Is your company bad for your employees' health?

I was reading the latest?Gallup State of the Global Workforce report ?last week and amongst all of the statistics, there were a couple that really stood out to me. The key one was around stress; almost half of the people interviewed said that they’d experienced a lot of stress the previous day and that only a third of people felt like their wellbeing was ‘thriving’.

Now, of course we know that some stress can be a good thing. It can motivate us, help us to build meaningful relationships with others and lift our confidence once we’ve achieved a goal that requires us to step outside of our?comfort zone . But experiencing a lot of stress is beneficial to no one and is the reality for many people every single day as a result of the culture within which they work.

Almost every week there is a new story in the media about an organisation with a ‘toxic’ culture and, let’s be clear, nothing toxic is ever good for anyone’s health. The latest story here in Australia centred around the New South Wales state government.?You can read about it yourself here. ?But let me summarise it for you. Lots of people knew that there was poor behaviour going on, chose to do absolutely nothing about it for years, then expressed their shock and disappointment when the allegations were finally made public.

The state premier Dominic Perrottet said, “Clearly we have a culture in the NSW parliament that over time has become, in many instances, toxic and wrong.”

Here’s what they’ll do. Employ some consultants to do a report, talk up things like ‘culture change’, ‘diversity and inclusion’, ‘wellbeing programs’ and ‘safe place to work’ and refuse to address the real problem. The behaviours of certain individuals that they’ll continue to walk past in the hope that they’ll change. They won’t.

The absence of courage to do something about this or to try a different approach means that the health of workers will continue to be adversely affected, through no fault of their own. The toxicity will prevail until it becomes someone else’s problem to deal with; then the cycle will be repeated.

Here in Australia, September 8th is designated as?RUOK Day . A gentle — and much needed — reminder to people to check in with other humans and ask how they’re doing in the hope that a conversation may help.

In all honesty, every day should be RUOK Day in our workplaces and managers should be making a commitment to ensuring that people’s stress levels are appropriate to produce great work, not great fear.

During their lifetime, most people will spend more time with people at work than with those that they love and they don’t want to spend that time in a never-ending tornado of stress, anxiety or depression. Prolonged exposure to these kinds of working conditions can lead to long-term mental health issues and in some cases suicide.

The pandemic has exacerbated these issues for many individuals, leading collaboration technology company Slack to?find? that anxiety and work-related stress are at an all time high.

Yet, incredibly, there are managers in senior positions telling staff to ‘suck it up’, ‘knuckle down and get on with it’, ‘just leave if you don’t like it’ or ‘find ways to enjoy your job’.

But this issue is not about leaving (someone else will merely step into that mess) or prolonged enjoyment, it’s about humans being afraid. Afraid of making a mistake, afraid of making a decision, afraid to be honest, afraid to call out poor behaviour, afraid to say ‘hey, maybe we do have enough people, we just have too much work?’.

It’s not like the research isn’t there to demonstrate what happens when you show empathy and care for others, and the benefits it provides. The Limeade Institute’s?Science of Care ?research found that when employees feel cared for:

• 90% say they’re likely to recommend their organisation as a great place to work (compared to 9% of those who don’t feel cared for) — which leads to the retention of great people and the attraction of new ones
• 94% say they feel personally engaged in their work (compared to 43% of those who don’t feel cared for) — leading to increased collaboration, productivity and innovation
• 94% say they have wellbeing in their life (compared to 52% of those who don’t feel cared for) — leading to happy humans!

Earlier this year,?PwC found : ‘For every dollar spent by businesses on successful mental health programs, organisations can expect a return on investment of between $1 and $4.’

All this for just building a respectful environment where people are able to bring their best self to work in order to tick things off their task list, contribute to the delivery of a strategy, so that everyone can feel a sense of achievement.

So what can you do?

For employers:

• Remove people that threaten, harass, bully or subject employees to any form of inhumane treatment — don’t talk about it or make excuses for not doing it
• Actively engage employees in building a respectful culture in which everyone is held to account — culture belongs to everyone, so get them involved
• Measure how healthy and safe people feel in the company, rather than just how ‘engaged’ they are — and then act on the feedback, don’t just report it.

For employees:

• If you feel safe to do so, report any inhumane treatment that you may be subjected to or that you witness. Otherwise (if you’re in Australia) you can?report it anonymously? to SafeWork Australia
• Talk to others about how you’re feeling or else reach out to an organisation such as?BeyondBlue ?which has professionals who can help you
• Be proactive in working with the organisation to build something that people feel connected to — be a positive role model for others and show them how to behave.