Felicity Couperthwaite - Health and Wellbeing Manager
“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.”
“When we use the words stress and burnout, not everyone has the same understanding of we mean,” Felicity Couperthwaite says. She is a health and wellbeing manager for an Australian university and aspires for everyone to thrive at work.
Stress is a widely used word, to the level that it gets misunderstood. Felicity explains to me how common it is to hear people say that they are 'stressed' because a lot is happening for them at work, and they feel the need to juggle different tasks better. However, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the demands of their work exceed their ability or resources to cope, which is the correct definition of occupational stress. Some people thrive on “stress”, although in reality, it is more likely that they thrive on challenging and demanding work.
Similarly, the same concerns apply to burnout. The word has entered our everyday vocabulary, and people declare themselves 'burned out' when they may be tired or stress. Others may use burnout when referring to their inability to no longer feel emotionally connected to their jobs, sometimes it is applied to either physical or emotional exhaustion. Felicity explains that burnout has three key features: first, you’re emotionally drained and running on empty; then there’s cynicism and feeling detached from your work, or whatever you’re responsible for; and finally you start to doubt your competence and ability to do the things you are responsible for.
One of the strategies that Felicity likes to apply to her own life is based on a line from Hamlet (Act II, Scene 2), “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." This is good news, as the quote implies, is that we can all improve our ability to cope with many difficult situations through the stories we tell ourselves and the words we choose to use. This is not to say that bad, hard or difficult things won’t come our way. Felicity is quick to point out that she doesn’t want to apply “rose tinted glasses” to everything. She recognised that “life is hard”, and that some people have better innate abilities to cope than others, but coping and then thriving is available to everyone. But it is a skill that we need to learn and practice if want to succeed at thriving.
Moreover, using the reframing technique to look for the alternative, can have a positive ripple effect on colleagues and the workplace culture.
Felicity has been part of a working group which is implementing an innovative health and wellbeing strategy for the Queensland University of Technology. The strategy goes beyond that traditional approach of managing illness and preventing harm and has a strong focus on promoting thriving across all areas of work and study. It also recognises in order to create a thriving community, we need to work together to enhance our own and other’s wellbeing. Felicity says that it is an exciting time to be working in health and safety, and to see so many great initiatives being introduced.
Felicity Couperthwaite is a Health and Wellbeing Manager at the Queensland University of Technology.
“Negative thoughts can impact us but so can positive thoughts.”