The Hidden Workplace Crisis: Why Burnout Starts at the Top

It is all about mental health at the workplace and for that matter I'm being joined by Christina Muller who is a total expert on that front. Yes, the only one I've ever met at least knowingly. Welcome to the show Christina. It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm happy to be here. Ditto. Well I think you identified a big problem because there are issues at the workplace that many times people are not even aware that the problem that they are experiencing, the unhappiness, even downright depression is linked to their workplace. Tell us a little about your profession also. How did you get into that business? Yeah absolutely. Well you know it started really in my childhood growing up in Bensonhurst Brooklyn seeing how hard people worked in my community in my family and I saw that they were getting burnt out, they were working themselves to the bone and I said there has to be a better way. We have to really think about the workplace being a place where yes it encourages our livelihood, it helps sustain our lives but it's also where we spend most of our time. So if the workplace is not built to also consider our well-being, it's going to affect our well-being. And workplace mental health really is the bi-directional behavior of how the workplace impacts mental health and how we impact the workplace with our own mental health. So it's really important to take this all into consideration and in our understanding of what workplace mental health is because our leadership affects it, our work environment, the physical environment affects it. Yeah I mean it doesn't look really creative and doesn't inspire creativity. You see these offices right now most of them look like little boxes and not much love went into the planning. It's like a bad hotel room. Absolutely yes and that affects how we feel right. We know when we're in a beautiful inviting room like this that conjures up different emotions, makes us feel invited and welcome and also inspires creativity like you said. So that also plays a big role but you know not taking into account that you know people need to be recognized to be seen throughout their weeks, their months in the workplace. They can't just be a cog in the wheel and as AI especially advances I think this is going to be a bigger issue because we don't want to lose the human touch points that really make connection you know worthwhile for everyone. Yeah how do you see AI impacting the workplace and also people in high position how do you see that already making significant impact? Absolutely so in my work what I've been noticing a lot of high performers who also by the way tend to have more perfectionistic thinking right to help them get to that point a lot of them are natural perfectionists. They are now not only comparing themselves to others but they're really comparing themselves to these LLMs the output that AI is giving and maybe even saying to themselves well I am not producing at the level that AI can produce and what does that say about me and my ability to do my job and people are asking the question am I expendable am I going to be replaced by AI and you know that's a big question right now that people are having and it really behooves companies to take it upon themselves to train people so that they can use AI as a tool alongside their already great work. So what is important with regards to the human factor what needs to be amplified what needs to be focused on also so people feel I'm not replaceable and you know I need to really work and train certain abilities also. Yeah absolutely so what I've come up with is a framework called the C model and I use it at organizations which many times leaders will tell me this sounds great I'd love to have more connection points through the days and weeks but I just don't have the time so this is a way of kind of having a compounding effect I would say of connection and it starts with S which is spot spotting the effort so letting people know that you're seeing their hard work that is happening not just their output empathizing which is really important especially in periods where it's really challenging time there's a lot of change understanding that you know this is a really hard time and I see that you're showing up and that really means a lot to me and then also the last letter E engaging in an actionable way so whether it's somebody needs more support around something if they're not working up to the standard that you're expecting asking the question what could what could make this easier for you what can I do to help you succeed in whatever that role is if they're falling short so that's a really easy and simple way for leaders to remember these different human touch points and it can be applied and at scale through different situations very interesting well happy workplace better work better results yes you definitely offer great solutions for that matter Christina thank you so much for joining us and I hope you will come back absolutely thank you so much it was a pleasure thank you for the work that you're doing important one thank you thank you so much