What Your Employer Should Do to Maintain Your Mental Health
We spend almost half of our waking hours at work (how’s that for depressing thoughts?), So if your workplace is filled with stress or bullies and stalkers, your mental health could be hurt. Today, on World Mental Health Day , the World Health Organization wants your employer to know they can and should keep you mentally healthy.
This is not a losing battle either: work is actually good for mental health. If you have a shitty job, it may seem backward, but think about a job you had (or one that you imagined) that is enjoyable and fulfilling. Good work keeps your mind and body engaged, empowers you to develop skills, and enhances your sense of identity and personal achievement, according to the Royal College of Psychiatrists .
By working, you also increase your social connections and make money. This is all a recipe for good mental health. All your employer has to do is not screw it up.
Don’t put too much pressure on workers
The World Health Organization guidelines make an important distinction between pressure and stress. Stress is what you feel; pressure is the demands that come from the job. There is a lot of pressure on a shitty job and it’s impossible to handle. For example, tight deadlines and a ton of work that can’t be done on time.
To avoid constant stress, the pressure must match your ability and resources. In a healthy workplace, there will be an opportunity to delegate or divide work or soften deadlines. And management will understand that if there is too much work to be done, it is their problem, not the fault of the workers who are simply trying to keep up.
Stopping bullies and stalkers
We are all adults here. But sometimes conflicts at the Lord of the Flies level can occur in the workplace. To be clear: this is not normal . Your bosses may not be aware that this is happening, or they may be involved themselves, making sexist or racist comments, or giving you worse jobs because they just don’t like you. There is also a psychological phenomenon, sometimes referred to as mobbing , in which a well-connected person can turn the opinions of others against you.
Mobbing and intimidation thrive where culture allows. The World Health Organization has guidance on how to identify and prevent emotional abuse in the workplace, and they note that this usually happens when management uses discriminatory and fear-based tactics to maintain the status quo and whether or not they deliberately encourage competition. With this approach, here’s a recipe for backstabbing and intimidation:
Chronic understaffing and severe job constraints “create dissatisfaction, fatigue and a sense of inability to change the work environment. The tension can be transferred to colleagues, family and friends. “
Poorly formulated tasks or disorganized work “allows colleagues and superiors to take advantage of the situation.”
Excessive Hierarchy : “Mobbing is more frequent when the only core value of the company is hierarchy or when there are multiple chains of directions.”
Lack of instructions and information , because of which people do not understand how to do something, why they do it and how much time they have.
Employers are required to organize the workplace so that none of this happens. Everything above is under their control: they can define tasks, keep workloads consistent, and not give your boss more power than they really need to get the job done.
Your company should also pay attention to whether a harassment is happening and nip it in the bud; just hoping for a friendly workplace is an ineffective strategy.
Providing mental health support no matter where your problem comes from
Even the best workplace will have employees with mental health problems. This is because many people have mental health problems ( according to the National Alliance for Mental Illness, 19 percent of us every year). Your employer needs to help you get the help you need, because it’s good for them to have happy and functional employees, and because, of course .
An employer who cares about the mental health of their employees should do things like:
- First and foremost , preventing mental health problems and understanding that this is important.
- Offering help even before employees ask for it . You don’t have to dig through the fine print in your employee handbook to see if you have an Employee Assistance Program that provides quick access to therapy, drug dependence treatment, and more.
- By offering an insurance plan with good enough coverage so that you can afford to see a therapist or get any treatment you need. Disability insurance can also help if you are unable to work, so a good disability plan is important as well.
- Considering your needs before, after and during a mental health crisis . Maybe you need an extra day off, or a flexible work schedule, or a quieter place to work.
Like a cog in a corporate machine, you may not have enough authority to change the way your company handles mental health problems. But if you are a manager or someone from a senior executive, think about what you can accomplish and make it clear to your superiors that mental health is important.