Mental Health at work
Certainly, you’ve heard the saying, “Your health is your wealth”.
We are always told physical health is important.
What about other forms of health? As human beings, we also have mental and emotional faculties that make up who we are.
The question therefore remains, what needs to be undertaken to ensure that mental health is conducive for a productive workplace?
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Why is promoting positive mental health in the workplace important?
As the world becomes more connected and advanced, there are also alarming reports of stress, depression, mental breakdowns, illnesses and even suicide.
These developments lead to the conclusion that health is not restrictive to our physical bodies. Therefore, when it comes to the modern workplace, high levels of stress, anxiety and frustration can hinder the performance of an individual as well as the organisation. If a company’s human capital is compromised, its operations tend to follow suit.
How to manage stress and anxiety
How does mental health affect an employee’s performance?
If individuals cannot function as expected, there is a loss in terms of productivity and profitability. One critical aspect of mental health is that one “insignificant” issue can lead to other problems which may be detrimental to the individual and company. Often mental health is not discussed until people are usually past the point of productivity.
As such, mental health affects performance in a variety of ways. These include:
- Inability to concentrate on the job
- Irritability with other members of staff
- Sub-standard work that contains discrepancies, errors and omissions
- Frequent absenteeism
- Withdrawal from colleagues and inability to work within a team
- Poor employee morale due to anxiety, depression, or other issues
- Breakdown of team spirit and manager/employee relations
How to promote mental health in the workplace?
To maintain optimum mental health and performance, there are several actions that can be taken:
Take care of the physical
Mental health, can start by how we treat ourselves. Physical health is intrinsically linked with mental health. For example, exercise has shown to not only provide physical benefits, but also mental clarity. Certain foods as well, have been known to nourish the body and provide mental alertness and increased brain activity. Therefore, exercise and proper nutrition can be a great foundation to taking care of one’s mental health.
Fill up on oxygen
Breathing exercises have been a popular form of stress release as well as promote healthy wellbeing. A few seconds of deep breathing can re-focus your thoughts, make your more relaxed as greater oxygen is supplied to your body.
Find balance and establish boundaries
Busy individuals often take work home, come into the office early, work overtime as well as through lunch hours and skip breaks. This routine lacks balance and can lead to mental decline.
To avoid this, take scheduled breaks. Take some weekends off and spend with family. Work life balance does not always have to be 50-50, but there has to be a boundary between your personal and professional life. Integrating the two will lead to a sense of mental fatigue and overwhelm.
Refrain from detrimental behaviours
Healthy behaviours will ease tensions, anxiety or stress. For example, replace alcohol, late nights, endless scrolling through social media and excess caffeine with meditation, increased water intake, productive learning and family time. Engage in behaviours that help you to feel more energetic and alive as opposed to lethargic and depressed.
Get sufficient sleep
Sleep works wonders for your physical and mental abilities. During sleep, the mind rejuvenates itself and provides you with the mental clarity and alertness you need for daily activities.
Let go of the self-deception
Many employees buy into this idea that they must compromise sleep, comforts and work late in order to be a top performer. Rest assured the only person you’re abusing through overwork is yourself. No organisation can thrive with fatigued employees.
Trust
Human beings are social animals and this quality allows us to thrive mentally and emotionally. Incorporate time with family, friends, laughter and enjoyable experiences with people you can trust and confide in to keep your mental health at an optimum.
How can employers promote mental health in the workplace?
Employers ought to cultivate a workplace culture when mental health can be discussed openly, yet privately. Doing so will erase the stigma associated with mental health and establish trust. Employers can:
Promote a healthy workplace attitude
Establishing an open-door policy for discussions, maintaining confidentiality and ongoing support can help promote a healthy workplace culture.
Encourage teamwork
Employees who recognise their importance to the team and the additional support they have in challenging work periods are likely to maintain a healthy stress and cognitive balance. Employers can build this cohesiveness and support through team building activities and group exercises to foster unity and synergy.
Training and education
Given the correlation of mental health and employee performance, it is critical that employers invest in programs. These programs can educate employees on the importance of mental health and steps to ensure optimum mental clarity and performance. Maintaining the services of EAP (Employee Assistance Programs) is also critical in the event team members need professional assistance in dealing with a work-related issue.
What are the benefits for employers?
Promoting mental health as part of workplace culture, not only results in a happier and healthier staff, but earns the company social respect and trust.
Other benefits include:
- Employee productivity and loyalty
- Highly motivated workforce
- Cost-effective in terms of saving time and resources which would have been wasted as a result of absenteeism, poor output and medical costs
- Fostering an ideal workplace culture for everyone
- Makes the employers job less stressful as employees are motivated, performing and responsive.
Mental health in the workplace – Legal requirements
Mental health has become increasingly recognised as a legitimate condition with many forms of legislation being passed around the world, to protect employees from the stigma of mental health and maintain their rights as individuals.
Within recent years, state collaborations with organisations such as Healthy Caribbean Coalition as well as The Pan-American Health Organisation have worked to educate the public about types of mental health disorders, eradicate the stigma and discrimination as well as provide resources for persons seeking treatment. This has resulted in different legislation being incorporated as part of Equal Employment Act in different Caribbean territories.
Trinidad and Tobago for example, has revised its Mental Health Act which governs the treatment and placement of persons with mental health issues. This Act which can be accessed at Legalaffairs.gov.tt
