to speak to someone openly, to speak to someone vulnerably, to connect with someone that you trust at work, who can hear you out. So that is the first thing you need to do if your job is harming your mental health, is become aware of how. Because if you're not aware of how, you can't find a solution. If you're not aware that you feel insecure about your job, you won't find ways to become secure. If you're not aware that you haven't taken vacation for a long time, you will forget that. The second thing you have to ask yourself is, is it truly your work?

• 19:24Jay Shetty?

  This is a really, really important question to ask. Is it truly your work? Sometimes it's our sleep schedule. Sometimes it's something happening in our personal life. Sometimes it's because we haven't been training or growing or learning or becoming better, and that's why our work's affecting us. So don't make your work the scapegoat. Don't make your work the blame, just as you don't want to be blamed at things that you don't do at work. You don't want work to just take the blame when actually it's something you could control. Maybe you've been hustling really hard on weekends or partying really hard on weekends and then your work feels like a drag. So in that scenario... You have to identify, is it your sleep routine? Is it your diet?

• 20:08Jay Shetty?

  Is it something that you've changed in your life? How can you improve that? How can you adjust or edit that? So that you're no longer in that situation? And you're no longer challenged or faced with the idea? Sometimes work becoming a scapegoat, work becoming the person or place we make responsible and blame for our feeling, actually stops us from dealing with what it actually is. Let's say it's actually a sleep routine and you keep blaming work, it could take months before you realise. Whereas if you just be honest with yourself and you say, you know what, it's just my sleep schedule needs to change. I realised recently, sleep was a big one for me and work. And also, it was the fact that I'd been working around six and a half days a week,

• 20:52Jay Shetty?

  and I realised I really needed a two-day weekend. I really needed to start taking a full two-day weekend. So it wasn't work, it was the fact that I wasn't allowing myself to rest. And it's so important to honour that two-day weekend. Now, if you're in that build phase where you're building your passion or you're hustling, your weekend may be compromised. But as you're growing, you want to start taking that weekend back to be truly being rest and refuel. And a lot of things that we can do for rest and refuel are not things we expect. I used to think that rest and refuel meant a massage or a spa. And I've realised that rest and refuel really means getting a cold plunge and doing an infrared sauna.

• 21:33Jay Shetty?

  Now, I'll be honest with you, every week before I go to do that, my mind is saying, Jay, you don't want to do that, you want something more relaxing, it's hard work. And I've realised that if I choose anything else, like let's say I choose a brunch, let's say I choose eating a nice brunch, right? Or let's say I choose going to get that spa, massage, or whatever it is, it never affects me the same. A hike, followed by infrared sauna and a cold plunge, does more for me mentally and physically. So make sure what you're doing to rest and refuel is actually doing just that. We have to start training like an athlete. We have to start thinking of ourselves like an athlete. I was speaking to a friend recently, and he works in an extremely stressful career.

• 22:16Jay Shetty?

  And his career means he's often working around the clock. And I said to him, you know, you're working as hard as some of the top athletes in the world, but you're not treating yourself like an athlete. You're not making sure you have a meal plan. You're not making sure that you have an exercise plan. Like you're not taking care of yourself to the degree of stress you have to deal with. You'll be surprised as to how much stress the human mind can take on when you feel prepared and when you feel connected, as opposed to when you just keep taking more and more stress on, but you're not really truly aware. So I want you to start treating yourself like an athlete and training yourself like an athlete

• 23:00Jay Shetty?

  when it comes to thinking about what is really affecting your mental health. The third is become an ambassador for mental health in the workplace. The workplace needs more mental health ambassadors. The workplace needs individuals like you to advocate for others. And I recently have been doing so many internal keynotes and events with corporations where one of you has seen one of my videos, one of you has heard one of my podcasts, one of you has seen one of my interviews on the Today Show or wherever it is, and you've said to your company that we need to focus on our mental health.

• 23:40Jay Shetty?

  Sometimes I've even come into your organizations to give the keynote and presentation because of that. And that's what I've found so fascinating, that it is people like you inside a company that can advocate for mental health. When I worked at Accenture, I was one of those people. And I started Meditation Mondays, I started afternoon, evening, lunch meditation sessions. It was my way of trying to help my friends and advocate and support them. And to be able to share what I knew about this space. We would even invite experts and psychologists and teachers into the space. So I want you to really consider that. How can you become a mental health ambassador at work? How can you take on the mantle? You may be feeling like your company doesn't care.

