Almost 50% of employees are languishing–and are much more likely to go on to develop serious mental health issues

Almost 50% of employees are languishing

Alexi Robichaux, CEO and co-founder of BetterUp reported to CNN; “we’re seeing almost 50% [of employees are] languishing… that’s not necessarily clinical mental illness or clinical burnout, but it’s the absence of well-being, performance and flourishing.”

Research on health care workers who are languishing shows that they are much more likely to go on to develop serious mental health issues, such as PTSD, compared to those who are flourishing.

This is because, according to Adam Grant in his widely shared article about languishing in the NYT, “you might not notice the dulling of delight or the dwindling of drive… you’re indifferent to your indifference… you don’t seek help or even do much to help yourself.”

“As CEO’s, as business leaders… if you want to move the greatest amount of productivity, performance, wellbeing, you want to focus your strategy on that 50% [of your employees that are] languishing — that means low focus, often mixed emotion, lack of engagement in life and the workplace,” said Robichaux.

According to Grant, a concept called “flow” may be the antidote to languishing. “Flow is that elusive state of absorption in a meaningful challenge or a momentary bond, where your sense of time, place and self melts away.”

What does this have to do with a provider of spiritual care, such as The Company Chaplain? Well, the qualities of flow cited by Grant are classic descriptions of spiritual aliveness. Our spiritual care providers help clients reconnect with those beliefs, practices and motivations that reconnect to the source of that vitality and creativity.

When I first came to the USA, I worked in a company started by Deepak Chopra. He recently put it this way, “Real solutions to a crisis come from expanded awareness. The inner feeling is no longer tight and fearful. Boundaries give way; fresh ideas have space to grow. If you are able to contact your true self, awareness has no boundaries. From that place, solutions emerge spontaneously, and they work… obstacles that seemed immovable melt away. When that happens, the burden of anxiety and sorrow is lifted completely.”

I’m not saying our Chaplains are all like Deepak Chopra! They are board certified providers, clinically trained to help clients find their way to that expanded awareness and state of flow that emerges from their inner self—so it is most meaningful. From this place of connectedness and being, creativity blossoms and renewed productivity is a natural result.

Unlike a religious teacher, or spiritual leader, a board certified chaplain will not tell you what you should do. We listen, we explore what is meaningful to you, we take time to build trust and have empathy for the blocks and difficulties that you face. In this way, we are simply facilitators for the unfolding of your inner self to flourish and flow, and for languishing to melt away like the morning fog over San Francisco Bay.

A version of this article appeared on LinkedIn.