How a poor work-life balance affects our emotional needs

The relationship between a healthy work-life balance and the way we meet our emotional needs has been revealed thanks to research by The Mental Health Toolkit and Suffolk Mind.

The new findings, released as part of Workplace Wellbeing Week, come through our ongoing Emotional Needs Audit, run in partnership with Suffolk Mind.

So far receiving more than 25,000 responses, the audit asks people to rate how well they are meeting their needs from -3 to +3 – with a score of +1 considered “met”.

What does the research show?

Respondents to the Emotional Needs Audit are asked to report what their barriers are to meeting each of their 12 emotional needs.

For employed respondents, work-life balance or workload made up more than a quarter of the barriers reported to every need.

This included 52% who reported it as a barrier to meeting their need to give attention, while 56% said It was a barrier to feeling valued.

A further 40% of people said it got in the way of feeling secure in their lives, with another 39% saying it was a barrier to sleep.

Wendy Sheppard, Corporate Relationships Manager at Suffolk Mind and The Mental Health Toolkit, said: “All of us know how a stressful day at work can impact our home life – particularly when those difficult days begin to become a trend.

“This research has shown us just how much those days can impact our mental health, proving a barrier to every one of our emotional needs.

“As employers it is vital we recognise the warning signs of a poor work-life balance in our teams and offer support to those who need it.

“We cover these topics extensively in our online training sessions, designed to help you build long-term cultures of empowering support and wellbeing.”

Wendy added the report’s findings show the importance of our Emotional Needs Audit and the potential it has to change the ways we look at mental health.

She said: “These findings demonstrate the value of our Emotional Needs Audit and the important insights it gives us as an organisation.

“I would implore anyone yet to take part, or who hasn’t checked in recently, to spare five minutes at their desk and complete it. These stats make a huge difference in how we can better approach mental health.”

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