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The importance of ensuring mental health at the workplace
Summary
Creating supportive environments where employees feel heard and understood, and believe that they can bring their whole self to work is the need of the hour.
Every year 10 October is celebrated as World Mental Health Day and this year the theme was mental health at work. The call to action was “It’s time to prioritise mental health in the workplace". This theme was chosen by a voting process that was open to the members of World Federation for Mental Health, stakeholders, supporters and the public.
The vote brings into focus a topic that has implications for personal health, family health and societal health. The World Health Organization’s website says that depression and anxiety result in the loss of around 12 billion workdays each year. We spend a large part of our life and close to 80% of each day at the workplace. It is important to work towards creating a workplace culture that allows for safety at the psychological and emotional levels.
Creating supportive environments where employees feel heard and understood, and most importantly, believe that they can bring their whole self to work is the need of the hour. Retrenchment, layoff fears, workplace biases, ageism, pay parity and struggles with different generations are some topics that come up in therapy sessions.
My experience as a psychotherapist and workplace consultant tells me that in the last few years, there has been a greater conversation on mental health, burnout and safe spaces in organisations, mainstream media and at a global level. This is based on the premise that building emotionally safe spaces can allow everyone not just to cope better but also flourish and experience satisfaction.
Since the pandemic, I have been seeing a conscious shift towards individuals choosing organisations with a culture that allows for conversations about mental health, and where there is space for dialogue and for top-level executives who are vulnerable about their mental health challenges.
Mental health at the workplace needs to become an ongoing mandate, not just limited to a crisis or a celebration of a specific day. This rests on a holistic approach, comprising policies that account for mental health challenges, and consistent efforts and resources dedicated to address mental health concerns. At state and national levels, we need government bodies and leaders who become ambassadors to lead these conversations and set protocols to prioritise mental health of employees.
Also read: How to deal with loneliness at work
Senior leaders often tell me that one of their biggest challenges is lack of financial resources dedicated towards getting mental health professionals to host important conversations or offer training that can sensitise managers and employees. How we address this crucial piece will have an impact on our country’s mental health in the years to come.
We need to be mindful that poor employee health comes with costs in terms of productivity and absenteeism and impacts organisational growth. This serves as a reminder that the resources organisations invest in employee well-being can have huge returns on investment when it comes to overall organisational health, increased efficiency, productivity and satisfaction levels.
The more organisations listen and pay attention to their employees’ anxieties, look closely into where these fears are coming from and actively engage in addressing them, the sooner we can move towards managing the concerns and building spaces where there is greater transparency and safety, and lesser anxiety. Building room for all kinds of loss, making space for psychological flexibility, and creating safe spaces where employees and senior leaders can openly talk about mental and emotional health concerns is a starting point that can help develop psychological safety and better emotional health in the long run.
Sonali Gupta is a Mumbai-based psychotherapist. She is the author of the book You Will be Alright : A Guide to Navigating Grief and has a YouTube channel, Mental Health with Sonali.
