Joy is Good Business

Weekly Insights to Help You Reach Your Business Objectives

Nearly 80% of Employees are Worried About Their Mental Health

We are in an interesting period of the coronavirus pandemic. Life is starting to feel more “normal” with improving case numbers, dropped mask mandates, more offices “opening” up and fewer plans cancelled due to infection. Yet, it also seems that many of us are holding our breath, waiting for the next variant to pop up and throw us back into tumult.

Though we are seeing these signs of improvement, worker mental health has still deteriorated to significantly low levels, and it’s not something that a few days of vacation can fix.

The Conference Board released the results of a study last fall that are eyebrow raising:

57% of workers surveyed say their mental health has degraded since the start of the pandemic. The driving factor behind the decline: WORKLOAD
Concerns over mental health are almost double those of physical health (77% vs. 40%)
More than 75% list stress and burnout as their biggest well-being challenges at work

This last stat particularly stands out:

75% of workers feel their supervisor genuinely care about their wellbeing, but only 55% believe their supervisor would change their workload to address their mental health concerns.

As organizations and leaders, you cannot take your foot off the gas because the future is looking a little more rosy. The burnout hole has been dug deep, and we are still down there. You have to continue to pour resources into your team members so they can ascend from the pit.

[If you are interested in equipping your managers to be more effective in minimizing burnout, check out my new program: Banish Burnout.]

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