Mental Health

Let’s talk about mental health. What is it? It’s how you feel, what you are thinking, and it’s a direct result of our life experiences. Our mental health shows up in how we engage with life, friends, work, as well as in our expectations for our personal and professional progress.

Unfortunately mental health carries a stigma, and it does not care about your race, gender, or nationality. And because in part we have internalized this stigma, we too may have barriers to allowing ourselves to connect with the possibility that we may have mental health problems we need to attend to. We may also battle with identifying the signs of a family member or colleague struggling with mental health.

Does Mental Health Affect Career Progression?

The subject of mental health is one that is often accompanied by the burden of stigma. Sadly, the stigma creates a barrier to the most important factor: communicating about the facts and interventions for managing mental health. Perhaps more concerning about stigma attached to mental health is the perception that having a mental health condition means a loss of competence. Let’s explore how the behaviours of mental health show themselves.

Mental illness is the number one contributor of absenteeism in the workplace (Petrie et al, 2018), which is largely due to depression and anxiety. The face of these common but often misunderstood mental illnesses often appear through certain behaviours and conditions that can be missed. These include sickness and poor health, reduced productivity, accidents, impaired decision making, low motivation and commitment, ineffectiveness and poor time management, increased tension between colleagues, poor relationships with clients, and a rise in disciplinary issues (Harnois & Gabriel, 2000). Presenteeism, or loss of productivity due to working while sick, further impacts on the losses the economy experiences. Admittedly, this long list of extremely concerning behaviours observed in an individual working in an organisation is bound to draw attention. It would even demand a response according to labour relations.

The impact on one’s ability to be present at work is a captivating reason to take a closer look at how a mental health challenge can affect career progression.

Stigma, competence and perceptions

In the work place our sense of accomplishment is determined by our ability to apply ourselves to the work responsibly and efficiently. Similarly, our identity as a worker is presumed through our application of self to tasks, clients, and colleagues. Many of us want our names to be associated with excellence and achievement in our organisations, especially by decision makers. Opportunities to grow and have greater relevance and competence are readily available to us when we can prove our competence. What happens to our upward mobility when a temporal set back becomes a mental illness? Can we expect our “work self” to continue contributing seamlessly? It is remarkably interesting that researchers Wadell and Burton express that work is not harmful nor helpful towards individuals with severe mental illnesses. However, these researchers identified that work can improve overall wellbeing. How is it possible that our work environment can be a place where our mental health can improve or where we can be supported?

Window of opportunity

The commonly known mental health conditions that affect work severely are anxiety, depression, and substance abuse disorder. The reality is the workplace can be both a place of stress, and a source of great support. The step to take as decision makers in organisations is to ask what can be done to assist our members.

The approach to consider when intervening to reduce mental illness aggravators in the workplace should be focused on both the employee and the work environment. While stress management approaches are good, it is more sustainable to ensure that tension contributing factors in the environment are also given attention. Among the most common factors that improve the work environment are transformational leadership, capacity building, and team interventions for greater productivity.

As a priority, sign posting to connect workers with inhouse, or other available resources is a must! Organisations can connect with services that can give education and support in the workplace, and privately to individuals. Wellness days are a direct and effective precursor for authentic discussions that can challenge perceptions and build awareness.

Conclusion

The work environment is a setting where positive discussions and sources of support can be provided. Services, open discussions and systemic interventions can ensure we do not incorrectly label people as incompetent but identify the solutions to their mental health challenges.