“Citing long hours and excessive workloads, more than one-third of U.S. workers (34 percent) say their mental health is declining, according to a recent survey from The Conference Board, “reported by SHRM. “The survey of over 1,100 workers also uncovered a strong correlation between worsening mental health and decreased employee engagement, with nearly 70 percent of respondents who reported decreased mental health also reporting lower engagement.
Employees and organizations have both been under growing economic and cultural pressure in the past year, as employees have also increased their expectations for better work/life balance.
“Workers have been asking for more autonomy, flexibility and ownership over their experience of work,” said Bernard Wong, senior manager of insights and principal at Mind Share Partners, a nonprofit group focusing on workplace mental health. “But many employers have been doubling down on efforts to downsize people-related costs, maximize productivity, and even avoid contentious social and political issues. The constant push and pull has negatively impacted workplace mental health.”
Meanwhile, businesses are feeling financial pressure from higher interest rates. “So managers are getting squeezed and asked to do more with less, which gets passed on to employees,” said Sue Howard, president of consultancy HR BluePrints. “To make matters worse, many people have lost some of their social skills during the pandemic, making already difficult mental health conversations even tougher.”
The Roots of Burnout: Broken Workplace Cultures
The Conference Board report found the reasons behind worsening mental health included long hours and heavy workloads, two things Wong said “are largely driven by the employer side.”
“As valuable as health care benefits and self-care perks may be, they only equip employees to cope with fundamentally broken cultures of work, rather than addressing the root causes” of poor mental health, he said.
The close correlation between worsening mental health and reduced engagement is no surprise to Howard. “When an employee is having a mental health issue, it takes them much more energy and time to do their work, making them even more susceptible to burnout,” she said. “If an employee could instead take a break, organizations would actually see greater productivity and less burnout.”
Stigma Stops Conversations
The survey also found that 38 percent of workers didn’t feel comfortable talking to their manager about their mental health, a drastic increase from 18 percent a year ago. What’s stopping these important conversations that could result in people getting help?
“There’s still a lot of stigma around workplace mental health,” said Abbie Rosenberg, founder and executive director of the nonprofit Mental Health Collaborative, which provides training programs on workplace mental health. “One misunderstanding managers and employees sometimes share is that mental health challenges are character weaknesses or are somehow different from physical illnesses, which they’re not.”
The Company Chaplain adds: Spiritual care can add an important element to the traditional package of wellness benefits to assist those who are spiritual or religious, or those who avoid mental health care due to stigma.
We would never consider that spiritual care is a substitute for psycho-therapy or medical care. But it is a valuable option to consider if the goal is wellness, enjoyment of life, engagement with work and productivity.
And remember that although this survey and many others are talking about mental health, they are not talking about diagnosable mental health conditions. They are referring to the subjective experience of being worried, being exhausted, being overwhelmed by stress. The article goes on to highlight what workers say they need most–and again it’s not psychotherapy, it’s some much needed paid time off!
“More than half (55 percent) of respondents said that being able to take a guilt-free, paid-time-off day would be helpful for their mental health.”