Mental Health in the Workplace

In the 1960’s film and television were culpable in how they portrayed characters with mental health issues; think Alfred Hitchcock. Five decades on we embrace characters like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory despite his obvious OCD and Asperger’s Syndrome. He is portrayed as having somewhat of a decent social life and definitely a successful career.

The wonderful widespread acceptance of conditions like this has paved its way into the workplace over the years but I fear not as much as it needs to. This is a huge problem because mental illness is widespread and affects members of our families, our friends and certainly our workmates. According to Australian Bureau of Statistics (2008) around 1 million Australian adults live with depression and over 2 million have anxiety. On average, one in five women and one in eight men will experience depression in their lifetime. One in three women and one in five men will experience anxiety.

Considering the enormity of these figures it’s troubling to think many employees are likely to suffer in disguise, too afraid to disclose out of fear of missing out on promotions, worse still out of fear they may lose their job should their manager consider their condition a burden to the business. ‘Rubbish’ I hear a Commissioner at Fair Work say, there is a’ General Protections’ law to protect employees. BUT who wants to go to the Commission? Who has the money and time? Why expose a private matter? And what if you lose? An employer can successfully argue that the employee is unable to carry out the “inherent requirements” of the job.

So what to do? The onus needs to be on the Employer and how they manage what is a very real issue within the workplace. The employer needs to acknowledge that mental health issues can have a significant impact on absenteeism, reduced productivity at work and increased staff turnover. Untreated anxiety and depression can also have an effect on workplace relationships and team cohesion.

Where to start? Firstly get over it. People will suffer from mental health problems and if they get help they will usually recover. If you think about it we never worry about anybody taking time off from work because they break a bone or have an asthma attack. So the stigma attached to mental health conditions needs to go, it’s an illness like any other.

There are wonderful managers out there, I’ve coached many and they are caring people who want to help their staff. But if they are not coached and developed in how to manage staff that may be impacted by a mental health condition they are left feeling helpless. I’m not saying they need to become counsellors, leave that to the experts.

There is an amazing initiative called Heads Up which is all about giving individuals and businesses the tools to create more mentally healthy workplaces. Developed by the Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance and beyondblue it calls on business leaders to make a commitment and take action in the workplace. Their website provides a wide range of resources, information and advice for individuals and organisations. What they offer is simple, practical and, importantly, achievable guidance.

We have some work to do but importantly we are on our way to improving the lives of those who deserve better.

Hope this helps.

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