Companies turn more and more to — and talk more frequently about — mental health today. However, workers don’t observe the rise of well-being.Why? In his book published last year on work and mental health, author examines several key areas where companies are falling short in their drive to build a caring culture at the workplace. In addition, we lists five recommendations which companies can implement to improve the well-being of their employees.
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| Photo: Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels |
“This could be the first time in my life that I feel so seen.” Conversational English: It may be the first time in my life that I really experience being seen.
This feedback — which I have outlined as the constant drift ever since the release of my book, The Anxious Achiever, over the last year — makes me feel grateful. Additionally, that provokes my anger.
Every day,the box of mine is filled with the subjects those will burn your teary eyes.. The other day I completed a quick poll on LinkedIn and about 87% of 1228 people replied that it was their fellow workers, the clients, the boss or the stressful work situation in general that caused negative physical symptoms like migraines, nausea, hair loss, sleep problems, weight changes, autoimmune episode, and panic attacks.
And this does not just affect my neighborhood but it becomes a nationwide problem. The 77% of employees, as stated in the Workplace State of Mind report by Headspace in 2024, are dealing with work-related stress that affects their physical health. On the other hand, 71% of employees are having relationship-related issues outside the workplace. According to a May 2023 Gallup and Workhuman survey, only 21% of the people believed that their organization was focused on their well-being which is nearly 6 times amount people who felt the same in before Covid-19.
What happened? Whilst dialogue and mental benefits were come up with the perception of has still been little shifted. In her speech, Natasha Bowman, mental health expert, talked about how empathy and compassion took center stage during the pandemic. She is now seeing the shift back to the pre-pandemic negligence of DEI/well-being programs. People are not acting up in many cases. "Today, the workers are no longer in need only of a paycheck; they also want protection their mental health needs. It’s not only ticking life off checklists, it’s about creating a working environment in which people feel de facto empowered to address self-care issues, without the fear of being reprimanded.
I couldn’t agree more. I thought, it is important for all companies and employees globally to realize this is a critical moment and in this regard, I want to share with you my honest state of workplace mental health which I carefully picked up from various wise people as well as from hundreds of speeches and my talks on company mental health since my book launch.
Begin with the Work
The workplace mental health of today's times deal with the what, how, and where aspects of how we are employed. Life advice such as putting your phone away in the evening.
Don't make the generic plan of actions and focus exactly on the specific jobs you need and how you can better help them to fulfill these tasks. For example, imagine a large hospital system: For the ER psych team the job of workplace mental health is going to differ from the traders dealing to billing reconciliation of balance sheets because both the jobs are very different. Advice from flexible workplace expert Cali Yost should be the cornerstone of any well-being initiative: The principle on which you should build is identifying what needs to be done to have teams work together, organizational work, and for people to be their best possible. Research for JMMA concisely shows that psychologically distress is not as high in those who practice flexible working conditions, and anxiety symptoms are also lower among them
There have been many efforts to move forward with “return to work” mandates, however these policies uniformly have failed. They don’t make sense and can easily be disregarded as uniform work styles have evolved. Jim Mortensen, president of R3 Continuum, a leading workplace behavioral health provider, says: "Physical medical issue handling ability of the general practitioner cannot match with the problem employee base has.While one behavioral health solution will not come to solve employees' challenge fully." It is being able to acknowledge complexity a company consists of as well as get familiarized with particular stresses for each specific enterprise which, virtually always, differ. In case you don’t adjust your solutions to the problems the people come with, you can’t reach the outcomes you aim at.
Do Not Depend on External Sources for Behavior Change
Usually, the companies outsource or have a health and wellness consultant appointed. But at the same time, no one from the senior leaders and managers are engaged in the health and well-being of the workforce internal champions. And the other, company concentrates the work on human resources again or an internal wellness team. Either way, you need to bring the organizations management who have the day-to-day power to change how the workplace engages their employees with mental health processes within organizations.
This case illustrates the dilemma in which Newton Cheng, one of the leaders, finds himself. He was once an engineer and now he serve as the head of health and performance in Google but he is also one of the most passionate guy in the mental health of big organizations and can never be ignored. Cheng not only goes public about his own mental health problems which helps him identify with a mass employee base but also works on change that comes as a result of altering a big system, dealing with bureaucracy while at the same time meeting the existing business goals.
In a conversation I had with him, Cheng reflected on why his mental health workshops around Google are successful: "I am an invisible member of their stigma. I am like them, no better than them. I am modeling them in the same organizations they are. Gosh, it is not always easy at all to be willing to do something about mental health until you see someone who works the moment you look.
