In the workplace, there is a mental health crisis that has been unfolding for the past number of years. Driven by uncertainty, rapid change, and accelerated by a pandemic, employees today face higher levels of burnout, exhaustion, and anxiety among other things. So, what can we do and where do we start to fight back? We asked our team of leadership experts what factors they have been seeing as key stressors within the crisis, and how their work through professional coaching is equipping the clients they serve to better address this crisis.
Answers From the Experts:
Lyn Turknett,
Co-founder and Co-chair, TLG
Since the pandemic, anxiety, stress, burnout, and ‘Quiet Quitting’ have become more prevalent than ever before. What do you see as the main stressors driving this mental health crisis in the workplace?
It’s amazing to me just how rapid and significant the growth in reports of mental health symptoms is. HBR reported in 2021 on a large study – over 5,000 respondents – and found that 78% of respondents reported at least one mental health symptom, up from 59% in 2019. Younger workers are most affected, as are workers in underrepresented groups, but, interestingly, rates of symptom reporting were actually higher in those in leadership positions, perhaps because the pandemic caused increased stress for everyone.
Why the crisis now? I’m not sure we know, but certainly, none of us have been through a pandemic before. We’ve all had to change the way we work at breakneck speed. Perhaps because of the life-and-death challenge of a pandemic, people have reordered priorities dramatically. And we are all tired. It’s also clear that the band-aid approaches to mental health employed in the past – things like availability of an Employment Assistance Program, insurance coverage for some mental health benefits, and available leave – while necessary, aren’t sufficient.
We need to rethink our cultures and the way we organize work. This quote from the HBR article mentioned above is telling: “Employees need and expect sustainable and mentally healthy workplaces, which requires taking on the real work of culture change. It’s not enough to simply offer the latest apps or employ euphemisms like “wellbeing” or “mental fitness.” Employers must connect what they say to what they actually do.” A Mckinsey report on improving mental wealth makes it clear how comprehensive our strategies must be.
Recent McKinsey research also shows that around the globe, people report toxic workplaces as the leading cause of intent to leave and mental health challenges. Both leadership behavior and coworker behavior are seen as major factors driving toxicity and outsized human and financial costs.
As a professional coach, how is your work equipping leaders to better support the mental health and wellbeing of their employees?
We need to help leaders be mentally healthy themselves – taking care of themselves, availing themselves, perhaps, of the opportunity to work remote days, taking time to exercise and get outside, and helping them build their own resilience.
One thing I’m doing for myself this year is attending monthly online discussion programs from the Atlanta-based company Inclusivv. This month’s session is on Mental Health, and in preparation, I was sent several resources, one of which is an article from the New York Times entitled, “How to Improve Your Mental Health.” My favorite recommendation is a short mindfulness exercise in which you place one hand on a table and trace the outline with the index finger of your other hand while breathing slowly.
Our biggest value as coaches may be in helping leaders understand how important the overall culture is to the mental health of everyone in the organization and how key they are in creating that culture. Leaders shape culture, like it or not. Their behavior is modeled, as are the values they express in that behavior. Many leaders add to the stress of their organizations, and probably their own stress, by doubling down on control during times of uncertainty, adding to the challenge. We all probably need to let go more, breathe more deeply, practice more gratitude, and simply be kinder in the world.
Michael Sessions, Ph.D.,
Senior Consultant, TLG
Since the pandemic, anxiety, stress, burnout, and ‘Quiet Quitting’ have become more prevalent than ever before. What do you see as the main stressors driving this mental health crisis in the workplace?
For many leaders and employees, the pandemic itself is substantially in the rear-view mirror, and along with it, much of the anxiety and isolation associated with it. Today’s stressors are much more about redefining what “normal” is going to look like. Interestingly, a recent survey released by the Conference Board and published in today’s (May 11, 2023) Wall Street Journal reports that employee satisfaction with their jobs and work environment is at a thirty-six-year high. Key drivers include improved work-life balance and moving to jobs that represent a better fit for skills and offer growth opportunities. This is not to say there are not still growing pains as the business environment continues to adjust. Current events such as continued inflation and the possibility of recession seem to be starting to constrain job mobility and layoffs by some large employers are contributing to anxiety related to job security in some sectors.
