Mental Health and Work
‘Work is at the very core of contemporary life for most people, providing financial security, personal identity, and an opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to community life.’
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) fact sheet: Facts about mental illness and work, August 1999 (www.nami.org)
A third of our life is spent at work, with our colleagues, managers and teams. A huge contributor to how we feel about our life is how we feel about our work and how our work makes us feel. It’s natural that our experiences in the workplace will have a huge impact on our mental health and our overall happiness. If you’re unhappy such a large percentage of your time, it can’t help but affect the other two-thirds of your life.
This week, as we recognise R U OK? Day – a day dedicated to shining a spotlight on mental health and suicide prevention – we thought it timely to remind ourselves of some of the main contributing factors to poor mental health in the workplace, and look at some positive ways of dealing with these.
WORKLOADS
Overworked, underpaid, underappreciated? How often have you heard someone say this? You might have even had cause to feel this way yourself. One of the most common sources of workplace stress is exceedingly high expectations in terms of workload, compounded by a feeling of being underappreciated and unrecognised by leaders in the organisation.
Positive step: If you’re a team member, speak up and let your manager know what’s going on if your workload is starting to feel unmanageable. It’s okay to ask for help. If you’re a leader, check in with your team members about their workloads, recognise their contributions regularly and show that them that they are valued by you and the organisation for their hard work.
LACK OF CONTROL AND AUTONOMY
We all want to be masters of our own destiny and this certainly applies to our careers. Feeling out of control and lacking any real say over your role and your work duties will have a significant negative affect on your productivity and your mental health.
Positive step: As an employee, you can ask for more freedom, suggest possible projects you can helm and even go as far as creating a career plan to review with your manager. As managers, we can encourage independence by stepping back and avoiding micromanagement of our team members, so that they truly get a chance to flourish.
POOR COMMUNICATION
Everyone wants a clear understanding of what their role entails and how it fits into and contributes towards the greater goals of the organisation. If you don’t have this, you’re likely to feel confused and stressed when you’re at work, which can very easily lead to that terrible feeling of dread at the start of each workday.
Positive step: Ask for clarification. Request guidelines. Simply speaking up to say that you’d really appreciate clearer instructions or better defined parameters for your role can help you to feel a little calmer and more in control. If you’re a manager, update and clarify your team member’s job descriptions so they know exactly what they need to do, and why it matters.
There are a variety of contributing factors to poor mental health in the workplace but there are many steps you can take to make positive changes. Those mentioned above are just a few of them. The very first commitment we should make is to embrace R U OK Day? every day. Check in with your team, your colleagues and even yourself. Opening up that line of communication can be a huge help for someone going through a tough time. Set yourself this goal today and take the first positive step towards improving mental health at your workplace.