Heal Lift
Healing begins when you choose to take care of yourself and begin to self-love
Over the last four years, there has been a significant shift in the state of workplace mental health, which has been accelerated by the worldwide pandemic, racial justice movements, and other significant concerns. Since then, employers have made significant progress by offering more benefits, mindfulness training, meditation applications, mental health days, and awareness campaigns. These investments alone, meanwhile, are insufficient.
With Qualtrics, Mind Share Partners launched its biennial Mental Health at Work Report in 2019 to examine the dynamic terrain of workers' experiences and viewpoints around mental health, stigma, and the workplace. A national representative sample of 1,500 full-time American workers from historically marginalized groups, such as women, people of color, LGBTQ+ workers, and others, was also included in each. As found in Mind Share Partners' first-ever 2019 study, in terms of providing appropriate mental health care, most companies were only dipping their toes in spite of the steadily rising rates of mental health issues.
As mentioned in the 2021 report, during the pandemic, the prevalence of mental health issues has increased, and employment has become a bigger pressure on mental health. Employers were spending more on mental health services, such as mental health days, meditation applications, and benefits.
The Future of Work
Even the basic nature of labor itself has been changing in 2023. Workers are reassessing what matters most to them as the world recovers from the pandemic, which is causing bigger trends like the Great Resignation, quiet resigning, and more. Some have persisted in innovating and enhancing the work environment, such as by raising base pay, experimenting with four-day work weeks, and granting employees more freedom over where and how they work. Some have reduced their efforts in an attempt to return to the "pre-pandemic normal."
According to this year's survey, there are some new encouraging developments but overall mental health in the United States is not improving. Employees are showing signs of increased awareness about mental health at work and are searching beyond glitzy new tech and traditional benefits. They are seeking, more and more, mentally healthy communities, which is consistent with the results of study.
Between 2019 and 2021, there was a rise in mental health symptoms and a fall in the general perception of mental health among workers. Positively, a 20% decrease has been observed in the number of people reporting any symptoms in 2023. However, employees' ratings of their general mental health in the last year continued to fall when asked to rank it out of 10. 78% of respondents rated 2019 with a seven to ten score. That was 67% in 2021. 61% of respondents evaluated their mental health in 2023 between seven and ten, with money and the nature of job being the biggest factors negatively affecting mental health.
How is mental health seemingly improving and worsening at the same time?
A wide range of events can be associated with mental health, including problems like stress, bereavement, and burnout as well as diagnosable illnesses and symptoms. Additionally, the intensity of many mental health issues at the period was lessened after emerging from the pandemic's several crises.
However, workers stepped into a brand-new environment full of obstacles, including rising rates of poverty and economic disparity, layoffs, forced office returns, employers stepping up productivity, and escalating tensions between employers and employees as unionization gained traction. These include political, social, and economic issues. Furthermore, institutional measures are necessary to address these problems at their core, even while counselling and meditation may undoubtedly help a single worker manage. Numerous demographics, including youth, are still adjusting to crises.
As a result, many experienced an overpowering sense of, well, "blah," or as prominent organizational psychologist Adam Grant put it in 2021, "languishing."
Compared to counselling and self-care, investing in workplace culture works better.
Employer assistance for mental health has traditionally revolved around a productized, tailored approach that includes time off, apps, and therapy. This gives employees the tools they need to take care of their mental health on their own schedules away from the office. It also suggests that it ought to be handled privately and by oneself.
However, over the past few years, research on the connections between mental health and the nature of work has only been stronger. The World Health Organization characterized burnout in particular as having its roots in poorly managed working stress. According to renowned burnout researcher Christina Maslach, there are six primary elements that contribute to burnout in the workplace.
1. Unsustainable Workloads
2. Perceived Lack of Control
3. Insufficient Rewards for Effort
4. Lack of a Supportive Community
5. Lack of Fairness
6. Mismatched values and skills
When asked about the requirements of workers to maintain their mental health in order, a sustainable and health-conscious culture was rated as moderately, very, or extremely helpful by 78% of respondents. The next greatest percentages were 67% for a safe and encouraging culture around mental health, 64% for mental health treatment, and 60% for self-care tools.
As workers' awareness of mental health issues grew, so did their comprehension of the kind of support that goes beyond helping them get by at work. Employees now view mental health as a shared workplace duty as opposed to an individual one. It is becoming more and more important to reorient an organization's culture toward human well-being in order to enhance mental health at work.
Author
