Did you know that according to a 2022 Gallup study, 60% of employees feel emotionally detached and 19% are downright miserable at work? That means that less than half (Actually less than a quarter) of employees feel engaged!
Not only is this bad for productivity and increases turnover, it’s also indicative of a mental health crisis unfolding in offices and job sites. When employees feel undervalued, uncertain about where to go, or trapped, this shows as mental health symptoms with cause rooted in their jobs. After all, how many times have you felt anxious, ill, headachy, heaviness, or stressed out because of work? Anywhere else, we would call these mental health issues, but because it’s around work, it’s misinterpreted as a career issue.
But if we reposition these as a mental health issue, we can start utilizing tools that would be used for mental health issues and apply them to careers and jobs. It also opens the door to a profession that could help retain employees and improve productivity: career counselling. And no, not career counselling that simply focuses on getting you back to work, (That’s career coaching) but instead focuses on combining the benefits of career coaching (career decisions, burn out, interview preparation, etc) and mental health counselling (anxiety, conflict management, stress, confidence building, life transition, etc).
In doing this, career counseling can help people both explore career paths and make informed decisions about it, as well as personal development planning. Career counselling strives to foster a sense of purpose and direction rather than simply placing people in jobs they may not care for.
Why This Matters
Given that adults spend roughly 30% of their life at work (assuming full time hours), it’s important to choose a job that you will actually enjoy! However, many people choose jobs that don’t align with their values: pay, desperation, convenience, lack of knowledge about what they would enjoy, not feeling like they deserve to enjoy their job, and so on. But if you’re choosing jobs for the wrong reason, you’re at a much higher risk of burnout, lacking motivation to be productive, or become a job hopper, which can be detrimental to your career ladder.
Career counselling can also help you if you’re feeling stuck in your job, or directionless. It can be hard to realize you are stuck until you look at where you are and realize you’ve hit an invisible ceiling that has become difficult to surmount. At that point, it can be hard to see how to get out of the rut, sapping motivation.
Since so many people spend so much time at work, it behooves mental health professionals to include career counselling wrap around whenever possible as career counselling can really help to support mental health supports.
We don’t think about it, but getting solid career counselling that takes into account everything you want to do, enjoy doing, and value can really help you narrow down your job search, get targeted training, and feel more comfortable and happy at work. It’s an important, if overlooked, thing to think about doing!
