Mind the Workplace

Workplace mental health has been receiving increased attention in recent years. It is no wonder why: workplace mental health problems result in as much as 500 billion dollars of lost productivity annually. It isn’t just the financial losses that matter. Overstressed and unhealthy employees contribute to unhappy workplaces. This means that the indirect effects on everyone else – the people who dread coming to work – may not show up in the calculated productivity losses, but contribute to them nevertheless. Two years ago, in partnership with the Faas Foundation, MHA undertook a project to understand more about the impact of mental health concerns in the workplace. We created an online survey about workplace mental health, and let all interested people participate in it. The thousands who responded do not represent a randomized sample. However, they do reflect the feelings of people who are concerned about their mental health, and the mental health and well-being of their co-workers. You will see eye-opening results throughout this report. But for me, the essential question isn’t “How bad is it?” but this: “What comes next?” For MHA, here’s what comes next: we will be using this information not to criticize any employer, but to help all employers think through how we can make all workplaces mentally healthier. There will be plenty of opportunities, and plenty of good options. We look forward to continuing to partner with the Faas Foundation to identify and implement these in the coming years. And we look forward to building relationships with other partners to promote their efforts in this area, too. After all, we’re all in this together.