By Mary T. O’Sullivan, MSOL
“As we recover from the worst of the pandemic, we have an opportunity and the power to make workplaces engines for mental health and well-being.”– U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD
Halfway through 2024, workplace challenges still plague many organizations. The burden of creating change across the organization, especially in the post pandemic years, falls squarely on the shoulders of leaders. Their job is to communicate clearly to the whole company that work is different now, and now we know that without support and effective change management, employee well being plumets. This drop in morale is widely documented in an irrefutable blizzard of research. Poor morale and employee disengagement is well known, lack of recognition, long hours, feeling helplessness, bullying and harassment, and feeling physically and mentally drained are among the principal causes of mental health challenges. What has had a major impact on workplace wellbeing is the current concern about employee mental health and what employers can do about it. We used to call a workplace mental health issue “burnout”, with the stigma and stereotypes that go along with it. The isolation and loneliness caused by quarantining for months, even years, has left a lasting imprint on society and now the result has become a workplace mental health problem, stigma or not.
Mental health support now is part of a company’s brand, reflective of a nurturing culture with help going beyond the Employee Assistance Program (EAP). Recognition of the need to maintain employee well-being and mental health can attract and retain top talent, as people understand that there is assistance and remedies available when burnout creeps in. According to Indeed, “In 2019, job-related burnout was officially recognized as a mental health concern by the World Health Organization (WHO).
According to the WHO’s eleventh revision of its International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) diagnosis guidelines, employee burnout signs include:
“Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
A sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.”
Indeed, among other workplace related organizations, has identified ways employers can intervene in a mental health crisis. (I’ve included a few).
- Privately meet with the person who may be struggling
- Review the employee’s workload or hours. Maybe the person needs more help but is afraid of appearing weak. Instead, their work suffers and impacts the work of others.
- Document employee experience by using an anonymous survey Find out what people won’t tell you to your face but are willing to share privately. To ensure complete anonymity, use a third-party to conduct the survey which can’t be tracked back to any individual.
- Take mental health seriously. Research your company’s mental health policy and follow its suggestions. Benchmark your policies against others in your industry. If your company does not allow mental health days, you can be sure some stressed out employees will take them on their own. (Teachers learned that years ago.)
Other suggestions are to dispel the 1980s attitude of “winning at all costs”. Working ridiculous hours, missing out on family events, and living complex schedules are becoming a thing of the past. More than one study states that people need time to just do nothing. The former NPR journalist, Celeste Headlee wrote a book on the subject called Do Nothing. Her theory is that human brains aren’t wired to be distracted by the barrage of emails, (and responding during dinner), writing texts while driving, and other multitasking activities. Her book describes how without rest and relaxation, humans are less efficient and effective, and more prone to burnout and mental health issues. She discusses the modern “addiction to productivity”. And she asks, if not constantly working, then what are we supposed to be doing?
Employers can head off burnout and the resultant mental health crisis by remembering that they are dealing with humans, not robots. The 1980s mantra that “no one is irreplaceable”, does not exactly establish a “nurturing culture”. Referring to employees as “heads” or “slots” is insulting, demeaning, and dehumanizing. The word is “people”. Some employers offer unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO) specifically to enable employees’ mental health. Reports have shown that even with unlimited PTO, people are afraid to take it. The addiction to work, or having a business full of workaholics won’t yield the long-term results organizations are looking for.
Headlee strongly promotes spending more time in leisure and rest. In fact, her burnout drove her to leave her job, and buy a cross-country train ticket to spend weeks unwinding. Her resulting blog, Riding the Rails of America, details her experiences as she began to clear her head. By the end of her journey, she was able to step back and review the benefits of her trip. “The sense that something could go wrong at any time, or that something urgent would arise that might require my immediate attention, was gone. I was no longer in fight-or-flight mode. Breaking away from the relentless pace of connected life felt uncomfortable at first, but as I ended my trip, I dreaded joining that joyless parade again.”
It’s showing care and concern for employees’ well-being and safety that will grow your business. Rein in that desire to see people in the office seven days a week. Stop monitoring people. I once had a manager show up at work at 4:00AM just to make sure I was still there working on a project all night. He should have been in bed. After all, employers need rest and relaxation too.
