Work-related stress, mental health and burn-out: Silent assassins of productivity

Organisations which prioritised employee well-being were more effective in unlocking the full potential of their workforce

Optimising the return to shareholders, motivating employees to be high performers while securing their health and well-being and satisfying the needs of a diversity of other stakeholders are the often-conflicting deliverables which require delicate balancing by leaders

Work-related stress, burn-out and mental health are on the rise in both the private and public sectors in corporate Sri Lanka. Whilst these issues are not peculiar to Sri Lanka, the difference between Sri Lanka and the developed countries, at this juncture, is the degree of proactivity and the extent of readiness of corporate Sri Lanka in identifying, and serving, employees who are openly and/or silently suffering from the ill effects of them. 

Work-related stress, burn-out and mental health, collectively referred to as work-related stress sometimes, usually raise their ugly heads when, and where, the physical and mental demands of a role and/or a combination of roles exceed the subject person’s physical and emotional capacity, and capability to deal with them. The cracks which invariably appear, if left unaddressed for too long, will result in a prolonged state of fear, anxiety and anticipatory trauma. It is a state of individual inadequacy which can negatively affect the health and well-being of the subject employees and, consequently, the productivity of the organisation. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 12 billion working days are lost every year, globally, to depression and anxiety at a cost of $ 1 trillion per annum in lost productivity. Such is the magnitude of the problem.

Causes of work-related stress

Events and instances which cause work-related stress et cetera are *unsafe working conditions, *lack of skills for the role, * unrealistic performance targets, goals and objectives, * loss of control over the workload arising mainly from a lack of supporting resources, * lack of clarity about the deliverables, * the frequent and excessive demand on time and energy in delivering performance outcomes, * unsocial or inflexible work hours, * lack of support from immediate supervisor, * continuous under-utilisation of skills, *organisational culture which tolerates negative behaviours, * fear of change, * threat to job security, * fear of redundancy, * difficult relationships with superiors, colleagues and subordinates, * harassment and bullying, * public ridicule and degradation, *conflicting home/work demands, and * non-work related discrimination, to name the key ones.

Optimising the return to shareholders, motivating employees to be high performers while securing their health and well-being and satisfying the needs of a diversity of other stakeholders are the often-conflicting deliverables which require delicate balancing by leaders. Numerous are the occasions in my career where I have been challenged in such respects and equally numerous are the times when I have grappled with the sensitivity, and the awkwardness, associated with raising performance concerns with employees who were already under stress, pressure and strain. They were situations which had to be handled with a velvet glove. My staunchest ally in such instances was the solidity, predictability and effectiveness of the structured support mechanisms which were available at the organisations I belonged to. 

Alignment between employee well-being and organisation’s productivity

Given the significant financial and cultural costs of high turnover, the loss of tacit institutional knowledge during recruitment, onboarding and termination and its concomitant negative impacts on productivity and morale and anxieties/burn-out which arise from the overloading of work on remaining employees, it is essential that leaders proactively seek alignment between employee aspirations and well-being and the organisation’s productivity.

What one person may perceive as stressful may be challenging and exciting to another. Key factors which define whether a task is exciting, challenging, or stressful are the subject person’s psychological make-up and general health and these factors must be considered when crafting organisational support mechanisms.

Whilst most stress, mental health and burn-out issues emanate from an inadequacy in the individual, there are instances where they are born from an individual’s hunger for unusual positive affirmation. There are some individuals who are in a rat race to gain fame and prestige irrespective of the associated cost. Their relentless pursuit of high performance in their professional, sporting and personal lives and their insatiable desire to be recognised, respected, praised and applauded by their superiors, peers, direct reports, neighbours, friends and society blinds them to the important fact that there is a significant interplay between well-being and success. 

In their quest for high performance, they fail to see that there is a ‘tipping point’ beyond which the negative impacts of stress, mental health and burnout far exceed the return on the incremental investment made in terms of time, money, mental strain and the often-unintended neglect of family and social life. Burn-out, stress and other mental health issues inevitably emerge when this ‘tipping point’ is exceeded and such issues become barriers to high performance. 

