“It’s Time to Prioritise Mental Health in the Work Place”

I. INTRODUCTION

The workplace is where adult humans spend a large portion of our days, and indeed, our lives. It is important, then, that we try to understand what the workplace should ideally be like.

As Christians we would easily agree that the ideal workplace would be fashioned after God’s own work and instructions about work. We know from Genesis 1 and 2 that God worked himself, creating the beautiful, amazing universe out of nothing. He delighted in what He had made, and rested on the seventh day. He then gave the task of continuing the work on the earth, tending the garden and stewarding his creation, jointly, to the human pair made in His image. Ideally, therefore, work patterned on His would be creative, nurturing and developing a delightful prospect with adequate periods of rest, done by humans in harmony with each other and with God – a picture of shalom and flourishing, of good mental and physical health for people and environment. Later principles of work clearly seen in Scripture include working with all one’s heart (Col 3: 24) with all one’s might (Ecc 9:10), working even without hope of praise or reward, seeing work as serving Christ, not an earthly master (Col 3: 22-24), and working wisely, thoughtfully, planning ahead (Prov 6:6-11), to provide for one’s family and others (I Tim 5:4-8).

The Fall changed things. God foretold that work would become hard and laborious for humans (Gen 3: 17-19). The ground was cursed because of human sin. It would grow thorns and thistles, and humans would need to work hard to feed themselves. We see that prediction has come true. Work is hard and difficult for many. Few remember the wider task of God’s creation mandate for work – to delight in the world, and to work together with other men and women to care for creation, to keep it beautiful and flourishing. There is competition and rivalry, a disregard for each other, the environment and all in all, a picture of poor mental and physical health for people and the earth in general.

II. THE CURRENT SCENARIO

Twenty-six year old Anna Sebastian, a CA working with Ernst and Young, the well-known accounting and consulting firm, died of a heart attack a month ago, hitting the headlines, and creating a brief storm of questions critically questioning the work-place culture of the Big Five companies like them; cultures that have been known for some time to create a huge amount of stress for their employees, resulting in burn-out, mental or physical health problems.

Co-incidentally the theme for World Mental Health day, 10th October, was “Its time to prioritise mental health in the workplace” making many mental health professionals wish we had celebrated that theme last year – then, perhaps, Anna would still be alive. Others would be better off too; Anna’s case hit the headlines, but she was not the first casualty of this stressful work-culture.

A brief look at the work-place structures and systems that contribute to stress and health breakdowns would reveal both systemic issues, relationship issues and personal issues.

Systemic issues would include the humungous workload that is taken for granted in many workplaces. With the natural increase of the size of the economy of 1.4 billion people, India has in the last decades seen an increase in work-hours in the formal sector. Gone are the leisurely 9 AM to 5 PM work-days enjoyed by the grandparents and parents of the currently youngest working generation. The workplace now has normalized working for ten hours every day. During a busy season, that can stretch to twelve hours and more. Software engineers, finance professionals, marketing managers, office administrators, accountants, lawyers, bankers, hoteliers, young medical and para-medical staff are all shouldering these back-breaking workloads.

The number of employees hired to manage this workload is rarely sufficient. Employees would report losing a member or two in their team, with no replacement added in for long, while the workload remains the same or goes up.

Employers often explain this away as a natural result of a seasonal overload of work, for which they hesitate to hire extra staff who would then be poorly utilized the rest of the year. Far better to let the fewer employees sweat for a few months! Anna dying on the job from just such a periodic increase in workload has opened a few eyes to the danger of this strategy.

Work has become increasingly complex and systematized in many areas. While this has its benefits, the off-side is that both internal procedures and rules as well as external government regulations and frameworks are often complex and difficult to keep up with. Doing a routine task would still involve a lot of computer-work or paper-work. In my own medical field, I know the paper-work involved in each patient’s case has increased manifold over the years.

Part of the reason for the complexity of work is the need to protect the organisation or oneself from legal claims. A defensive increase in paper-work and procedures eats into workplace time and productivity.

Unreasonable targets and deadlines add to the employee’s workload. Any number of junior and middle level staff end up with incredible stress chasing these often unachievable targets or deadlines.

E-mail has revolutionized work and made communications much easier at work. The flip side however is that with everybody copying everybody else, to be safe, or to be visible, the sheer volume of email in every employee’s inbox can be intimidating, and stressful. Also, the easy availability of access draws out the work-week to almost 24 x7. Managers have been known to set employees tasks at 11 PM at night, which they expect would be completed by the next morning!

A final systemic reason for workplace stress is the annual performance review ritual. This can often cause anticipatory stress, and the forced competition with others can result in unhealthy relationships among staff and an individualistic mindset that reduces workplace co-operation. Very few come out of performance reviews happy or fulfilled.

