Blue Monday is the name given to the third Monday in January, said to be the saddest day of the year, made even gloomier over the past couple of years with the additional stresses of the global pandemic. This year, Blue Monday falls on Monday 17th January and according to the Metro the sadness is ‘due to a combination of bad weather, long nights and the lingering aftermath of the festive glut.’
And that’s without accounting for the impact of Covid-19 and the rise in cases over the Christmas period, which has no doubt sparked fresh anxieties and feelings of loneliness and isolation in many.
1 in 6.8 people will experience mental health issues in the workplace and so, as Blue Monday greets us this year, and as we enter into another year plagued by the pandemic, it is important to think about mental health at work and how to improve it.
According to the Mental Health Foundation ‘The pressure of an increasingly demanding work culture is one of the biggest challenges to society’s mental health.’ This is now mixed with the added pressures of Covid-19, which was declared a pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in March 2020 and has resulted in more than two thirds of all adults with mental health problems experiencing a deterioration in their mental wellbeing during lockdown.
For a business, over-worked employees with poor mental health are a recipe for disaster. Engaged employees who feel valued are vital for a thriving business. Workplace website Glassdoor cited employee engagement as ‘a critical driver of business success in today’s competitive marketplace’, explaining that engaged employees are so valuable due to ‘promoting retention, fostering customer loyalty and improving organisational performance.’
By contrast, disengaged and unhappy employees contribute to absenteeism and presenteeism in the workplace among other things. Absenteeism is classified as unauthorised absence at work and presenteeism accounts for workers who are at work but are not focused or actually working. According to Sage HR the cost of one single unhappy employee is £16,000 per year and mental health as a whole costs businesses £1,035 per employee, per year too.
Furthermore, Absenteeism costs UK businesses $668.64 per employee, per year and mental health is one of the leading causes of absent employees with evidence to suggest that 12.7% of all sickness days in the UK are caused by mental health conditions.
To combat overworking, it’s important to understand why we do it. Why work a 10-hour day when you are paid for 8 hours? Why work on a Saturday if you don’t need to? According to the BBC, while some people overwork to pay off debts, to keep jobs, or to further their careers, others over-extend because of a culture that glorifies and embraces overworking: ‘For those who embrace the overwork culture, there’s also a performative element, whether that manifests as a new car to show off, a ‘dream career’ doing something meaningful or even exhaustion that can be displayed like a bizarre kind of trophy.’
The Mental Health Foundation suggests that employers should undertake a risk assessment of their workplace to identify psychological hazards. Examples identified by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work include ‘excessive workloads’, ‘conflicting demands and lack of role clarity’, ‘ineffective communication’ and ‘poorly managed organisational change’ among others.
Some actions businesses can take include providing support services such as mental health first aiders, regularly talking about mental health to your employees, encouraging them to disclose when they are feeling stressed or overworked, encouraging employees to take breaks and to only work during their scheduled work hours and investing in mental health training for line-managers.
The Mental Health Foundation also suggests a number of actions that employers can take including offering flexible/remote working, regularly reviewing workloads, giving employees time off for volunteering and encouraging stress-relieving activities such as lunchtime exercise or relaxation classes.
Brew Monday at Bridgehouse
Here at Bridgehouse we are dedicated to providing flexible working that allows for a good work-life balance. Many of our employees are parents or carers and we know how important it is to encourage home working, provide flexible hours and to treat our employees with respect and understanding when it comes to creating a balance that works for us and for them.
This Blue Monday we have decided to take a leaf out of the Samaritans book and have organised our very own ‘Brew Monday’, you can read about the Samaritans ‘Brew Monday’ initiative here. We sent each of our employees hot chocolate and marshmallows and invited them all to take part in our Blue Monday Brew Break in which we encouraged everyone to take some time out of their day to talk to one another in a safe space.
Mental Health Resources
Resources for Personal Use
Resources for Employers
If you are need urgent help for a mental health issue see here for the NHS advice on who you can call and what services you can access in an emergency.
We would be pleased to answer any queries or have an informal chat to discuss your possible governance needs.