Of you it depends, no doubt certain clinicians and practitioners reinforce leaders in understanding of psychiatric problems and how to talk about them. However, managers are the guys who handle experts as much as they are the guys who help other organization administrators. So Haven says Newton is very clear in stating a point that becoming this leader ran for them a long course that took some kind of re-seming and risky trails. Organisations that focus on developing mentally healthy cultures must proceed with the hiring process of nationally recognised and highly successful insiders who should be prepared to 'wear the mantle' and emerge with the core leading role instead. Others will follow!
Encourage Dialogue Among Generations and Genders - Improve the Communication Between People from Different Age Groups and Ranges
There are two big elephants that need to be broached. (Two elephants that need to be talked about are there in the room.) The first thing that needs to be addressed is that all different generations at their workplaces, and not only youth, have difficulties with their emotional experience, they also want to talk about and share their feelings. Secondly, both men and women are often concerned about emotional disclosure at workplace, but it is more than likely to have stigma for men. What ways do workplaces aim to eradicate these biases?
Let us begin by improving the mental health literacy in every part of the company. Language, and background constitute essential elements for communication, and when there isn’t any of them, stereotypes and prejudices may flourish. A young person that has gotten used for talking more about the mental health topic since he grew up in an environment where it was more accepted tends to speak more openly about it than previous generations. Nevertheless, terms abuse (OMG I had a total panic attack) opens the comments up to easy dismissal and diminishing. Provide training to everyone in order to know the fundamental facts on mental health.
A closer inspection is also mandatory to make sure that men are talking and visible. If your organization leans toward women's health rather than men's, women should be your first target audience. I recall a “manvangelist” as he spoke about mental health to which I realize that dismantling the gender bias against emotions at work is an invaluable work to do.
Finally, give generations their own spaces to share: Mental health is a holistic dialogue; we are made from a variety of experiences that may be transferable or not. Sharing the spheres of references with other people of same generation or other generation helps, in this particular way, to interact.
Show the Patience to Invest in the Right things in Life.
There’s not any app that will automatically put smile on workers’ faces. Reinventing the mental health of an organization is to change its fundamentals and the process has to start with its leaders. Psychologist Emily Anhalt says organizations must embrace this reality: "It’s not a simple and overnight passing. It’s a never-ending quest that you have to choose to be for your sake."
From my point of view, these two aspects of a journey are most worthwhile.
To begin with, know for sure that technology will never cure our mental ailments; technology itself is a part of the cause. All communication nowadays is peppered with despair that our phones and our senses of self-determination were defeated. The hyper-responsive cycle of being always connected makes anxiety at work worse than it was before. We need the coping strategies on mental health that take into account the disproportionate role of technology in our work life, where it wreaks considerable damage on our mental health.
First of all, take in consideration that work is all about humans and it is humans that are complicated and messy. "Very much each mental health problem that an individual has, at its essence is a problem of relationships, Anhalt reminds us." “Companies have to be willing to get in there and help people actually feel met and heard and seen and connected.” Here’s the wonderful thing: When employees have a place to express their ideas, ask questions and are given thoughtful strategies, the employees feel met and heard and seen and connected. A winning combination!
Concluding on it umwelt leadership is responsible for the employee's mental health must invest in the long and it must build trust with employees gradually. This such an approach does not hold in the cases of the businesses that are bound to the short-term interest and the pressure from shareholders but there is a growing interest now among the practitioners of the field of human sustainability as well as the US Surgeon general’s framework like workplace mental health and wellness These are just a couple of examples of the many things turning up my hopes and getting closer to the mood changes required. Whether these ideas can at some point “cool things” with corporate meat-heads or not remains to be seen.
Walk the Talk
Workplace mental health is at the center of most of the things we regard as personal at work. The future of our planet and its inhabitants, including our children, depends on our collective action in preserving it.
Whether you hold a board-level position or you’re about to start your career in the organization, if mental health is important to you, be prepared to stick to it. Anhalt pointed out out that the reason there are a lot more mental health benefits to such work now is that the majority of people had put their foot down and said ‘no’ I will not continue working in this company if this is all what this job framework is’
I believe that one day the mental health of workers won’t be an issue that those of us who deal with it need to make so many efforts to convince business administrators to invest in it. When Schmitt Winchester, a former CHRO at Applied Materials and author of Healing at Work, says,” It is the matter which is keeping me up at night that now we are doing a type of push for the trauma-informed corporate transformation and that is with companies and leaders,” she means her current essential work is non-passive but very active. “Well, ‘My fantasy is that there is a time when the leaders are supporting us in the work because they have got a complete understanding of the connection between leader and employee wellness and everything else they cherish, such as starting from culture, performance, productivity, employee experience, etc.’”
Similarly, leaders must, not only do the practical work of contacting their constant derived emotions but also learning how those emotions of theirs color their work life. This serves to normalize discussions on mental health by revealing the lifestyle habits the celebrities employ to maintain their mental wellbeing, even those that are having a positive impact on them.
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