The "Depressing" Reason Our Workplaces Have Gone From Bad To Worse

Given all the focus and attention organizations say they’ve committed to improving their employee work experience over the past half-decade, how much progress do you imagine most have truly made?

Honestly, it would be thrilling to report that things have meaningfully improved – that data proves there’s been a significant uptick in how people feel in their jobs today. But you likely already know that only half of all working Americans admit to being satisfied in their jobs, and the percentage of engaged workers around the globe has barely budged and remains near the rock-bottom levels Gallup first reported in 2012.

That there’s really been little progress over so many years is a strong indicator that the way we commonly lead and manage people in our workplaces continues to undermine human thriving. And to that point, numerous new studies suggest our workplaces have not gotten better – they’ve grown even worse.

• According to a new Korn Ferry survey of 2,000 professionals, nearly two-thirds say their stress levels at work are much higher than they were just five years ago. Seventy-six percent say workplace stress has had a negative impact on their personal relationships, and 66% say it’s caused them to lose sleep.
• A 2017 study from the Deloitte Center For Health Solutions in the UK found that “eighty-four percent of employees have experienced physical, psychological or behavioral symptoms of poor mental health where work was a contributing factor.” And research by health insurer BUPA Global discovered it’s not just rank-and-file workers feeling all this stress; 64% of senior managers admit to suffering a mental health issue at some point, too.
• Fearing the stigma that’s associated with openly acknowledging any amount of work-related anxiety and depression, most sufferers simply hide their truth.  Deloitte polling found a stunning 95% of workers who’ve taken stress-related time off gave their employers a phony reason.
• But now, all of these collective fibs are being exposed. Willis Towers Watson research shows that the money companies are spending on mental health has risen twice as fast as all other medical expenses in recent years. Workers suffering from depression submit nearly $15,000 in health-care claims on average per year, compared with just $5,900 for the general population. 
• In a nutshell, the stress-related trends are real and no longer can be brushed aside. If you need a strictly business reason to take this seriously, the harm we do to people inherently undermines organizational performance and viability.

This Stress, Anxiety And Depression Isn’t Normal, And It’s Largely Caused By How We Manage

As someone who’s gone through life largely unaffected by mental health challenges, I’ve always assumed that depression had a biological cause. In fact, it is widely believed that depression is almost always the consequence of a malfunctioning brain.

But in a remarkable new book by journalist (and life-long depression sufferer), Johann Hari: “Lost Connections: Uncovering The Real Causes Of Depression – And The Unexpected Solutions,” we learn these beliefs are unfounded.

Hari explains that medical science – and drug companies – long ago falsely concluded that depression is the result of a depletion of serotonin in our brains; therefore drugs which replace serotonin are the proven cure. But as it turns out, well over two-thirds of people who take antidepressants experience no relief whatsoever, and continue to feel terrible afterward.

To further support his thesis, Hari cites long-running Kings College of London research which shows that negative life events precede episodes of depression 68% of the time. “Feeling depressed is very rarely biological, and more often a response to adversity,” he writes. “Anxiety and depression are all forms of some kind of disconnection.”

Following his own extensive research, Hari ultimately landed on an entirely different understanding of what’s causing so much woe in our society today – and his words might just make you wince:

“What if depression is, in fact, a form of grief – for our own lives not being what they should? What if it’s a form of grief for the connections we have lost and yet still need? All of the depressed people in the world are really giving us the same message: ‘Something has gone wrong in how we live.’”

While reading Hari’s book, I was struck by how much of the “disconnection” so many of us feel in our lives comes from our day-to-day experience at work. When we hear people are depressed, our instinct is to think there must be some deficiency in their personal lives. But it’s the eight-plus hours a day we spend in our jobs where Hari shows our spirits aren’t being fed:  

• “All of us have certain needs that makes us feel connected. We need to feel secure. We need to know we are valued and that we make a difference in the world. We need to feel we are growing and have inspiring work. We need a sense of belonging and to know someone is looking out for us. Depression is often the result of feeling these needs will never be met.”
• “We’ve disbanded our tribes in society, but without friendships, close ties and a feeling that we’re part of a group, we wither. For every good friend we have – or a boss who is supportive and caring – it reduces depression by a remarkable amount.”
• “If you want people to recover from depression – or never experience it – you need to meet their emotional needs. In our workplaces, we must return dignity and respect. We must make people our partners. It’s about restoring human nature.”

