World Mental Health Day

Mental Health at Work

For this year’s World Mental Health Day, the WHO has chosen to focus on Mental Health at Work.

While some of you might think “this didn’t use to be a thing” and have possibly suffered the mental health consequences of a toxic workplace; others have spoken up about the dangers of not taking mental health at work seriously. I might be one of those people and I’m nowhere near done.

Quick summary: being a complete dick to your employees was never okay. PERIOD. That people or companies are being called out for it now is a good development. That the WHO are focusing on it today and are giving actual examples – even better.

I’m talking about your average employee and employer. I do realize that additional steps need to be taken for employees with mental health disorders etc. Since I’m lacking the psychological background and knowledge to speak to that, I’m sticking to all of us who don’t live with a (diagnosed) mental health disorder. Sending hugs of support to all those who do.

The WHO have published Guidelines on mental health at work. It’s a 134-page document. I have linked the page where you can find it below. I will admit that I have not read that entire document. I only scanned the policy brief that can be found on the same page.

I would like to have a look at page 10 of this document with you. It’s a table with Examples of psychosocial risks at work and organizational interventions that employers can take to address them.

I would change the “can take” to “must take”. To me this should be the bare minimum companies do. But hey, that’s just me.

from WHO

I’m not going to talk about all of those. As I said these measures should be the base line and then you can add more. If a company can’t even get those right, maybe they shouldn’t be employing people.

I’m speaking from Switzerland – just for reference. Happy to share some red flags that are related to “organizational culture” based on my experience. The more an organization talks about how innovative they are – well, usually not so much. Also, if “appreciative and respectful company culture” is mentioned over and over again. RUN! I mean, why the need to highlight this? Shouldn’t that be – again – the bare freaking minimum? Similar with open communication. They hardly ever mean what I would consider open communication.

Yikes, this might turn into a rant. It was not meant that way. There is just so much companies could and should do – and it’s infuriating to witness how they don’t.

The list on page 10 of the document goes on. So much can be said about how incidents of harassment or poor line management (to name just two) are dealt with. If you create a toxic work environment you can’t then go and accuse your employees of not being able to cope with stress. That’s not how it works. Sorry. Again … very basic.

from WHO

Of course, there can be times when a role in an organization is unclear. Some companies make it a general rule to re-organize their entire enterprise on a yearly basis. Not a helpful practice. There were lists of who gets moved or fired going around every year when I still worked at a large Swiss bank. If you knew the right people, you knew which list you were on about a month in advance. Just imagine the unnecessary stress that caused.

There is really so much employers can do. It just doesn’t seem all that complex. And I think investing the time and effort is worth it in the long run. No more employees on sick leave, no more high staff turn-over, no more trouble hiring new talent, no more massive overtime for those left behind. All possible.

We live in times where we can no longer pretend not to know about the long-lasting negative effects a toxic workplace can have on people’s mental health. We can no longer pretend not to know how to fix it – it is well documented. We can no longer pretend to work in an industry where we can’t treat people humanely. Come on!

As I wrote in my book (OY! PAY ATTENTION!) once you start paying attention, you notice all those subtle giveaways that usually go unnoticed. Why would a company tell its employees in big huge letters on a billboard or in a presentation how much they value them? Wouldn’t employees that are truly valued already know that? I mean – seriously, wouldn’t they?

Yes, it is up to us first and foremost to take care of our mental health. No question there. But we spend so much time every week at our workplace that Mental Health at Work is too important a topic to ignore. I love that the WHO has picked up on that. Time for companies to step up and do their part.

I will certainly continue to speak up.

Have a lovely day and be gentle with yourselves.

P.S. on job interviews:

Some thoughts on job interviews. Big red flag if you can’t talk to the person who had the job before you. Unless that person has died, there is no reason not to. Sorry. They want to talk to your former bosses or other references too, don’t they? Of course, some companies will pretend it’s a newly created position to get around that. Do they think we’re stupid?

One could also ask for a recent example of direct and open communication – company-wide and within the team you’re applying for. Try it. It can be fun.

More obvious red flags? “How would you deal with a manager that has an anger management problem?”. Well, why are you employing a manager that has such a problem? And why should I be the one making accommodations for that?

Also, if a company says they don’t have any conflicts and then goes on to say that they call it something different. Well, you know …

I just realized that I have a long list of those. Might warrant a separate newsletter. Stay tuned.

Notes

World Mental Health Day (who.int)