Mental Health Awareness Week - Anxiety

Article authored by Wanda Haddock

This week is #mentalhealthawarenessweek and the focus this year is on #anxiety. For us at Alembic Strategy, it’s an important week for both our team and our clients. It’s an opportunity to bring into our awareness, create some understanding of, and enable the circumstances to best support optimum mental health and emotional health. It’s also an opportunity to recognise the impact of mental health on individuals, families, workplaces and communities. As we do this, we begin to unlock how we might recognise any signs of mental health concern, open to the stigma and discrimination that surrounds mental illness, and how we can promote positive mental health practices and resources.

According to the World Health Organization, one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. By raising awareness about mental health, we aim to reduce stigma and discrimination, encourage people to seek support, and champion positive mental and emotional health practices, so we can all create more compassionate, kind businesses that prioritise the humans that produce, accomplish and ultimately ensure that businesses are successful.

The Health and Safety Executive's Labour Force Survey in 2021 stated that 17.9 million working days were lost due to work-related stress, anxiety, or depression. This equates to an average of 21.6 days lost per case. Furthermore, a survey conducted by mental health charity Mind found that 60% of employees reported experiencing mental health problems due to work, including anxiety. The same survey found that 30% of respondents had taken time off work due to mental health problems. In a separate study conducted by the Mental Health Foundation, 59% reported feeling stressed because of work.

These statistics are harrowing but surely these figures speak directly to a need for businesses to recognise our shared humanness and show care for those people in their care, who are working to advance the business.

For individuals experiencing anxiety in the workplace, these may include:

1. Seeking professional support: a mental health professional can help individuals develop coping strategies and provide guidance on how to manage anxiety symptoms in the workplace.
2. Practicing techniques to counteract anxiety: engaging in emotional regulatory techniques, such as deep breathing or meditation, can help reduce anxiety symptoms and promote a sense of calm.
3. Identify triggers: identify what triggers your anxiety in the workplace. This could be a particular task, interaction with a colleague or supervisor, or a certain work environment. Once you identify your triggers, you can develop strategies to manage them.
4. Building a support system: it can be helpful to talk to a trusted colleague, friend, or family member about anxiety symptoms and seek their support.
5. Prioritizing self-care: taking care of oneself by getting enough sleep, exercise, and proper nutrition can help reduce anxiety symptoms.
6. Setting realistic expectations: it can be helpful to set achievable goals and communicate any concerns or limitations with your manager.

Here are some of the most common sources of anxiety in the workplace:

1. Workload and deadlines: overloaded workloads, unrealistic deadlines, and a high volume of tasks can create negative stress that can lead to anxiety.
2. Job insecurity: fear of losing a job, a lack of job security, or concerns about the future of the organization can create anxiety.
3. Interpersonal relationships: conflict with colleagues or superiors, negative interactions, or a lack of support from others in the workplace can create feelings of anxiety and isolation.
4. Unclear expectations: unclear expectations or a lack of clarity about job responsibilities, what success looks like and lack of feedback, can create confusion and stress for employees.
5. Work demands: difficulty ‘balancing’ and integrating work and personal responsibilities can create stress and anxiety, especially if employees feel like they don't have enough time for self-care or to spend with loved ones.
6. Performance evaluations or concerns: performance evaluations or reviews can create anxiety, especially if employees feel like they are being judged or if they are worried about their job security.
7. Organizational change: organizational changes such as restructuring, mergers, or layoffs can create a lot of uncertainty and anxiety.

For leaders, creating an emotionally and relationally healthy environment and psychologically safe practices can help to bring positive and productive work environment. Here are some basic strategies for employers and managers:

1. Focus on Psychological Safety and promote open communication: encourage employees to communicate their concerns and feelings without fear of judgment or retribution. This can create a culture of openness and support that helps to reduce anxiety.
2. Provide mental health resources: offer mental health resources such as employee assistance programs, mental health counselling services, and access to mental health resources and information.
3. Encourage healthy balance: encourage employees to look after their own overall well-being. Let employees know that you want them to prioritize their personal lives such as family, hobbies, and other interests. Being explicit about this can reduce stress and promote a sense of balance.
4. Identify and reduce workplace stressors: identify workplace stressors, such as extremely long hours or high workloads, and take steps to reduce them. This can include adjusting work schedules, providing additional resources, or redistributing workloads.
5. Ensure that employees have a decent work environment, even at home: ensure that the workplace has appropriate lighting, desk, chair and electronic tools.
6. Encourage healthy habits: be clear in encouraging employees to engage in healthy habits such as exercise, mindfulness practices as examples. These habits can promote overall well-being.

Apart from the above basic and simple actions to take, a good starting point may be seeing ‘the other’ as ourselves or someone we love. “If this was somewhere my mom (who I love dearly) was working, and she was struggling with a mental health challenge, ideally what would we like to see in place and how would we like to her treated?" – then do that. Everyone is someone’s mothers, son, daughter, sister...