Losing your Zen at work: The mental health struggle

I knew her as a quiet, shy and very sweet girl who was a people pleaser all the way. There was nobody in the office who had a bad thing to say about her, nor was anybody ever upset with her for anything. A rare feat when you are at work in a newsroom with so much chaos and strict deadlines and people feeling stressed out and pressurised.
 
I often wondered how she never lost her cool or even expressed herself much, as she passed me by with a smile every day as she went to the water cooler or the washroom. The only thing that bothered me sometimes was that, in all the five years or more that we worked in the same office, we never really had a proper conversation. I put it down to her introverted nature and so did everybody else.
 
A few years later, when I had left that particular job and was on a sabbatical as I explored other opportunities, I got the shocking news from yet another former colleague that this sweet young girl was no more. Young, hardworking and at the cusp of an exciting life ahead of her, I had no idea what drove her to take her own life. 

The colleague said she had been depressed for many years because of a combination of work-related issues and a personal heartbreak; she had been on medication, as they found out later. She had struggled and then finally given up, with none of us in the office, ever knowing about it. There was a sense of regret that perhaps if we had tried to get her to open up a bit, we could have maybe helped her. 

That was my first experience of how mental health in the office and that of your colleagues is such an important issue and how we ignore it ever so often, even as studies say we spend one-third of our lives at our workplaces. 

While this incident brought home the fact that appearances are indeed deceptive and we invest mostly in superficial relationships with our colleagues, it is heartening to know that around the world the importance and awareness of mental health has been growing significantly, in recent years.

This is the reason why we see a sharp uptick in Google searches on this topic, even today, as I write this and it's not just because May is the month of mental health awareness. Matters of the mind are a popular search topic at all times. If many are not comfortable talking about it openly, at least they don’t shy away from getting their queries answered, as they remain anonymous on the world wide web.  

As the curtain continues to rise on talks in the mental health arena, we have recent examples of people in public life like politician Jacinda Ardern who renounced office as New Zealand’s Prime Minister. The 42-year-old said that she no longer had enough “in the tank” to do her job justice.

A clear case of burnout at work. 

And then tennis star Naomi Osaka, a certified global superstar with a huge social media imprint and endorsements from brands like Nike, Nissan and Louis Vuitton, pulled out from the French Open after saying she was “feeling vulnerable and anxious” and revealed that she has suffered from “long bouts” of depression since the U.S. Open in 2018. 

Showing her support was Michael Phelps, the greatest swimmer of all time, winner of 23 Olympic gold medals who is known for going public with his mental health struggles. He said in an interview with Time magazine that he was glad Osaka showed her vulnerability and it was going to be a- game changer in mental health, moving forward. 

It's plain as day that professional success has nothing to do with how your mental health may fare. At the end of the day, we are all human, have feelings, get pricked, bleed and cry.

In a world before Covid and the world after Covid, if we can call it that now, so many things have changed. Our lives, for one, have been changed irrevocably by the brunt of losing family and friends and jobs too, which meant that mental health issues were on the rise.

And then the challenges of working from home to hybrid working to then finally coming back to offices. It’s been a tough ride for many and only the fittest have survived., There are so many that are still struggling. And this is where the focus on mental health at work should come in.

Poor mental health and stressors at the workplace can be a contributory factor to a range of physical illnesses like hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular conditions, amongst others, says a study published in the NLM (National Library of Medicine) by T. Rajgopal.

Difficult bosses, unreal targets, multi-tasking, romantic or work relationships gone wrong with colleagues, home and work-life balance: the reasons to lose your Zen in office can be many that prove not only emotionally but also physically draining.

Agrees Dr Trideep Choudhury, Associate Consultant Psychiatrist, Department of Mental Health and Behavioural Sciences at the Fortis Escorts Hospital, Faridabad who says it is imperative to treat the issue of mental health at the workplace with the importance it deserves, "There will be burn-out, affecting one’s ability to contribute meaningfully in their professional lives and there will be a big impact on productivity and profits. It also affects employee morale adversely.”

And it all needs a solution: a safe workplace where one can talk about their issues and seek help via the organisation or in an individual capacity. While not everybody may be comfortable talking about their issues at the workplace, the important thing is to realise when to seek help before it results in a negative outcome. 

In 2022, the WHO’s World mental health report: transforming mental health for all, highlighted the workplace as a key example of a setting where transformative action on mental health is needed. The guidelines provide evidence-based recommendations to promote mental health, prevent such conditions, and enable people living with mental health issues to participate and thrive in work. 
 
This would mean mitigating, modifying or removing workplace risks to mental health and also providing flexible working arrangements, or implementing frameworks to deal with violence and harassment at work.

A stone is thrown and the world over, the ripples are seen. Mental health is no longer a taboo topic and it is being seen in workplaces that are trying to provide support to their employees in various ways, as the study below suggests.

According to an October 2021 survey by WTW (Willis Towers Watson, NASDAQ: WTW), a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company as published in January 2022 by the Global Newswire: Employee mental health has taken centre stage as one of the top HR priorities facing employers with nearly all companies identifying stress and burnout as a threat for their workforces. 

Nearly all (86%) of employers said that mental health, stress and burnout are a top priority; however, half (49%) have not yet formally articulated a wellbeing strategy for their workforce and only a quarter have already articulated and adopted a wellbeing strategy.

Change may be slow. But it’s on its way by giving mental health the much-needed attention it deserves, after waiting in the wings for so long.

And till that happens, don’t just ask ‘How are you?’ to a colleague and leave. It will serve a better purpose to wait to hear their answer if that’s the least you can do.

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