On occasion, we all like to sit down and indulge ourselves with a few episodes of our favourite TV show, but when it comes to fictional workplaces it’s best not to hold their practices as a guide on what to do. We have therefore collated our top five employee wellbeing lessons we have learnt from our favourite fictional characters.  

The US Office –  

For some, having a boss like Michael Scott might be a dream come true, but generally, it can be a bad idea to encourage a culture of over-familiarity within a workplace. In fact, unlike almost every The Office character you should want to encourage all employees to respect each other’s boundaries.

A great step towards this is ensuring all personal disclosures stay private and confidential. If an employee needs time off for a sensitive issue make sure to be as discreet as possible and refrain from prying into others situations.  

Grey’s Anatomy –

The life of a fictional doctor is likely to be full of high stress and emotions, but more often than not workers in the show are often pitted against each other. While competition can be healthy if it is conducted in good faith, you will have a much better success rate in promoting your team to co-operate instead.

It may seem that competition can encourage one employee but it can come at the cost of discouraging another. It’s a great practice to help employees focus on their own progression and explain to them how they can improve without comparing them to one another.  

The Crown –

One may argue that the job of a royal is a duty and not just normal employment, but if this show is to teach us anything about a role, it is that you shouldn’t let it consume you. Dedication and perseverance are great qualities to have in an employee but their job shouldn’t be their whole life – we all need downtime to recover from the stress of a day.

In doing this make sure not to reward unhealthy behaviour, as it will set a bad precedent and you will discourage workers from prioritising a healthy work/life balance.

Mad Men –

Immersing yourself in the world of an advertisement agency during the ’60s can be thrilling, and although being as dapper as Don Draper may seem like a great goal to strive for, promoting an unhealthy lifestyle at work can actually do a lot of damage.

For the most part, we expect that most places don’t encourage smoking and excessive drinking but an office can also go a lot further to helping employees make healthy choices in their day-to-day life. Offering out free healthy snacks and access to or discount on exercise classes can help your workforce develop both a healthy body and a healthy mind.

Line of Duty –

The pressure is likely to be high when you are tasked with catching a renowned crime boss but even detectives need to sleep. DS Arnott’s ability to catch a bent copper will be hindered if his work schedule impacts his sleep. Not only can poor sleep hygiene affect productivity but lack of sleep has been linked to lifelong health complications.

Our recent Global Working From Home Survey found that UK workers are strongly positive about their sleep quality when working from home, scoring sleep quality 7.6/10 on average, and also find it far easier to plan their nightly sleep routine (7.3/10). With this in mind, employers need to be wary of the effect on their employees quality of sleep when they eventually return to the office.

To find out more about how Wrkit can support your company with its employee wellbeing and wellness strategy, visit www.wrkit.com.