FINANCIAL

WELLNESS IN THE
WORKPLACE

A Mental Health and Bottom Line Issue

  
Preface Introduction

 
What is Financial My Money Myself
Wellness? Syndrome


Take Control of Your Money to
Gain Control of Your Life

 
Financial Health Is Financial
a Bottom Line Issue Ownership Theory

2
  
Financial Wellness About the
for Your Organization Author

Wofsohn's Concept of How Financial

Wellness Impacts the Workplace

Wolfsohn's My Wolfsohn’s Whole

Money Myself Person Financial
Syndrome Health Model

Wolfsohn's Make Friends

Financial Ownership with Your Money
Theory Program

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 0

PREFACE
A staggering number of men and women in
this country are unable to meet the financial
expectations placed upon them. They have more
month than money, more debt than assets and
more financial problems than solutions.

Their financial circumstances take a mental, physical and

emotional toll that affects every area of their lives including
their jobs. They need more help than a budget can provide
because financial health is also a mental health problem.

Financial Social Work’s proven, positive and holistic wellness

approach is a behavioral model that addresses the emotional
issues associated with financial stress while helping staff
develop the skills and tools to better manage their money.

This unique mental, behavioral

and financial health process offers
solutions to meet the needs of your
organization and workforce. They
succeed by empowering employ-
ees to take control of their money
and gain control of their lives.

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 1

INTRODUCTION
More employees than ever have no emergency
fund, retirement savings, or college savings
for their children and may, on occasion, find
themselves food insecure, behind on their rent/
mortgage payments, car loans, student debt, and
other monthly living expenses. They are using
their credit cards to pay for monthly necessities
but unable to repay even monthly minimums.

Their financial insecurity keeps them stressed, anxious, worried and at

constant risk for mental, physical and emotional health problems.

Employees financial problems become their

employers’ financial problems when they:

 
Are late or absent. Make more mistakes.

 
Grow less engaged Develop stress-related
and productive. health problems.

 
Withdraw money from Take second jobs to
their retirement. supplement income.

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Wofsohn's Concept of How Financial
Wellness Impacts the Workplace

Job
Performance

Psychological Mental
Wellbeing Health

Loyalty / Healthcare
Turnover Costs

Social WORKPLACE Physical

Interactions Health

Emotional
Health

Work
Productivity
Culture

These men and women are

casualties of circumstances they
didn’t know how to prevent and
have no idea how to overcome.

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 2

WHAT IS FINANCIAL
WELLNESS?
Every day everyone gets to decide what to do with
his or her money. Those choices are shaped by
financial behavior — how they: earn, spend, save,
share and borrow. Financial behavior determines
financial circumstances.

Financial behavior is based

on the thoughts, feelings,
and attitudes about money
developed during childhood
and shaped by the people
Financial Wellness — Definition
who taught or role modeled
money during that period of
your life. As you grew older, 
friends, instructors, colleagues, Managing the financial component
of life so money isn’t a constant
partners, media, etc., became
concern and stressor.
your financial influencers.

What you learned about


Feeling confident and more in
money (were taught, told
control of your money and your life.
or observed) formed your
relationship with your money
and impacted every financial
decision you’ve ever made.

Financial problems happen when

thoughts, feelings, and attitudes
about money don’t align with
values, beliefs, and behaviors.

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 3

MY MONEY MYSELF
SYNDROME
Money and Self are conjoined in such a way
as to negatively affect mental, physical,
emotional and social wellbeing.

Unhealthy money thoughts, feelings, and attitudes distort the lens

through which those with financial problems view themselves and the
world. This distortion allows financial circumstances and sense of self,
self-esteem, self-worth, etc., (money and self) to become enmeshed.

Disengaging money and self requires going beyond the dollars, cents, and
budgets of financial wellbeing to address the shame, anxiety, fear, and
worry which thrive when money and self are confused with each other.

My Money Myself Syndrome is a

struggle with identity that impacts
the workplace when an employee
misses a deadline, loses focus,
becomes defensive or displays
other negative behaviors as a result
of money and self dissonance.

