By now, we’re all well-aware of the negative effects that the COVID-19 pandemic had on people’s mental health and emotional well-being. During the pandemic, about 4 in 10 adults in the U.S. reported symptoms of anxiety or depressive disorder, up from one in ten adults who reported these symptoms in 2019.
It’s easy to assume that these mental health issues will start to disappear (or at least return to their pre-pandemic levels) now that things are returning to normal. However, the reality couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s true that people feel safer, they’re spending time with friends and family again, and some stressors around caretaking duties have been alleviated as childcare centers and schools reopen.
But although the overall outlook feels positive and some employees are looking forward to working in an office again, any new change is always going to be stressful for people. In fact, there are multiple reasons why mental health will continue to be a key issue that employers need to prioritize in the wake of COVID-19—or they’ll risk falling behind during this critical time period.
Let’s look at how workers’ mental health will be affected as they return to the office, and the high costs that organizations will pay if they don’t take steps to address this issue. We’ll also examine what leaders can do to create an environment of psychological safety for their people as they enter this next chapter.
First, it’s important to recognize that mental health was a pressing workplace issue long before the pandemic. In a 2019 study about mental health in the workplace, 60% of employees reported experiencing symptoms of a mental health condition during the previous year. We also have to acknowledge that the effects of the stressors that emerged during the pandemic—overwork, isolation, and fear of COVID-19, to name a few—will linger for some time.
However, the return-to-work transition brings with it a whole host of new considerations. Employees heading back to their workplace are likely to have a wide range of concerns, including how often they’ll need to go into work, what level of control they’ll have over their schedule, what the new office experience will be like (and how safe it will be), how they’ll navigate the social environment at work after a year of isolation, and who will take care of kids, pets, or parents. In addition, concerns around burnout and overwork are certain to carry over into the post-pandemic workplace.
A recent FlexJobs study found that overall, workers are most concerned about COVID-19 exposure/infection (49%), closely followed by having less work flexibility (46%) and less work-life balance (43%). However, working parents have unique considerations: 49% cite child care as a concern, 48% worry they will have less flexibility, 46% are concerned they will have less work-life balance, 32% fear a lack of health and safety measures, and 31% want to avoid office politics and distractions.
Research confirms that these concerns are manifesting as serious mental health issues. Two-thirds (66%) of employees say they have anxiety about returning to the workplace. And women, who often bear the brunt of running the home or handling caretaking duties, have been even more affected in recent months. While female workers had seen remarkable mental health improvements since January, recent data shows that this trend is already reversing. Total Brain’s Mental Health Index found that since March, women have experienced a 33% increase in feelings of anxiety, a 25% increase in stress, and a 23% increase in depressed mood.
While some companies have taken steps to support their workforce through telehealth, EAPs, mental health days, and other offerings, more than half of employees do not think their organization has done enough to address mental health issues. If businesses continue to avoid this issue during the back-to-work transition, the direct and indirect costs will be significant.
In the U.S., the CDC has estimated that depression alone causes 200 million lost workdays each year and costs employers up to $44 billion. However, poor mental health also predicts the incidence of serious and expensive medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. So it’s not just about reducing the short-term costs of mental health disorders, which are already considerable—companies also have to recognize that poor mental health is a risk factor for chronic physical conditions.
There’s also the high cost of presenteeism, or working while ill. While physical health conditions are widely known to contribute to presenteeism, research led by Johns Hopkins University Senior Scientist Ron Goetzel, PhD, reveals that “presenteeism costs for psychiatric illness are higher than those for physical illnesses in most cases.” In fact, two studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association estimate that depression sets U.S. employers back some $35 billion a year in reduced performance at work.
From a retention standpoint, recent research finds that nearly two-thirds (63%) of employees say they have left a job in the past or would like to leave their current job because it is not good for their mental wellbeing. As I’ve written about before, burnout is the #1 reason people say they want to leave their job post-COVID. Meanwhile, a survey from FlexJobs revealed that 58% of workers would “absolutely” look for a new job if they weren’t allowed to continue working remotely in their current position.
Given the potentially enormous impacts of poor mental health at work, it’s clear that employers should double down on their efforts to address this in the coming months. Here are 5 ways to approach this, with a focus on the unique issues stemming from the back-to-work time period and transition:
With all of the unknowns that lie ahead, it’s critical that companies make employees’ mental health a top priority during the back-to-work transition. The issue can be approached from many angles, from communication and culture to safety-related policies and flexible work arrangements. But no matter the approach, the benefits are clear—addressing mental health will help your employees make a smoother transition back to work, it will prevent them from leaving your company, and it will lower your healthcare and presenteeism costs. And at a more fundamental level, helping your people achieve better well-being is simply the right thing to do.
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