Mental Health: Visibility in the Workplace

Mental health, despite increasing awareness, still carries plenty of stigma with it, especially in the workplace. Suffering from depression or anxiety can make opening up to friends or family difficult enough. Discussing personal issues with a manager or boss, then, is seen by many as an impossible hurdle.

The unwillingness or inability to discuss such issues at work hasn’t been helped by a general work culture that often quickly categorises those that are quiet, unhappy, or perhaps not as social as other employees as problematic: Colleagues may look down on people suffering from mental health problems, or find them difficult to communicate with – often only entrenching any issues. Employers, on the other hand, may become agitated with the effect a troubled employee has on productivity, as well a the rest of their staff.

Until recently, it’s been easy to simply brush over the causes of mental health issues in the workplace. That has to change. It’s now more clear than ever that simply telling an employee to ‘get on with it’ due to a fear of lower productivity is a moribund and damaging reaction, both to businesses and employees.

In 2017, the government recognised the importance of understanding the impacts of mental health in the workplace, and commissioned research to investigate. The Stevenson Farmer review found that around 300,000 people with long term mental illnesses lose their jobs every year, and 15% of people in work show symptoms of mental health conditions. These are not trivial numbers

  Common Work-Related Mental Health Issues

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The first step to addressing the problems that mental health issues can cause both employers and staff, is to know what to look for. Both work-related stress and mental health issues can aggravate each other, and the symptoms can be very similar. This can make it hard for employers and colleagues to notice problems. Some of the most common mental health problems caused by the workplace include:

• Stress, which can be a reaction to the work environment, experiences at work, or to the behaviour of other colleagues. Causes include workplace bullying, extreme workloads, and tight deadlines. Often, stress can be made worse by a mixture of work-related and personal issues, as they both serve to exasperate each other.

• Presenteeism, which is when employees find it difficult to give themselves a break. This generally translates into coming into work even though they’re sick, not taking breaks, overworking themselves, and being unable to stop working (or thinking about work) outside of working hours.

 

 

  Why Mental Health Matters to Employers

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According to the Mental Health Foundation, around 12.7% of all sick days are a direct result of a mental health condition. What’s more, women are nearly twice as likely to have mental health issues compared to men. Businesses in the UK could save around £8 billion every year if these issues were better addressed – no small amount. Research by the Mental Health Foundation also suggested the following savings could be made by businesses:

• A company of 500 employees that invested £20,676 in workplace intervention and screening would see an increase in net profit by £83,278 over the next two years. 

• Investing around £80 in advice, risk assessment and workshops, as well as general well-being materials per employee per year, would result in a net return in savings of almost £350,000.

Additionally, the mental health charity Mind’s research concluded that:

• 21% of staff admitted they called in sick to avoid work when feeling stressed. 
• 30% felt they couldn’t talk openly about feeling stressed.
• 42% of staff had considered leaving their job in direct relation to workplace stress.
• 14% resigned as a direct result of stress. 

This makes it very clear that mental health is just as crucial as physical health to any workforce. The simple fact is that troubled or unwell employees are just not going to be productive. They’re also not going to be very good ambassadors for a business. We’ve all encountered people who are severely stressed as a result of work, or suffer anxiety as a result of their workplace. All this does is paint a company in a bad light. It could very easily mean a business misses out on attracting top-level talent as a result, too.

The good news is that over half (56%) of employers that took part in Mind’s research also said they wanted to do more to help staff wellbeing. The problem is that many businesses don’t feel they have the training or correct guidance to do this. It’s worth noting that Mind does have a comprehensive list of resources for companies that want to improve their employee wellbeing strategies.

 

  Addressing Mental Health at Work

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As we’ve touched upon above, there are several ways companies can address and potentially limit the negative impacts of mental health issues at work:

• Foster a communicative and supportive workplace. 
• Invest in risk assessment procedures, written resources, workshops, and seminars.
• Create an inclusive workplace culture. 

The list above isn’t exhaustive, of course, and there are many other ways that businesses can engage with, and ultimately help, their employees. Ultimately, everyone in the workplace needs to feel they can openly converse with anyone, especially managerial or designated HR staff, about both work and life matters – without fear of employment-related ramifications, or personal judgement.

It’s arguably more important than ever that UK businesses start doing more to mobilise in the face of mental health issues too, for a variety of reasons.

Firstly, the UK is currently in the midst of a serious skills shortage. Retaining talent has become a priority. While salary is certainly one way to entice better loyalty from staff, the reality is that many candidates prefer to work for companies with a supportive and inclusive culture than have a higher salary. This means that workplace schemes centred on helping employee mental health could lead to a higher retention rate, and inspire better loyalty.

Secondly, while employment levels remain high, productivity is seriously stalling. Any action that a business can take to boost output, especially in the consistently unpredictable Brexit environment, is something that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Overall, the need to address mental health issues in the workplace shows us one thing: compassion and profit are not, mutually exclusive values. Hopefully, this is something an increasing amount of forward-thinking companies will consider in the coming years. Both employees and employers end up reaping the benefits, after all. Everyone wins.