 So How Do We Fix This?

Albert Einstein’s profound insight – “we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them” – has great application here. If we truly want to reverse course, we must be willing to try new approaches, and to intentionally make bold leadership choices knowing they will upend conventional ways and thinking.

Here are three ways we can start:

1.    Give People Permission To Disconnect – And Hold The Line

?New research reported in the U.S. News And World Report concludes we humans are doing great harm to ourselves by blurring the lines between work and home life. The lack of separation limits our ability to rejuvenate which harms us cognitively and emotionally.  

It’s really only since the introduction of smartphones that so many organizations have become “always on” cultures.  And throughout this evolution, most organizations have failed to establish any clear boundaries on when employee workdays officially end.

But near continuous contact with workers is both cruel and inhumane according to the IESE Business School’s Nuria Chinchila. “It’s causing the breakup of marriages, insufficient time with their children and an enormous lack of balance in people’s lives. In the absence of clear guidance, people react in fear to their bosses.  They stay up late, interrupt dinners, and always feel compelled to ‘jump on a quick call.’”

According to a 2016 Academy of Management study, employees now tally an average of eight hours a week answering work-related emails from home. If you bristle at all at this statistic, it’s probably because it grossly underestimates your own experience.

We also spend too much time in meetings which greatly interferes with our ability to complete our most important work. Companies would be wise to establish disciplines on how long meetings can last and how many hours per week employees can spend in them.  Aside from this, leaders should make the courageous move of doing the following:

• Give people permission to be off e-mail from 7PM to 7AM based on their own time zone.  In real emergencies, texts and phone calls can be made; managers who fail to honor this direction must be called out.
• Ensure no meetings are held after 3PM.
• Create “no interruption” time blocks during the work week so people are afforded time to focus deeply on their projects and goals.

2.    Commit To Making Employee Well-Being A Core And Comprehensive Strategy  

Recent surveys show more organizations are beginning to prioritize employee wellness. This is good news, but “wellness” cannot be made into a program or a short-term initiative. And if HR owns it – without manager accountability – workers will quickly judge it to be insincere.

According to Gallup, 70% of employee engagement is attributable to one’s relationship with their manager.  And since we know that human thriving is directly tied to feeling safe, valued, supported and growing, we really need to shift our thinking on who’s truly qualified to become a manager of other people.  Yes, we need managers who can drive results.  But we also need leaders who thrive in the success of others and naturally help employees achieve their full potential.  Going forward, we must demand that anyone in a management role demonstrate the ability to be driven and caring at the same time.

To that end, we also must beef up our reporting on management performance to include well-being, turnover and engagement – all the way down to the individual manager level. No company is ever at a loss for current productivity metrics, but many lack a reliable pulse on how employees are feeling within their respective teams. Add visibility of this data into the mix and leaders of discontented teams will have real motivation to improve.

3.    Make Everyone Feel Connected To Their Team And To All Of Its Successes

We’re living in a culture where people aren’t getting the connections they need in order to be healthy human beings. It’s irrefutable that loneliness is toxic, and being part of a collective makes us happy. So, as we lead employees, we’re wiser to foster collaboration over internal competition. We’re wiser to foster a sense of family or tribe over individualism. And we’re wiser to create reward plans that ensure everyone wins when the team wins.

Research by Stanford University Psychology Professor, Kelly McGonigal, has shown that by caring for other people, we inherently strengthen our own personal resilience.  I see this as nature’s way of reminding us that we truly are all connected – and that our ability to thrive personally in our lives is fully interdependent with the thriving of others. 

Conclusion:

We now have more than sufficient data to prove that we’ve inadvertently made our workplaces poisonous to our employees. So as leaders, each of us is faced with a choice.  We can either simply look away, or we can take some swift and informed action. It’s my hope that the enlightened words of Harvard economist, John Kenneth Galbraith will open your heart and inspire you to do the latter: 

“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.”

Thank you for reading my article; I’d be honored if you shared it with others!

I’m the author of Lead From The Heart: Transformational Leadership For The 21st Century, now being taught in 9 American universities. I’m also a leadership speaker, consultant and host of the Lead From The Heart podcast now heard in 144 countries world-wide. Reach me at www.markccrowley.com