4 things employees still get wrong about mental well-being

You do your part to help employees improve their overall well-being. But there are things employees still get wrong about mental well-being.

And their need to get it right is growing by the day.

Nearly 60% of employees have suffered some sort of mental or physical stress in the past two years, according to Oak Engage’s Mental Health in the Workplace Report. Some say it’s the workload. Some say it’s the people they work with. And some say it’s a misalignment of ideals.

“Ways of working will continue to evolve and with the added pressure of external factors, employees can feel anxious, stressed and burned out,” says Will Murray, CEO of Oak Engage. “By looking in-depth at all the potential drivers and how they affect workers, we can begin to have frank conversations about how businesses can best combat the issues that are pertinent to them.”

What we still get wrong about mental well-being

Employers want to help employees with mental health and well-being issues because it’s the right thing to do by them. And when you help employees — a more self-serving reason — they show up to work, perform better and are engaged, Gallup researchers find time and again.

But employees still disregard their mental health — which can be any of many states ranging from depression, anxiety and stress to bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and psychosis.

Here are four things employees still get wrong about mental well-being:

• Avoidance of the topic
• Try too much or too little
• Assume it’s normal, and
• Withdraw.

Let’s look at each issue and what you can do to help employees even beyond your standard mental health benefits.

Avoidance

Many employees think mental health and well-being is a taboo topic for the workplace. It’s so bad, a third of employees lie to their bosses when they take a day off, saying they suffer from some kind of physical illness — such as a cold, flu or stomach bug — when it’s a mental health issue, a Wysa survey found. Just over 40% decide to plow through their issues. Only 20% of employees tell the boss they need time off for their mental health.

Why? For many, they’ve grown up with a mental illness stigma, equating it to a weakness that should be overcome, not a condition that should be treated like a physical illness. Also, employers are just beginning to normalize mental health and well-being in the workplace. So discussing it openly is still uncomfortable for many employees.

Help employees: Normalize mental health well-being in the workplace by starting conversations about it. When leaders talk about their stress and/or struggles — and how they work to deal with those — employees will more likely join in the conversation and seek help if they need it.

Try inadequately

Many employees think improving or maintaining mental well-being is an all-or-nothing situation — much like physical well-being.

The comparison would be this: An employee who needs to lose weight to reduce hypertension and help his diabetes hits the gym hard. Then, he gets a minor injury that would call for exercise modifications, but he just quits.

When it comes to mental health, some employees think the fix is intense psychotherapy and/or drugs — or just grin and bear it. Meanwhile, you likely offer plenty of options — including tele-therapy, stress management resources and self-care tools — in between the extremes.

Help employees: Market your mental well-being tools and resources consistently throughout the year, not just during open enrollment. For instance, send email weekly with a tip on managing stress and include links to resources such as virtual yoga and tele-therapy options.

Assume

Many employees are overwhelmed and burned out, but they don’t know it. They assume everyone has a workload that can feel crushing, life demands that never seem to let up and chronic sleep and/or health problems. They chock it up to the hustle culture.

That’s known to lead to Quiet Quitting — which you don’t want.

Help employees: This goes back to normalizing and talking about mental well-being in the workplace. When employees feel comfortable talking about what’s going on, they’re more likely to help each other recognize when someone is overwhelmed and needs help. Caveat: Nearly half of employees who talked about mental health at work had a negative experience doing it, a Harvard Business School study found. So you might want to get a qualified doctor or facilitator to guide these conversations.

Withdraw

Employees who struggle with mental well-being too often do the exact opposite of what could help: withdraw from colleagues, leaders and the organization.

Engagement helps employees handle stress and other issues that negatively affect mental well-being. In fact, employees who are engaged are five times more likely to say their job has an “extremely positive impact” on their mental health than colleagues who weren’t engaged, the Gallup study found.

Help employees: Employees are lonely, both the Gallup and Harvard researchers found. They don’t interact as much as they did before the pandemic, regardless of whether they work on-site or remotely. You can’t force them to engage professionally and personally — after all, some people are content with these weakened level of interaction — but you can give them opportunities to engage. Start a “fun committee” for more events. Pump more resources into your Employee Resource Groups to revive them. Survey employees more often to find how they want to increase interaction and engagement.