Prioritizing Mental Health
More recently than ever, I have realized the important of working together at confronting, addressing and overcoming the mental health challenges faced by our colleagues, staff and peers. We already are making great strides to support our employees through our Headway platform as offered by our healthcare provider plus monthly streaming bonuses to be used for apps like Headspace or Calm which provide guided meditation, relaxation and sleep support whenever you need to take a break. And we’ve just begun an organized meditation practice for our staff. But it may not be enough.
Mental Health – Burnout – Emotional Exhaustion
The 2020 State of People Strategy Report by Lattice examined the issues facing HR leaders and the employees within their organizations. Not surprisingly, the statistics are eye-opening and reveal an urgency that cannot be ignored. Employees are reporting unprecedented levels of emotional exhaustion, burnout and mental health issues. The HR managers that are on the receiving end of all these reported challenges are feeling helpless and 54% feel completely overwhelmed by the incessant barrage. These HR managers have become crisis managers but, despite their training, even they are ill-prepared to manage a crisis of this magnitude and duration.
| All the great things are simple, and many can be expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope.
~Sir Winston Churchill
It’s been described as a feeling of “unrelenting horizonlessness,” otherwise known as acedia. Disengagement, declining morale, loneliness, burnout and a growing concern of the uncertainty that lies ahead are creating these feelings which all go far beyond “zoom fatigue” which many of us have made jokes about and sloughed off. The reality is that this emotional exhaustion cannot be sloughed off as it goes much deeper into our psyche. Concerns about getting COVID, working from home without face-to-face interaction with colleagues, the challenges around guiding our children through asynchronous learning, the fear of market instability and potential job loss, a sense of isolation from sheltering in place for so long are starting to take their toll. And we need to be honest about how we feel and do something about it.
A staggering 68% feel employee burnout whereas 49% feel that they have had no growth nor any opportunities for growth. With respect to recognition for the efforts that employees are making, 43% cite a lack of recognition. The statistic that we should all pay close attention to is that 63% want wellness and work-life balance initiatives.
Initiatives that can help
Necessity often spurs innovation. This is certainly the case with the launch of Working Den. Daniel Hall, one of the most recognized freelancers in the world, worked with experts in psychology, ergonomics and other disciplines to create a free, online collection of tools, tips and assessments to help people manage extended work-from-home efforts. Calming music, alerts to signify that it’s time for an eye-strain break or to stand up and stretch are some of the tools available to everyone - and I would encourage you to use them.
To combat these feelings, according to the Lattice survey, 67% of companies are focused on career path development, 78% are investing in leadership training and 40% are offering coaching services. Of all the statistics cited in their report, one highlights how significant this sense of emotional fatigue is: 48% of efforts are going towards employee engagement and 44% are going towards diversity, equity and inclusion. Both themes – the pandemic and social justice – have forever been branded as the hallmarks of 2020, a year of remarkable change, suffering and courage.
Yes! It is important that we highlight courage here. Front-line responders to everyday workers are facing challenges that they’ve never seen before. There is no playbook or patch or easy solution. Yet we keep trying to find a way. Everyone surveyed wants transparency and open communication.
We can do this for our employees and for each other. Each of us, as leaders, can make both inclusivity and mental health long-term initiatives that we invest in – and pay close attention to. Not only for our employees, but for ourselves, so that we can continue to lead our teams through this crisis.
Keep learning and growing,
Gunjan