Medically CitedIn This Review
Overview
People make career shifts for different reasons. You may want a career change to seek a new challenge, earn more money, follow a passion, improve work-life balance, learn new skills, make a difference, broaden your knowledge base, or work under new leadership. A career shift has many rewards, including positively impacting your mental health. This article outlines four mental health benefits of making a career change.
Benefits of Making a Career Change
1.Promotes work-life balance
Poor work-life balance can significantly impact mental and physical health. It not only affects you but those close to you too. When you struggle to maintain a work-life balance, it can get overwhelming, causing burnout. Your work quality and ethic can take a dip from their usual standards. You might also not want to connect with others or engage in work activities.
Constant body pain, tiredness, your relationships struggling, unclear priorities, and striving for perfection are signs you lack work-life balance. Making a career shift to a profession with more flexible work hours, like nursing, can help you develop a work-life balance. Courses like accelerated BSN programs for non-nurses or other areas of interest can help you transition successfully[1].
2.Reduces stress
A report found that 40% of employees reported that their work could be quite or extremely stressful, with 25% seeing their jobs as a primary stressor. It further indicated that 80% of workers experience stress on the job, with almost half saying they needed assistance learning stress management and 42% saying their colleagues required such help. Work-related stress may be due to long work hours, tight deadlines, heavy workloads, job insecurity, micromanagement, lack of autonomy, discrimination, lack of development and growth opportunities, harassment, and more[2].
When stressed, you become less productive and engaged, and your absenteeism rates increase. It could be time for a career change if you start experiencing low motivation, self-doubt, irritability, and other signs of work-related stress. A career change to a less stressful job can help boost your mental health.
3.Promotes job satisfaction
Statistics indicate that 79% of employees leave their jobs because they feel undervalued, 75% due to managerial disputes, and 12% seeking more pay. You may also experience job dissatisfaction due to a lack of growth opportunities, heavy workloads, lack of motivation, burnout, feeling like you aren’t making an impact, and poor work-life balance.
Suppose you aren’t satisfied with your current job. In that case, you may start losing interest in your work, begin procrastinating, become constantly stressed and irritable, have regular absenteeism, and lack effort in your role. If you’re still dissatisfied even after your employer has made some changes, a career change can help you try something new.
4.Better work culture
Negative company culture may be due to poor compensation, ineffective leadership, poor management, understaffing, and more. This may result in unending work stress, causing mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, insomnia, and reduced self-esteem. A company with a positive work culture has mindfulness programs, work-life balance and anti-bullying policies in place, and other programs and policies targeting stress. A career shift to a company with a healthy work culture can help safeguard your mental health. This can help increase your motivation and focus[3].
Conclusion
Job dissatisfaction, burnout, poor work-life balance, and negative company culture can negatively impact mental health. Nevertheless, making a career change can help you reap these mental health benefits.
3 sources
We review published medical research in respected scientific journals to arrive at our conclusions about a product or health topic. This ensures the highest standard of scientific accuracy.
[1] Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing: https://onlinenursingdegrees.wilkes.edu/programs/accelerated-bsn-programs[2] Workplace Stress: https://www.stress.org/workplace-stress
[3] Workout Motivation: 6 Tips to Keep Yourself Excited For Next Time 2023: https://personalcaretruth.com/workout-motivation/
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