Mental Health in the workplace

Every single employee that you have, will be effected by varying degrees of mental health issues, just in the same way they will at some point be effected by physical health issues, the variable is the severity of effect it has upon them, with regards to mental health, it is continually quoted that 1 in four people in the UK will be effected in a severe way in some point in their life.

One in four sick notes are now stated being due to a mental health, rather than a physical health reason, the reality however is possibly much larger due to the remaining stigma of speaking out about mental health issues.

Its reported that stress and poor mental health costs UK businesses an estimated £34.9 billion each year, equating to around £1,300 per employee per year and resulting in 15.8 million sick days. However mental health rarely forms part of a company’s Health and Safety Policy and line managers are rarely trained to identify and address.

Under UK law, employers have a ‘duty of care’ to protect the health, safety and welfare of all employees while at work. They also have to assess the risks arising from hazards at work including work-related stress.

Where low levels of stress can generally be a positive motivation, excessive levels have a very negative affect on the person and the company.

Increasingly, the demands on the individual in the workplace reach out into the homes and social lives of employees. Long, uncertain or unsocial hours, working away from home, taking work home, high levels of responsibility, job insecurity, and job relocation all may adversely affect family responsibilities and leisure activities. This is likely to undermine a good and relaxing quality of life outside work, which is an important buffer against the stress caused by work. In addition, domestic pressures such as childcare responsibilities, financial worries, bereavement, and housing problems may affect a person's robustness at work. Thus, a vicious cycle is set up in which the stress caused in either area of one's life, work or home, spills over and makes coping with the other more difficult.

It becomes a dangerous spiral – The more stressed you become, the more unproductive and unhappy you become, the more unproductive you become the more stressed you get, the… you get the idea