Employee Mental Health Conditions

358 Words2 Pages
Is your workplace harming your mental health? Employed adults spend many of their waking hours in the workplace. There is no doubt that the work environment can impact on our mental health in either positive or negative ways. Workplaces that are not supportive can cause stress and anxiety for workers, which can, over extended periods of time, lead to mental health problems. While employers are typically quick to recognize that they need to offer programs and services to help employees who are experiencing mental health issues get better, they are more reluctant to accept that they may play a role in actually creating mental health problems for their employees. A recent research report, Building Mentally Healthy Workplaces: Perspectives of Canadian Workers and Front-Line Managers, found that less than half of employees (46%) say their workplace promotes a mentally healthy work environment. But what does a mentally health workplace look like? To employees, it’s a work environment where they have a manageable amount of work to accomplish in a day; where there is flexibility in how, when, and where they work; where they can have a life outside of the workplace; where people are friendly; where they have a good manager; and where communications are open and honest. So why would employers be reluctant to strive for this type of environment? Part of the challenge is that when employers think about managing employee workloads or allowing employees to have good work-life balance, they worry about decreases in productivity. But this is a very short-sighted view. Employees that are overworked, stressed, anxious, and develop mental health problems as a result cannot sustain their productivity over the long-term. Unhealthy workplaces lead to unhealthy workers. In other words, nobody wins. There is an important role for employers to play in creating the kinds of conditions

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