I think the lessons to be learned from the pandemic are, unfortunately, not new. Mental health is and will continue to be impacted by a person’s sense of connection to colleagues and the experience of feeling valued by their employer. The flexibility around remote working communicates respect for employees as adults and results in a greater sense of dignity. The belief that they are engaged in meaningful work and that they have a career path leading to upward mobility are tremendously helpful in mitigating depression, cynicism, and burnout and contribute materially to retention. Finally, the continued imbalance between men and women concerning job security, opportunity, and compensation is represented in lower job satisfaction scores for women across multiple measures. As such, addressing work stress for women remains a business opportunity.
As a professional coach, how is your work equipping leaders to better support the mental health and wellbeing of their employees?
Coaching can be particularly useful as a reminder and source of accountability for things that many leaders already know. Employees are more likely to be loyal and enthusiastic supporters of leaders they believe care about what they think and about them as people. Bosses who take the time to do one-on-ones with their employees, and not just their direct reports, garner greater respect and support from their employees. Listening more than talking and responding accurately to what was heard is tremendously impactful.
Helping employees remain connected to the “why” of what they are doing and the “where” to which their efforts are leading is every bit as important as the “how” to get there. These are things most effective leaders know but in the fast pace of the day-to-day and getting the job done they can be easily overlooked. Worse, because it’s convenient to believe, anyone can fall into the trap of thinking saying something once is enough to get everyone on board. Coaching can be a great asset in helping stay focused on the blocking and tackling that helps organizations thrive.
Robin Mladinich, CPCC, ACC,
Senior Consultant, TLG
Since the pandemic, anxiety, stress, burnout, and ‘Quiet Quitting’ have become more prevalent than ever before. What do you see as the main stressors driving this mental health crisis in the workplace?
There’s a mental health crisis at work because the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity) world is our normal. The lingering effects of the pandemic, combined with social unrest, economic uncertainty, political discourse, and burnout at work have pushed employees to their breaking points.
In a recent American Psychological Association survey, “nearly 3 in 4 respondents said they have experienced at least one symptom of a mental health condition—17% more than two years ago. Of those people, 84% said their workplace contributed to at least one mental health condition and 81% said they will be looking for a new place to work that’s more supportive of mental health issues.”
Last fall, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy weighed in on the mental health crisis of workers in a groundbreaking report. Workplace stressors such as heavy workloads, unpredictable schedules, low wages, limited autonomy, and disrespectful and non-inclusive workplace cultures, have contributed to toxic workplaces that have destructive effects on mental health.
The pandemic changed the way everyone worked. Work-life balance was one of the first things to take a backseat while we navigated COVID-19. The uncertainty of the pandemic led to long hours, stress, and burnout. There was no end to the “working” day. Employees felt compelled to be on and reachable at all hours and that has persisted even as we are in the fourth year since the pandemic started. Building effective teams became more challenging in the virtual world and workers felt less connected.
The outside pressures and stressors of the times aren’t going away, so ensuring that organizations create mentally healthy workplaces for their employees is essential.
As a professional coach, how is your work equipping leaders to better support the mental health and wellbeing of their employees?
I help leaders to see how their own behaviors and thought patterns are contributing to their wellbeing and mental health issues. Leaders will often tell me that they don’t take lunch breaks, respond to texts and emails well into the evening, work weekends, and take little time off. They will emphatically say that they don’t expect the same from their team. However, what message are you sending to your team by your behaviors? Balance is one of the core competencies of effective leadership and creating behaviors that foster this within the organization will benefit everyone.
Leaders are better equipped to support their employees if they are practicing healthy behaviors and encouraging them with their team.
Foster a workplace community and a safe space where there is open communication around mental health and wellbeing. Listen to the needs of your employees. Ensure workers feel valued and are provided with opportunities for personal and professional growth. Create boundaries around work hours and encourage breaks and respect time off, so that employees can rest and feel refreshed.
