The Mental Health of an employee and the Growth of the organization go hand in hand. If you want to elevate one, you must work on the other one.
The majority of the global population is working nowadays. However, do you know how many of them are facing mental health issues at their workplaces? 15 percent.
And According to CDC stats, 71% of adults are dealing with mental health consequences like headaches, stress, depression, and anxiety. Which, by the way, was 60% in 2016.
Doesn’t matter what type of industry you work in or what type of work flexibility you have like a remote, desk job, or a hybrid one; Mental health is an issue that is on a rise in today’s workplaces. You can blame it either on your Burdensome job, Home conflicts, or even Covid-19, but it’s the harsh truth.
It is frequently observed that people who are focused on their careers take longer to address their poor mental health. However, it’s not good. Allow us to explain.
Our Body and Mind are interconnected. So if one suffers, the other one suffers too. For instance, digestive problems and unexplainable body aches may result from anxiety, and insomnia may be brought on by stress.
And in the case of employees, it means less productive workers who are less engaged, less creative, and frequently absent from work.
The positive outlook of the workforce of an organization is the cornerstone for success. When people around you are in a good state of mind, they’ll work more efficiently and face challenges effortlessly.
On the other hand, an employee shrouded with negative emotions will find it challenging to do the daily tasks. That’s why managers or supervisors must understand the importance of mental health in the workplace more than ever.
In this article, we’ll discuss the consequences of Mental health in the workplace, and how to deal with it.
But, first, let us put some light on,
What Causes Mental Health problems in the Workplace
Workplace mental ups and downs may be influenced by a variety of work cultures. The most common of them are:
- High-Performance Standards: Workload, long working hours, and high-performance pressure can lead to total burnout of an employee’s mind, especially when he is not even paid extra.
- Little to No Support: It’s tough to survive in an environment where you’ve no one to assist with. And it gets worse if a superior or a coworker is harassing or bullying you.
- Career Stability: After the pandemic hit, companies had to cut down their spending, hence millions of us have lost our jobs. Nobody understands the suffering and insecurities it induced in everyone’s minds better than us. Particularly for those who work daily to meet the ends.
- Work-Life Balance: Managing work-life and family well is hard for some. This can create extra stress in one’s life and make it hard to focus on work when your mind is at home.
- Poor Communication: Good communication between coworkers is the absolute thing for a sound mind at work. However, if that’s not the case, it is going to tarnish your overall mental well-being.
The Impacts of Mental Health in the Workplace
An unsound mind can result in many things that can adhere to the workplace environment like:
• Employee Performance and Productivity: Mental and psychological issues can greatly hinder the employee’s productivity and performance, as they are directly linked. Long-term mental health conditions result in lower cognitive functioning and can affect one’s decision quality badly. Moreover, it can produce depression and anxiety co-affecting one’s concentration and optimism.
• Involvement in Work: When our state of mind is not good, we’re less likely to do any work. And even if we complete any task, it won’t be as productive as it should be aka Presenteeism. A study suggests that an average worker loses around 54 productive days per year because of presenteeism alone, which costs millions to an average organization.
• Poor Interaction with Colleagues: A human is a social person and will always be. However, a higher level of stress at work can increase social anxiety (one doesn’t want to interact with people around them), making us confined to our shells. This can further increase depression, costing us the quality of relationships both at work and at home.
• Prone to illness: You might have heard this saying, “Healthy body, Healthy mind.” But, do you know it works the other way around too? According to a study, people with mental illnesses are more likely to develop a wide range of weird illnesses, such as cancer, asthma, diabetes, heart disease, fatigue, body aches, headaches, and fatigue.
• Absenteeism: One of the side effects of poor mental health in the workplace is Absenteeism. It is defined as, “a habitual pattern of absence from a duty or obligation without good reason.” Simply put, it’s a hindrance to the growth of any business because the work isn’t completed on time, which is a waste of resources and time.
• Substance use: Substance use at work is getting so common these days. Low self-esteem, incapability to handle tasks, and lack of time management, all of these are some side effects of workplace drug use. Employers may bear the biggest financial burden because these workers may harm the environment for others as well.
• Poor quality of life: A person who is struggling with mental health issues is often a mess. They eventually fall behind in everything. Their capacity to carry out daily tasks declines, which causes them to struggle at work, at home, and ultimately in life.
How to Improve Mental Health in the Workplace
Having a successful business is every employer’s dream. He ought to take action if anything stands in the way of his objective. And the Low mental health of employees is such a thing. Handling it in the right way can save your employees and contribute to the success of your business.
Promoting Awareness about Mental Health
Promoting employee awareness of mental health is the first action to take. This will assist in identifying it as soon as possible. If everyone knows what it is and how badly it hits a person and businesses, they’ll automatically support and encourage the person who is struggling with it. It would then become a normal case rather than gossip.
Focusing on Health along with Work
Our health is very vulnerable to stress. Supervisors and managers should promote healthy eating and physical activities like exercising at work. This will improve the health of your employees, enabling them to work enthusiastically and thus increase productivity.
Managing the Workload of Employees
Supervisors can periodically check on how well their employees are handling work pressure. They should offer flexible working hours and modify workloads accordingly. Apart from this, they should prioritize important tasks, set achievable goals, and give considerable breaks.
Encouraging Employee’ Participation
Organizing enjoyable activities at work and inviting stressed employees to participate are other ways to encourage them to come out of their shells. This creates a positive environment at the job and takes them off the edge.
Takeaway
The employee’s mental health in the workplace is detrimental to the growth of businesses. Creating a psychologically safe workplace for your employees is the most important thing leaders can do. Taking it seriously, acting upon it, and supporting those who are struggling with it is a necessity. Because everyone deserves a healthy working environment.