5 Wonderful Ways Millennials Are Prioritizing Their Mental Health And Well-Being At Work

Unsplash/Anete Lusina

The American workspace is rapidly evolving, especially as us millennials begin replacing baby boomers as the largest demographic managing full-time jobs. We don’t live in the same world our parents did and, therefore, we don’t want or need the same things from our work experiences. So we’re making some serious changes, many of which focus on prioritizing our mental health and overall well-being alongside career success. Here are five major ways millennials are adjusting the balance in their professional lives for the better.

1. We’re leading the charge with remote work.

Unsplash/Nathan Dumlao

Millennials are the first generation to have technology at their fingertips constantly, making it possible to get work done anywhere, anytime. And we want to take advantage of this opportunity. According to a 2016 survey from Deloitte, a whopping 75 percent of millennials are interested in signing on for remote work and using flexible work hours to benefit both their work-life balance and overall performance and output.

2. We’re starting to get vocal about feeling burnt out.

Unsplash/Ehimetalor Unuabona

The concept of working so much and so hard that you eventually just lose steam (or interest) in your job has gained a lot of attention in recent years. Millennials are reaching this point of exhaustion much quicker than older generations due to additional pressure to perform, succeed and grow faster in the professional space. Despite our propensity to struggle with burnout, we’re openly talking about the problem more and more, and even seeking medical help to deal with the mental health side effects in a productive way.

3. We’re less inclined to take our work home with us.

Unsplash/Kira auf der Heide

Okay, this one can be industry dependent, but the majority of millennials are getting better about signing off at the end of the workday and leaving email inboxes alone until the following morning. This trend is definitely connected to the scary burnout statistics out there and us realizing that a line needs to be drawn somewhere to avoid its detrimental effects. As we speak up, startup and corporate workspaces alike are reworking company policies to help rewrite those implications that if you’re not “on” 24/7, you’re not doing your job.

4. We’re getting better about using those hard-earned vacation days.

Unsplash/Jake Melara

Again, sometimes it takes highlighting a major problem to feel confident in doing something about it. Last year, plenty of news outlets revealed how a lot of millennials are being “shamed” out of using their vacation days by their superiors or unspoken cultural rules in the workplace. So now, more and more of us are motivated to flip that script and use some serious PTO we’ve racked up. From long weekends to full-blown international experiences, millennials understand just how much this exploration outside of the office matters for overall well-being.

5. We’re proving how flexible hours can make a workforce even more productive.

Unsplash/Brooke Cagle

The standard 9-to-5 is officially passé. According to a study by Bentley University, 77 percent of millennials believe flexible work hours make their workplaces a more productive space for them. Some use those varied hours to exercise at the optimal time of day for them, some religiously take a long coffee break when their circadian rhythm tells them it’s time and others are just full-blown night owls and want to harness the power of their most efficient hours for their work. Regardless of the reason, millennials are right — when you work greatly impacts the company’s bottom line, so the better it works for the individual, the better it works for the business.

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