It is easy to overlook how the constant online work can affect your mental health. I spoke with Michelle Fensney, a psychology professor at the University of Oregon and a licensed psychologist, about the ongoing landscape of social media and the burnout that accompanies it. We touched on previous blog topics that I have written about to get the perspective of a mental health professional.
Mental Health Benefits in Agency Life
Early PR careers tend to start in agencies, where the pace can be fast and expectations can be raised very quickly. “I think it is important for companies to be thinking about their employees’ mental health and well-being in addition to physical health… ensuring that mental health care is a part of those health care benefits, I think is really important,” Fensney said. “Also, when people’s mental health is good, they are going to be better employees and better workers.” She adds. If agencies prioritize their employees’ mental health via benefits and work culture, two things will happen: 1. A Better work culture with more people wanting to work there, and 2. Better outcomes for clients, which ultimately gives a better reputation to the agency.
Meaningful Work Means Something
“There are actually two forms of well-being: One is hedonic well-being, which is more of the kind of happiness, and feeling pleasure. But then there’s another form of well-being, called eudaimonic well-being, which is more of this well-being that’s derived from doing something that’s important and meaningful to you.” Fensney explains. Putting this idea into the theme of my blog, when you post something (work or personal), if there is a good intention behind it, and/or it aligns with your morals, it actually helps your mental health and physical health.
‘Always On’ Mentality
As I have talked about, the PR world tends to have this 24/7 type of work culture, where the weekend can seem more like a weekday, but this can be exhausting. Fensney talked about how it is important to find a transition activity between social media for work and social media for personal use. She also emphasized boundaries, and communicating them with clients and employers is very important for having and maintaining good mental health when it comes to work/life balance.
Burnout
I have talked a lot about burnout on this blog, so I asked Fensney about how she would address it if a client were to come to her with these issues. “What I do is telling clients, okay, I want you to go for this week, monitor your emotions every day, or monitor you thoughts… take a week to document how they are feeling and what days maybe they are spending more or less time on social media and how this is impacting them.” She responded. She also said that being able to identify the early signs of burnout is very important for the recovery process.
ellen 
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