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Wolfsohn's My Money Myself Syndrome

Sense
of Self

Self- Self-
Compassion Acceptance

Self- Self-
Money
Respect Esteem

Self- Self-
Confidence Awareness

Self-
Worth

Financial wellness is a mental

health problem as much as a
financial problem.

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 4

TAKE CONTROL OF
YOUR MONEY TO GAIN
CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE
Money is personal, complicated, and too
often ignored. Not knowing how much money
you have, owe, and need, facilitates a money
disconnect that favors spending, eliminates
saving, and creates financial problems.

Debt happens when you fail to pay attention to your money. Credit
card debt reached its highest level ever in late 2018 and continues
to grow. Credit card use (spending money you haven’t earned) is
a major cause of consumer debt, but debt comes from multiple
sources (student loans, illness, job loss, accidents, etc.). When debt
happens, its adverse impact is swift, severe and potentially forever.

Money is part of every area of

life just as every area of life
has a financial component.

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Wolfsohn’s Whole Person Financial Health Model

Money

Health Self

Behavior

Society Lifecycle

Others

Wolfsohn’s Whole Person Financial Health Model

demonstrates how nonfinancial areas of a person’s
life affect the financial areas. Level of income and
education neither predict nor protect from the financial
problems lurking in the shadow of every decision.

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  Money
A source of many different thoughts,
feelings, attitudes, and beliefs that make
it difficult to talk about, understand
or manage. The most essential step
to financial health and healing is
making friends with your money.
 Self
The relationship we have with ourselves
is as important as the relationship
we have with our money. What we
think and believe about ourselves
contributes to our financial behavior,
and our financial behavior determines
our financial circumstances.
 Behavior
Financial behavior includes how one
earns, spends, saves shares and
borrows. Until and unless behavior
changes nothing changes.
 Others
The people in our lives, family, friends,
colleagues, partners, spouses, and
others influence our financial decisions
directly and indirectly. Whether we
know it or not, the financial wants,
needs, and choices of our communities
influence and affect ours.
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 Society
Money exists in a society which
is constantly bombarding us with
media, social media, politics and
other influences. These stimuli
shape our relationship with our
money and with ourselves.
 Lifecycle
Throughout the lifecycle, there are
financial tasks and expectations
intended to be met. Some
were once the responsibility of
employers/governments but
are now the responsibility of
individuals/families who are mostly
unprepared to handle them.
 Health
Financial problems and the stress
they cause are detrimental to physical,
mental, emotional and psychological
wellbeing. Most often this cause and
effect goes unrecognized leaving the
body and mind struggling to cope with
consequences like high blood pressure,
ulcers, anxiety, depression, heart
attacks, and countless other ailments.
 5

FINANCIAL HEALTH IS
A BOTTOM LINE ISSUE
Financial discord has reached a
tipping point in this country:

These men and women bring

their financially battered lives
to work every day affecting 8 out of 10 Americans
say money is their
their employers’ bottom
#1 stressor.
line through absenteeism,
presenteeism, mistakes,
conflicts, dissatisfaction,
postponed retirement
(increased healthcare
costs) and other financial 38% of employees
distractions with the potential feel less than
to disrupt the workplace. financially well.

Regardless of when, where

or how employees’ financial
problems originated, they
need help eliminating and
preventing them from recurring.

A raise, a loan or a budget may seem like potential

solutions, but even when available they are at best short-
term fixes for long-term problems in need of much more
permanent solutions.

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 Around 1/3 of all 40% of all US adults
v
employees are experience at
distracted by personal least one form of
finance issues. financial hardship.

13% of Americans 78% of Americans

believe they will live paycheck
remain in debt for the to paycheck.
rest of their lives.

About 1/2 of all

40% of American employees spend three
v only one missed
are or more hours of work
paycheck away time handling their
from poverty. personal finances.

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 6

FINANCIAL
OWNERSHIP THEORY
Ownership is the act, state, or right of
possessing something. Whatever is
owned is most often considered to be of
importance and worth. Ownership comes
with responsibility; responsibility nurtures
commitment and accountability, the
cornerstones of financial wellbeing.

Taking ownership of personal finances requires recognizing

its relevance and prioritizing it in your life. Untangling your
relationship with your money and yourself is an essential part
of the process as is making friends with your money.