Even more troubling, sometimes, are relationship issues in the workplace. The individualized feedback system leads to an individualistic mindset where employees at the same level are sometimes deliberately pitted against each other in the hope of improving their performance. This often works the other way by leading to stress, by causing subtle and not-so-subtle non co-operation among the colleagues, or showmanship, one-up-manship, or outright stealing of ideas or credit, all of which can rankle and cause irritation and resentment. Relationships with seniors, especially reporting managers, can be a major cause for workplace stress. Bosses can be kind and helpful, but can also be unreasonable or temperamental or use juniors selfishly to meet their own ambitions. They can displace their own frustrations on the job onto their juniors, expecting long work hours, setting unreasonable deadlines, sometimes being abusive, discriminatory or derogatory. One of the commonest reasons for people to leave a job is a bad manager. Also relevant among the list of relationship issues is that of sexual harassment which can vary from stares and sexual comments, to stalking, a deliberate seeking of sexual favours, or outright non-consensual physical sexual contact. Many women have left jobs because of this kind of harassment.

Lastly, personal issues. Even the best adjusted person, with an excellent academic background or solid family and financial support, could still feel the strain of constantly struggling with a never-ending work-load, endless regulations, lengthy work-hours, an unsupportive manager, unhealthy competition, equally stressed colleagues, and so on. More vulnerable would be those without adequate support systems, such as social, financial or emotional who have despite their odds, creditably made it into these valued jobs, only to find the work-culture, literally, killing.

III. WHAT CAUSES THESE STRESS INDUCERS?

The wider reason for these stressful patterns is the generally widespread focus on profits or economic gain as the benchmark of a person’s, organisation’s or even a country’s success. The drive to increase profitability and economic wealth is often the sole message passed down the line, and targets are set more by looking at the competition afforded by rivals, whether rival professionals, organisations or countries. Grabbing more of the market share and achieving the number one position in that field is unabashedly the target for many. This emphasis from individuals, proprietors, governing boards, or chief executives is dutifully echoed by the lower levels of leadership and all this ultimately results in the unreasonable targets, impossible deadlines and never-ending work-hours for the foot-soldiers of each group.

The communication offered back to the higher levels of leadership is poor, or negligible, because each level possibly fears that suggesting the targets cannot be met may be seen as inefficiency, or incapability, and they may be marked out as unsuitable for their roles. When complaints are made, tentative at best, they are often not taken seriously, and it takes a terrible event like a young woman’s heart attack to open the eyes of the management.

Also, in general, middle level leaders in most professions are rarely empathetic about juniors’ long work hours or workload. The attitude is often that “grunt work” is the duty or rite of passage of the newbies, and everyone has to go through it to get to the next level. “We did it, why can’t you? Stop complaining, and get on with it” is the attitude. Many even take pride in the long hours of work, wearing it as a badge of honour. Those who can’t take it, should leave, is the attitude, rather than considering how the system can be fixed.

At a surface level, many organisations have human resource managers who are supposed to help deal with these issues. They are however, often over-worked themselves and while there would often be many who are kind and empathetic, there are also many who function as the executive’s arm and may not be able to give the necessary feedback.

As a result, there is often a tendency to treat employees with a jarring lack of concern. They are often seen as dispensable; encouraged to adjust to the work culture or else be asked to leave.

IV. THE ROOT PROBLEM

As Christians we’d agree that the root problem in the workplace is sin and selfishness. It has caused people to have quite the wrong attitude and reason for work. It has robbed humans of the joy of work, and left them with ‘a striving after the wind’ which exhausts and frustrates them. It has taken away the idea of co-operation and harmony, and pitted them against each other in a continuous and pointless striving to be better, richer, and more powerful than each other. The whole system has hurt many, and left them mentally stressed, bruised, battered or in some sad cases, dead.

V. WHAT IS THE SOLUTION? HOW DOES ONE IMPROVE MENTAL HEALTH AT THE WORKPLACE?

The perfect solution to the problems created by Sin in the workplace will never be reached till the Lord returns and renews the heavens and earth. We can however make a start, taking cues both from the creation ideal and looking forward to the time to come.

For senior leaders, in governance or execution, a paradigm shift in the goal of the organisation and a periodic review of the goal is obviously the first step. Profits or economic gain simply cannot be the main raison d’etre of an individual professional, an organization, or a country. Goals more pleasing to God may include achieving excellence in a field, developing new ideas, providing a service for others, and so on. We should be aware here, that with the human being’s capacity for self-deception, organisations may have set down perfect vision and mission statements, echoing these noble ideas, but in practice raising profits may be the main goal. For example, a school may be started to serve a community and do a good job in a small way. However, if getting profits becomes the new unstated goal, more and more children may be admitted each succeeding year, crowding the classroom, increasing the teachers’ work and creating a lot of stress for them. Hospitals may start with the goal of service and providing good care to the poor, but if profits or increasing salaries become the guiding force, the focus may subtly shift to funding those departments which bring in big money, creating discontent and resentment among others. If a country were to focus on becoming a 5 trillion USD economy, rather than on bringing jobs, healthcare and education to the poor, then the millions in poverty will be resigned, resentful or cynical rather than being happy citizens.

