A job and wellbeing

Employment and mental wellbeing

Our mental wellbeing is often linked to our employment. Jobs are rarely just a source of income. They are linked to creating and maintaining our mental wellbeing.

The five ways to wellbeing from Mind.

• Connect
• Get active
• Take notice
• Learn
• Give

Are often met in our work.

Connect – is connecting with people, with colleagues, clients and customers
Get active – is the physical demands of our jobs, the commute, the moving around
Take notice – is coming out of our heads and noticing our environment and other people
Learn – is the steady learning of our jobs and the needs of our clients and colleagues
Give – is, our satisfaction in helping others

Many jobs will satisfy all five steps to wellbeing. What this tells us is that if we have no job due to reasons of:

• Unemployment
• Retirement
• Disability

We may not achieve these five steps and our mental wellbeing could decline.

Unemployment

What Works Wellbeing, found through a systematic review of unemployment and wellbeing research, was that unemployment damages wellbeing and the wellbeing of unemployed people’s spouses. If people continue to be unemployed their wellbeing is permanently reduced. Re-employment, re-establishes wellbeing.

Retirement

Wellbeing in retirement is more complex. Research by What Works Wellbeing in 2017 found that wellbeing is lower for people who are involuntarily retired. Particularly due to health reasons.

The all or nothing approach of full-time work or retirement, can impact wellbeing. A gradual transition into retirement by a reduction in hours or by taking a part-time or ‘bridging’ job supports wellbeing.

For those who have the time and the money, a paid job isn’t a requirement. You could achieve the five steps to wellbeing as a conservation volunteer for the local council. You could connect with other volunteers, you can be active pruning hedges. You can take notice of the countryside, you can learn new techniques and feel the satisfaction of giving to your local community.

Disability

In 2018, David Tabor of the Quality of Life team at the Office of National Statistics in his blog, Who has the poorest personal wellbeing? Discovered that three groups of people were at particular risk of reporting the poorest personal wellbeing:

• Unemployed or inactive renters with self-reported health problems or disability
• Employed renters with self-reported health problems or disability
• Retired home-owners with self-reported health problems or disability

Two key themes here: all three criteria reference health problems or disability, two reference unemployment or inactivity.

If, just over half of D/deaf, disabled and neurodiverse people (53.1% compared to 81.6% non-disabled) are working, then nearly half of all disabled people are excluded from employment. This exclusion impacts on their wellbeing and is a clear human rights issue. What are we doing as a society that so few disabled people have a job? Disabled people report that they want a job but they don’t get them. Is it because employers explicitly or implicitly tell them:

• You must work five days a week 09:00-17:00
• You must drive
• You must answer the telephone
• You must manage your pain and/or fatigue and pretend you’re fine
• You must deal with members of the public
• You must read all paper and computer communications
• You cannot take time off due to your disability

The government wants to close the disabled and non-disabled employment gap so that over 80% of disabled people have a job. This will increase the social and economic wellbeing of disabled people and their families. But to achieve this, they need employers to show greater flexibility on job role, working hours, and adapting to meet the needs of their disabled employees and colleagues.
If a D/deaf, disabled or neurodivergent employee cannot work 9-5 five days a week, then two issues arise:

• The employee is unlikely to make a living wage from their part-time employment
• The employer may need to employ someone else to cover

The government could close the employment gap between disabled and non-disabled people if the disabled employee was guaranteed a living income through a universal basic income. Their wages topped up by benefits or tax credits to the Living Wage level. Then, disabled, D/deaf and neurodivergent people would benefit from increased wellbeing, government may benefit from increased tax and national insurance payments, and society will benefit from more disabled people in the workplace.

References:

1. Unemployment, (re) employment and wellbeing factsheet, What Works Wellbeing
2. Retirement and wellbeing , What Works Wellbeing
3. Who has the poorest personal wellbeing, David Tabor, What Works Wellbeing
4. The Employment of disabled people 2024 , Department for Work & Pensions

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