Mental Health in The Workplace

Given the frequently serious consequences of mental health problems for individuals and their loved ones, there is a strong moral case for businesses to prioritize mental health in the workplace. Moreover, a growing body of studies and polling data suggests there’s an equally strong economic case for taking mental health seriously.

A Gallup poll from 2013 found that absenteeism due to depression alone costs U.S. employers approximately $23 billion per year in lost productivity. Add to this missed work days because of stress-related illnesses, addiction, and other common mental health disorders that afflict millions of people in our society, and the expenses can mount quickly.

Aside from reducing productivity losses and employee turnover, an effective approach to mental health in the workplace can raise workforce morale, and improve relations among employees and managers.

A work environment conducive to good mental health

A manager’s first priority should be to foster a salubrious work environment, and encourage sound habits and practices in general.

•  Keep stock of the essentials, like workplace safety, clean air, good hygiene and organization, proper equipment and training for all employees. Ensure that everyone knows and understands h/er own role and assigned tasks.

•  Promote mental health literacy in the workplace. Consider supplementing your organization’s current training regimen with expert seminars that address warning signs of mental health problems, stigma and unwarranted feelings of shame or embarrassment around mental illness, popular misconceptions about the mentally ill, and common but inaccurate descriptions of mental illness.

•  Involve staff members in decision-making. Ideally, they should feel that their point of view and individual agency are respected, as opposed to feeling like cogs in a machine who robotically follow orders.

•  Promote work-life balance by enabling staff to share the workload, and providing adequate vacation, sick leave, and family-related leave.

•  Insist on respectful behaviour and inclusiveness at every level of your organization.

•  Provide opportunities for skills acquisition and advancement.

•  Recognize and express gratitude for good work at all levels, and acknowledge individual employees’ contributions to the overall success of the enterprise.

•  Provide employee feedback mechanisms, and have an appropriate conflict resolution strategy.

•  Encourage openness, honesty, and respectful discourse around mental illness, emphasizing the notion that mental health challenges are nothing to be ashamed of. (This is especially important, since concealed mental health problems can undermine an employee’s performance and overall health.)

•  Remember that people with mental health challenges may be taking psychoactive medication as part of a treatment program, and/or attending regular therapy sessions. These obligations may preclude them from putting in long hours at work, or limit their flexibility in terms of shift-scheduling.

Aspects of the physical environment can also help to promote good mental health. For example, studies indicate that the presence of green plants in an office environment can help reduce negative emotions like stress, anger, and fatigue, while promoting focus, productivity, and job satisfaction. Nowadays, a growing number of office environments offer recreation spaces to help employees regain their focus, and some even have dedicated nap rooms!

Accommodating mental illness

Just as with physical disabilities and chronic conditions, reasonable accommodations can often be made for employees with mental health challenges, helping them perform to their full potential at work. The first and most crucial step is to overcome the stigma that our society has historically attached to mental illness, so that staff members who face mental health difficulties can freely articulate their needs.

Are Women Better Managers Than Men?

According to a Gallup survey published late last year, women in management positions in the U.S. tend to outscore men when it comes to employee engagement—which is a key predictor of productivity, job satisfaction, and employee loyalty. The polling organization concluded that American firms would benefit from promoting more women to positions of authority. This result suggests that not only is the advancement of women important from a social justice perspective; it is also a prudent business decision.

 

Of course, some qualification is necessary here. The world is home to excellent, mediocre, and lacklustre managers of both sexes, and the survey’s findings indicate a trend rather than a universal absolute. The average levels of employee engagement detected by Gallup are also disconcertingly low overall—from 25 to 35 percent. Nonetheless, the scores for female managers are superior across the board.

At least two questions spring to mind in response to the study: why do female managers tend to engage their employees more effectively than male managers? And what are some of the common traits that make female managers more successful, on average, than their male counterparts?

Gallup’s elements of great managing.

Gallup’s evaluation of employee engagement, and the questions it posed in its survey, are based on 12 elements of managing, all of which reflect aspects of employee engagement and productivity. Engaged employees are likelier to feel that they have a clear mission and the resources they need to do their job well; that managers take their opinions and ideas into consideration; that they have opportunities for career development and advancement within the organization; that their colleagues and superiors care about them and are invested in their success; and that they receive regular feedback and encouragement. Less-engaged employees may believe their work is not especially important or not valued by the organization; that they have no real avenue to growth and progress (i.e. that they are in a dead-end job); or that their managers and co-workers don’t care about them, either personally or professionally.

The survey indicates that female managers check in more often on the individual members of their team, provide greater feedback and positive reinforcement, and are likelier than male managers to praise good work.

The downside of manliness.

 The gender binary—that contrived line of demarcation that distinguishes “male” qualities from “female” qualities—informs the individual identity of most people in our culture, along with our social interactions, and our perceptions of each other. In childhood and adolescence, a lot of boys and young men are encouraged to adopt personality traits traditionally associated with masculinity: toughness, strength, dispassion, tolerance for pain and discomfort, independence, and an aversion to betraying any sign of vulnerability. (This is why so many men are reluctant to ask for directions when we are lost: because it would require us to acknowledge that we have a problem we can’t solve on our own.)

These stereotypically “manly” traits are not always useful in a modern office environment. To engage employees requires emotional tact and intelligence, and excellent communication and social skills. On average, women tend to have the upper hand in those departments.

Improving engagement.

Nearly all managers can bring about improvements in employee morale by attending to the core areas of engagement and job satisfaction. The advantages of better engagement include enhanced productivity, and improved chances of retaining highly skilled and desirable workers. The Gallup survey’s implications are clear: if employee engagement is one of your organizational priorities, you’ll improve your chances of achieving it by promoting more women to management positions.