While every institution or organisation would need to try and be self-reliant, focusing on profits alone can often unleash human greed and can destroy good institutions from within. These will always take a toll on the mental health of its people.

Finding the balance between reasonable profits which sustain the institution while not putting undue pressure on the staff is a choice that has to be consciously made by senior management.

To achieve this, they should encourage the active participation of all levels of staff in goal-setting, rather than pushing targets from top down. Staff who contribute to target setting are often more motivated and happy than those who are struggling to meet targets they know are next to impossible, foisted on them from above.

To do this again, senior leaders should have a clear understanding that they should not sacrifice their staff’s mental health and happiness for short-term gain or quick profit. They may, indeed, achieve a short-term gain, but in the medium and long-term, will have staff with mental burn-out, lack of motivation, physical health problems and so on. This will ultimately result in problems for the institution.

Middle level leaders (including but not limited to human resource leaders) can do a great deal to promote good mental health among workplace staff. They should see themselves as placed in leadership to serve God first, and the organisation only next. Also serving God and the organization means batting for the long-term success of the organisation, and not pleasing the current leaders (who may well have lost their vision). It would mean they give feedback to the seniors on what is not working, on bad practices, incorrect goals, and have the interests of the staff always in mind – to see they are functioning at their full potential in a good and positive frame of mind. They would obviously need to be courageous, tactful, wise and mature in the way they do this.

They need to establish practices in their groups which foster a happy environment. Set reasonable targets with the full participation of the staff, while informing them and taking into account the senior management’s desires. Check in often on how staff are doing, giving honest feedback, noticing their work functioning, relationships with others, general mood, level of tiredness, efficiency at work, and other patterns such as whether they have been over-indulging in substance abuse and so on. They need to have a general idea of the background of each staff, without intruding into their privacy, so that they are aware of those who are vulnerable or have poor support systems. Give feedback gently, early and consistently on anything that seems awry. They need also to take honest feedback from staff, establishing some degree of anonymity in feedback to encourage honesty. Ensure systems of redressal are in place including whistle-blower policies and methods to investigate claims of sexual harassment. Discourage over long work-hours except in crises, and encourage employee-friendly practices, team building activities, family -friendly times and spaces or breaks. Encourage a mental health check as part of their annual medical check-ups; in case of a stressed worker, suggest a mental health consultation before giving a bad performance review. This will remove the stigma and normalize mental health reviews as part of good health practices – a change sorely needed in India, today.

Finally, employees themselves can contribute to their mental health. The Finance Minister made the mistake of talking only about what each person could do, while ignoring the changes that needed to be made by the organisations themselves, as embodied in their vision and mission statements and in the practices passed down from senior to middle management. Employees themselves can of course help themselves to some extent, by having the right attitude to work, remembering they are there primarily to serve God, by joyfully taking part in the work mandate given to all human beings. They are to work hard, and delight in their work, but also to ensure they get adequate rest. They are not there to compete with others, or get praise, success, promotions or wealth – those are all by-products which may or may not come, as Paul points out clearly to the Colossian slaves of the first century.

Unlearning these attitudes which have been taught by society at large would take time, but is essential for each worker to do, to preserve their calm and mental health in a workplace often marked by competition, ruthless ambition, a drive towards profits alone and a tendency to use and discard people.

Last, if they find themselves stressed, unable to say No, over-worked, yet not efficient at work, not sleeping well, irritable, tending to overuse alcohol or other drugs to relax and so on – they should see these as warning signs of worsening mental and physical health. Many make the mistake of thinking quitting is the answer, and at some point, impulsively resign from the job. This however, may end up in being more stressful, because getting a job again may take time, eating into their savings, exposing them to taunts or reprimands. Getting help early, before leaving the job is probably the best way to try and fix things. They need to go for therapy or medicine as prescribed, and give themselves a chance to return to good health. They may well find that with their thoughts and moods improved, they are able to cope better with the difficult workplace. Changing jobs may sometimes be necessary, but it should preferably be done thoughtfully, carefully, and with another job in hand, to reduce the chance of further stress.

VI. CONCLUSION

Work in a fallen world is becoming increasingly difficult and stressful. Society urgently needs to think through these issues, before more young lives are destroyed. The Christian viewpoint on work provides a God-centred view that in working, humans mirror God and are carrying out Hs desire for the world. Work should therefore be done His way, to care for people and make the world better, rather than chasing profit and economic gain alone. Each level of work management can contribute to correcting some of the mistakes humans have made in their work patterns. Giving employees more voice in their goals and targets of work, prioritizing employee friendly practices even at some cost, and removing the stigma to discussing and handling mental health issues, will in the long-term lead to a healthier and more productive workplace.