When money is considered as a friend, it is more likely to be

treated with the respect, care and consideration it deserves.
When money is considered the enemy, it is likely to be avoided
and ignored which increases financial problems.

Money isn’t inherently good or bad. It’s a resource with

the ability to improve or detract from the quality of your
life. Making friends with your money requires rethinking
and updating the unhealthy money thoughts, feelings and
attitudes that drive your financial behavior and determine
your financial choices.

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 These actions matter because they drive your financial behavior and your
financial behavior determines the financial choices available to you. The
healthier your financial decisions the better your financial circumstances.

Shared values, respect, and goals are the essential qualities of meaningful
friendships (relationships). They are also qualities which contribute to a
healthy friendship (relationship) with your money.

When you are friends with your money, you appreciate all it can do for
you, you do all you can to nurture that relationship and as a result, your
financial circumstances improve.

The qualities essential in

a meaningful friendship
(relationship) shared values,
respect, and goals are also the
qualities of a healthy friendship
(relationship) with money.

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Wolfsohn's Financial Ownership Theory

Improved
Healthier
financial Friends
financial
behavior with
thoughts,
(earn, spend, your
feeling and
save, share, money
attitudes
borrow)

Wolfsohn's Financial Ownership

Theory concludes that when
employees take ownership of
their personal finances, their
lives improve personally and
financially boosting workplace
morale, performance, productivity,
and the bottom line.

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 7

FINANCIAL
WELLNESS FOR YOUR
ORGANIZATION
Too many employees have no one and no place to
turn for help with their financial problems. Their
financial stress is unhealthy for them and toxic to
the bottom line of the organizations they work for.

Traditional financial wellness programs focus on increasing

income, reducing debt and creating budgets. These
are important tasks but unfortunately, they aren’t the
foundation upon which to build financial wellbeing.

Over time lives and values change; if financial thoughts, feelings, and
attitudes don’t change with them mental health is affected as much as
financial health. Both need to be addressed to achieve financial wellbeing.

A financial wellness program that addresses these critical areas will not only
improve employees’ lives it will improve your organization's bottom line.

Financial wellness is a lifestyle choice. It requires

changing financial behavior - how one earns, spends,
saves, shares and borrows. Financial behavior is the
core determinant of financial circumstances. Financial
behavior is driven by financial thoughts, feelings, and
attitudes developed in childhood.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Reeta Wolfsohn, CMSW

As the founder of the Financial Social Work discipline, Reeta Wolfsohn,

CMSW, has devoted over two decades to pioneering new areas of
academic inquiry and transforming her research and experience
into practical financial wellness programs and materials.

Reeta's passion for her work is evident in how she continues to contribute
to and develop the field of Financial Social Work. Her goal is to ensure
that all FSW materials provide concepts, tools, knowledge, and insight that
transform lives through financial change, empowerment, and health.

For assistance with establishing a financial wellness

program within your organization, contact us at
workplace@financialsocialwork.com or visit our website.

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MAKE FRIENDS
WITH YOUR MONEY
Six Week Employee Financial Wellness Program

Make Friends with Your Money is a unique mental, behavioral and financial health
process that features a non-judgmental framework designed to assure staff feels safe,
listened to and respected through the process. It’s a comprehensive, holistic wellness
approach providing the financial information, motivation, and support needed to
empower employees to take control of their money and gain control of their lives.

Six Week Program Engaging Materials

The dynamic six-week Make Friends
with Your Money program is a time
and cost-effective way to introduce
financial wellness to your workplace
and discover the difference it can
make for your employees and your
organization's bottom line.
In the very first session employees
discover some of the basic reasons
they have been struggling financially.
That foundation motivates them to
use the financial tools and skills they
learn over the remaining weeks.

Online Group Interaction
Employees interact virtually, in
real-time as a group, with financial
trainers who answer their questions,
provide coping skills, and encourage
more positive thoughts, feelings,
and attitudes about money.
Holistic Approach
This program focuses on the
“whole person” because the
financial and non-financial areas
of life are so interdependent.
Addressing this connection
creates the opportunity for a more
comprehensive level of wellbeing.

To learn how this dynamic program can

improve your workplace, contact us at
workplace@financialsocialwork.com or at our website.