• 24:24Jay Shetty?

  You may be feeling like the people around you don't care. How can you show that you care? How can you take that step and make a difference in the workplace based on the experience that you've been having? One of the reasons why we feel a lot of mental health challenges at work is because we compare ourselves to others. But just as on Instagram, you compare yourself to people's highlight reels. At work, you're just comparing yourself to how someone appears. You're comparing yourself to how they look. You're comparing yourself to the suit they wear. You're comparing yourself to their performance. You have no idea what's happening in their personal life. And the truth is, when something does happen in their personal life, you go, "Oh yeah, they always work too hard and look what happened in their personal life."

• 25:08Jay Shetty?

  But that's not what we need to do. We don't need to criticize. We don't need to compare. We need to check in with ourselves and say, "What is my capacity? What capacity do I want to have? What results do I want to have? And what capacity does that demand?" Right? Like, I know that there have been times in my life where I have burned the candle at both ends, but I've done it consciously. I've known that I'm going after a certain goal and result, and I'm ready to do it. And there have been times in my life where I've totally stepped back and taken a break and just accepted that that isn't the pace I want to work at. And so the fourth step is take the time off if you need it. Don't be afraid to take time off.

• 25:53Jay Shetty?

  I think so many people are scared of doing that, but actually, sometimes that's the only answer. It's totally okay. It's totally valid. And it gives you the time and space to figure out whether it's the job, whether it's you, whether you can handle it or not. And that space can actually give you the distance you need to make a healthier decision. Right? The distance can help you make a healthier decision. You don't have to quit. Now, the fifth step is being careful about how much you take on. And the way you do this is when you're asked to take something new on,

• 26:37Jay Shetty?

  speak to your manager and say, "Hey, this is what I'm working on right now. Where does this sit in the priority list?" And they may even say, "Oh, I didn't realize you had so much on. Okay, I'll find someone else to do that." Or they may say, "Oh, it's number three. Don't worry about it." The mistake you make when you accept responsibility without priority is that you set yourself up. For misery, right? Never take on responsibility without knowing its priority. And making someone aware of all your other responsibilities. By the way, this even applies at home. This even applies with your partner. Making them aware and being aware. And sometimes you're not even aware of how many things you do. Literally take a moment to write down everything you do professionally

• 27:21Jay Shetty?

  and everything you do personally right now. And when you next speak to someone, you don't have to read it with bitterness. You have to share. By the way, I just want you to know I'm doing all of this stuff. I'm not sure I can do more, right? Or when you're asked to do more, say, hey, I'm doing all of this. Where does this one fit in? It's so, so important. And the sixth and final step I want to encourage all of you to do is make sure that you speak to someone. Make sure that you take that opportunity to connect with someone. I think so often we suffer alone. We think telling someone about how we feel makes us weak. So much of this is related to how we think we're going to look.

• 28:06Jay Shetty?

  Isn't that just fascinating? So much of this is related to how we think we're going to look. But guess what? When you're struggling, you won't even be able to look at yourself properly. You won't be able to deal with that properly. And so I want you to be really, really aware that you can't just let people's opinions and how you think people will feel about you affect how you feel about yourself. Your feelings about yourself, your relationship about yourself are the most important things that you could potentially think about.

• 28:50Jay Shetty?

  And for so many of us, we completely let our whole life be governed by how we think people will think about what we choose to do. If your team thinks you're weak, it doesn't make you weaker. And we also have to learn to find the support to de-stigmatize mental health. We have to think about mental health how we do physical health. So I hope this has given you some insights and some advice and some things to think about. Overall, I always recommend checking with a doctor and a psychiatrist. I'm not giving medical advice, but I'm giving advice on helping you become aware of some of the big challenges. I've got your back, I'm on your side, and I can't wait to see how your life changes when you implement some of these ideas.

• 29:35Jay Shetty?

  Thank you so much. Sending you so much love.

• 29:46Speaker 01

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