workplace mental health border design

It is neither a management tool used by companies to set "emotional stability" KPIs for employees, nor is it a welfare gimmick to be displayed on the annual budget table. It is essentially a set of Clear rights and responsibilities, soft perception, and dynamic adjustment The core goal of Boundary Rules is to help workers clearly separate "work responsibilities that should be shouldered" and "redundant emotions and cross-border tasks that should not be taken on", and ultimately achieve two-way burden reduction for employees and the company.

When I was working as an HRBP in an Internet company the year before last, I saw the most outrageous "mental health project": the administrative department spent tens of thousands of dollars to find a consulting company to make a plan. The final solution was to put "complain less, do more" emotional reminder stickers on each employee's workstation. Every Friday, all employees were forced to fill in 20 psychological assessment questions, and the records were submitted to the department head simultaneously. It was euphemistically called "early detection and early intervention." During that time, the department group was full of complaints. At first, everyone was tired from working overtime occasionally, but because of this, I became panicked when I saw the slogans on the workstations every day at work, and the turnover rate actually increased by 2 percentage points.

There are two completely different ideas in the industry today about this matter. One is the "active interventionist" group, which believes that employees' emotions are a matter for the company to take care of. It needs to provide full-time psychological counselors, conduct mindfulness classes, emotional training camps, and even help coordinate employees' private affairs at home.； The other faction is the "borderline faction" who believe that the company has no right to touch employees' personal emotions. As long as the work rules are clarified and no meaningless overtime work or PUA-style assessments are conducted, employees' psychological problems will naturally not occur. The two factions have been arguing for almost ten years, but there is no absolute right or wrong. Most of the manufacturing companies I have contacted believe in the borderline faction, while Internet companies like to engage in interference. In fact, the essence still depends on the nature of the industry and the size of the team. There is no absolute distinction between superior and inferior.

Let me give you an interesting practical case. My best friend works as an administrator in an auto parts factory in the Pearl River Delta. Last year, they installed more than a dozen "emotional pause buttons" in the front-line workshops, which were installed next to the assembly line. If any worker is upset at home today, or has a continuous After standing for three or four hours and feeling exhausted, he reaches out and presses the button at his workstation. The entire line will not stop, but the system will automatically record it. He can go directly to the rest area and sit for 15 minutes, drink an iced drink and blow on the air conditioner. There is no need to report to the team leader in advance, and full attendance will not be deducted. For such a small design that cost less than 20,000 yuan, the worker turnover rate in the second half of last year dropped by 8 points, and the production error rate was also reduced by 30%. Would you say this is intervention or boundary-drawing? In fact, it doesn't matter, the core is to give employees a clear signal: when you don't want to carry it, you have a place to hide.

Of course, there are many bosses who think this is just taking off their pants and farting. Last month I went to an entrepreneurial salon, and a SaaS boss retorted on the spot: "I only have more than 20 people in the whole company. When the project is launched, it is normal for everyone to work around. If everyone sets some emotional boundaries and says they won't work overtime, will you pay if my project fails?" ”There is nothing wrong with this. Small-scale teams rely on favors and tacit understanding to support each other. Everyone is close and the boundaries are inherently blurred. If you insist on making a clear rule that "no work messages are allowed after get off work", it will appear to be unreasonable. If there is an emergency, no one can be found, and everyone's bonus will be lost. To put it bluntly, there has never been a unified template for border design. It’s not just the template made by a big company that can be used by a small team. The one that suits you is the right one.

In fact, many people don’t realize that this border can’t only be made by a company, but you can also design it yourself. I used to take care of a child who worked in an operations position. When he first joined the company, he was always embarrassed to refuse others. He would take jobs offered by other departments, and he would also take overtime shifts that his colleagues did not want. Within half a year, he almost became depressed. Later, he set three rules for himself: first, non-urgent messages after get off work will be answered the next day; second, all tasks that are not within his responsibilities will be transferred to his immediate leader for evaluation; third, every Friday afternoon, he must take half an hour to turn off the work software and meditate at his workstation. Regarding these three items, he said that he feels much more comfortable at work now, and he even got an A in the performance of his department last month. You see, you don’t have to wait for the company to provide you with any benefits. The framework you draw for yourself is actually the most effective.

I always feel that this so-called mental health frame is just like the mobile phone cases we usually use. It is not meant to wrap you up so tightly that you can’t receive signals, nor is it meant to be pretty or fancy. The core is that it can help you block the impact when you fall, and it just feels comfortable to touch. If you like the feel of bare metal, you don't have to use it. If you're afraid of falling, just use a thicker one. If you get tired of using it, you can replace it at any time. If the case the company sent you hurts your hands, no one will care if you throw it away and buy a new one.

To put it bluntly, everyone goes to work to earn some money and live a good life. No one wants to suffer internal conflicts in the workplace every day. The design of mental health borders in the workplace is not a profound management topic at all. It means that both companies and individuals have a sense of boundaries. Whose business is their business? Don’t blame work on personal emotions, and don’t bring personal emotions into work. Everyone is more comfortable, which is better than anything else.