Tim Huff,
VP of Leadership Development, TLG
Since the pandemic, anxiety, stress, burnout, and ‘Quiet Quitting’ have become more prevalent than ever before. What do you see as the main stressors driving this mental health crisis in the workplace?
I’m seeing three primary factors contributing to the mental health issues we’re seeing since the pandemic.
First is the continuing challenge of work/life harmony that so many people are experiencing as they and their organizations are trying to solidify an effective culture built on hybrid work structures. Considering the relative newness of hybrid work models as commonplace in corporate cultures as compared to the past several generations, most everyone is continuing to work through various issues, especially related to job performance.
For the most part, workers have been over-indexing towards putting in more hours than they normally would in a full-time in-person environment. This is partially due to the very thin or non-existent boundaries between “workspace” and “living space” in home offices, but it can also be partially due to not wanting to be seen as an under-performer when they are not as visible around the office to have direct interaction and feedback from leaders. When leaders don’t proactively manage this dynamic, the result easily leads to increases in stress, and over time, burnout.
The second is an increased pressure of high output and results related to economic uncertainty as well as rising expectations for company performance. Shifts in consumer behaviors and market dynamics have increased competition in many industries, and companies have had to push their staff harder to achieve even higher levels of results expected of them in this environment. Leaders are putting more pressure on workers for faster delivery of higher quality work on increasingly complicated projects, often with impossible expectations. The stress this creates can easily turn into burnout if not properly managed.
And the third factor I’m seeing is a general sense of job insecurity. Regardless of industry, individual seniority, or location, there is a very high degree of job insecurity across many organizations in Corporate America. In earlier generations, job insecurity was only a concern for chronic under-performers. With a few exceptions, most employees didn’t have to contend with a looming sense of job insecurity as part of their everyday working lives. With rapidly changing competitive and economic environments, increased ability for companies to off-shore jobs for a fraction of the cost of US-based jobs, increased ability to automate jobs, and other downward pressures, more workers are worried about being laid off than in previous years.
All these factors and several others have created a mental health crisis unlike any we’ve seen before. If leaders aren’t proactively acting on these and other issues within their control, they will see dramatic increases in employee turnover and decreases in performance in their teams.
As a professional coach, how is your work equipping leaders to better support the mental health and wellbeing of their employees?
One of the main benefits clients get when engaging with an executive coach is having an objective, confidential, and supportive advocate directly interacting with and focused on them. Great executive coaches, like the ones at TLG, can help clients recognize where workplace stresses are impacting their lives and affecting their performance and can help clients work through strategies to improve their wellbeing. A key part of this experience is developing new, healthy habits that can be sustained for long periods. As clients benefit from developing and implementing these new habits, they are equipped to be able to coach and mentor others, especially people on their teams, to build healthy habits for themselves. Employees across the organization of leaders who have received excellent coaching receive these second-hand benefits. Mental health and wellbeing strategies are commonly part of coaching experiences, allowing coaches to be a key part of the solution for the mental health crisis affecting our current workplace!
Alex Auerbach, Ph.D., Senior Consultant, TLG
Since the pandemic, anxiety, stress, burnout, and ‘Quiet Quitting’ have become more prevalent than ever before. What do you see as the main stressors driving this mental health crisis in the workplace?
I think a few things are contributing to the current state of mental health at work. The first is the ongoing uncertainty and ambiguity we have had – whether it’s our physical health and safety at the height of the pandemic, whether we’d go back to work in person or stay remote, or now the current economic climate. Uncertainty is really taxing for us to manage, and it depletes our energy rapidly.
The second is a shifting of people’s values. For a long time, work has prioritized productivity over personal health. But employees are now prioritizing personal health over almost anything else. So, if employees don’t feel valued, they may disconnect and disengage. They want to be cared about as people first, producers second.
As a professional coach, how is your work equipping leaders to better support the mental health and wellbeing of their employees?
As a trained psychologist, I’m pretty aware of the state of mental health and intimately familiar with how to think about these concerns. I think the main thing for managers and leaders is to ask. You don’t need to rescue employees from how they feel or try to fix the problem for them – but actually asking your employees how they feel and genuinely listening goes a long way toward supporting employee well-being.
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