Workplaces can be unpredictable, they can be a mess sometimes only when you feel anxious working or have mental health issues. Nowadays it has been a difficult thing to just have a balance between our professional and personal life. But you can’t just stay away from your work because you have to feed your stomach everyday and live a life with your loved ones with the necessities needed in the day to day life. Mental health at work can be difficult to handle but its not impossible.
What’s Mental health In the workplace mean?
For everybody these days mental health in the workplace has been on top of the mind. A lot of things have changed on how we look at mental health when at work or what we understand about it and how widespread this situation is.
It is not only a nice to have but a necessity to have support regarding mental health where you are working. So don’t just have it in the place make it a necessary step to follow, for the betterment of your people.
Companies underestimate the importance of anxiety or any physical or emotional exhaustion and discuss it with the employees. But the first step for every firm or company is to create wellness solutions to help their employees who are struggling or feel like they are having issues or are totally fine. But awareness has to be given to each and everyone.
If the employer is not taking a step further it is the responsibility of the employee as well to speak for his or any other colleagues mental health problems and encourage to have a program that supports.
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How or When can mental health at work affect?
Wellness programs at the workplace can be helpful to identify the employees who are at risk and can connect them to get better treatment. This kind of program can be a help to the people struggling to reduce and manage their stress. By addressing these issues of mental health at work, employers can come up with more such activities that support the employee and can reduce the health care cost for the employees and the businesses.
If an employee is going through the problem then the risk factors that are present in the environment of working can be even more. They may feel inferior now and then by some actions of the employer or they can feel low if the project that they are handling is not working great because they are not feeling good and it hurts even more when the employee knows that he is the best in the work but still cant give the best at this moment. So support from the employer should always be available for the employees who are going through some tough life phases.
It can be like an employee may have mental health problems prior to employment or during the employment period. Most of the employees are great at handling their mental health without impacting it on their work but some require the support form the managerial staff and colleagues to support them for a short time or some require ongoing workplace support. It totally depends on where the person is in his mental state. So we need to treat everyone differently according to their level of problems. And know how you can deal with such anxieties at their levels.
Also would like to put a point across that don’t presume that your employee is going through a mental health problem just because something may be bothering him/her outside the workplace. However, looking at the competition and behaviour of today’s businesses “unhealthy” work environment or a workplace that causes a lot of stress and exacerbates the development of mental illness in the employee. So it’s not just about what happens outside of the office, it is also about how you treat your employees. Mental health at work is also a problem that we as a growing nation should focus on.
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How can you know there are mental health problems at the workplace?
A line needs to be drawn between professional life and personal life. Personal problems should be left behind at the office door while entering the premises and same goes with professional problems, they should not cross the entrance of our home. But what can we do if an employee is struggling everyday to cope up with things? What if we find that the best employee has started giving poor results? Companies should not turn blind eye when they see these signals, they should do something to solve it and support the employee if anything is troubling them or know if they are facing problems related to mental health in the workplace.
Below things can negatively affect the employee and cause stress or unstable mentally:
- Productivity at workplace
- Job Performance
- Engagement with the work.
- Communication with colleagues
- Daily Functioning and physical capability
Ways to support mental health at work.
Tackling mental health can be challenging, but employers and Hr professionals who are in power can help change attitudes and offer a supporting program to all the employees. We are presenting some ways that can be helpful to support the employees at the workplace who are facing mental health problems.
Awareness: The most important thing you can do for your employee is to spread and increase the awareness of mental health by arranging seminars, webinars or enrolling them into some programs that teaches them the about mental health at work and how it is and what they can do if they faces the same challenges in their workplace.
Work-Life Balance: To have a healthy work environment the employees should have a proper work-life balance where the employer should offer flexible work options. Maintaining this balance of work and life helps to reduce the stress and this also helps in preventing burnout in the workplace.
Treating your people fair: Treating your employees badly or making them look inferior to all even when they are best at their work can affect their peace of mind and this is not a good sign in balancing the mental health at the workplace. So treat your people fair and understand them. Give them time and know what they are going through from inside.
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Train your managers: Arrange workshops or seminars for your managers where they get relevant training on how they can support their staff who are struggling through mental health problems and how they can take care of the well-being of all the staff.
Mental health has never done good to anyone so take an initiative to come forward to support your loved ones at the workplace. Try making your workplace a better place for every employee that steps into your premises.