The “central governor model” theory posits that the brain regulates physical activity in ensuring that the body’s homeostasis is maintained. However, it is also known that if we repeatedly, and deliberately, expose ourselves to the same stressors there will come a time when the ‘central governor’ presumes it to be the norm and stops transmitting the danger signals. I remember the immense discomfort I had as a child when I was compelled to do an early morning swim as a part of my regimentation. At the start, my mind found it difficult to come to terms with the icy cold effects of the ‘4:30 a.m.’ water. However, with the passage of time, it got accustomed to it and my body coped with the cold in robot-like fashion. My ‘trained’ mind became oblivious to the physical discomforts, clinical dangers and the after-effects of success. 

Michael Phelps, Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka are examples of world-famous athletes who have suffered from ‘winner’s mentality’ pressures. In a corporate setting, it is the dream of leaders to have a host of self-driven high performers. Yet, it is an aspect which must be monitored and modulated carefully for it to be sustainably beneficial to both the individual and the organisation. 

Employee engagement, being the level of dedication and enthusiasm an employee feels towards his/her job, and employee wellbeing, being the overall state of physical, mental, and emotional health, are highly complementary. Engaged employees are more likely to be healthy and happy while employees who are fearful or overworked are likely to be less motivated and less productive. Proactively addressing work-related stress, mental health and burn-out is a ‘no-brainer.’ Do not think twice

Relationship between a contented mind and extraordinary outcomes

The relationship between a contented mind and extraordinary outcomes is a symbiotic one and the importance of it is rarely lost in the minds of great leaders. They are quick to recognise the positives of such a relationship and they proactively adopt situation centric ‘pull and push’ human resource management strategies in creating environments which enable employees to uplift their performance within the safe zone of the productivity curve. Inbuilt mechanisms which give early warnings to hyper-enthusiastic employees when they are close to danger are distinguishing features of such strategies.

This article is a discussion on how leaders can cultivate and nurture a work-life balance which allows employee well-being and high performance to flourish in unison. By establishing practices and arrangements which trigger alerts when employees venture beyond their ‘tipping points’, as described before, organisations can be proactive in fostering environments which support work-related stress and enable high achievement. An obvious first step is to heighten the awareness of work-related stress and mental health issues in all its staff from the CEO to the worker through workshops, seminars and the like. The awareness must include the nurturing of the ability of employees to symptomatically identify work-related stress. Such stress may be either physical, psychological or behavioural or a combination of them. Physical symptoms generally include frequent headaches, fatigue, muscular tension, sleeping difficulties, gastrointestinal upsets, dermatological disorders and heart palpitations. Psychological symptoms include depression, anxiety, a loss of enthusiasm and drive, irritability, excessive pessimism, lack of control and reduced cognitive capabilities while Behavioural symptoms encompass increased absenteeism, abnormal aggression, diminished creativity, lowering of work performance, relationship problems with co-workers, mood swings, impatience, frustration, disinterest and isolation.

The number of organisations showing care and concern by encouraging and assisting employees to form affinity groups which represent communities of support and advocacy to affected people, help reduce stigma and serve as platforms for individuals to share experiences and coping methods/styles, is on the up, globally. By encouraging open dialogue, modern leaders are creating environments where mental health concerns are treated with empathy and understanding. 

Anglo American Corporation (Anglo), where I worked for 25 years from 1978 to 2003 had a well-structured Employee Assistance Program (EAP) which provided counselling and other services to employees facing work-related challenges and I benefitted from the program in overcoming a work-related anxiety in 1995.

Carried the office in my head

It came about when I told my regional director that I had ‘carried the office in my head’ during the entirety of a five-week holiday I had with my wife in the United Kingdom (UK). We flew from Lusaka to Gatwick, rented a Hertz and then drove the length and breadth of the UK without pre-booking most of our ‘stopover’ hotels. It was a great holiday. My regional director, a United States born South African mining engineer, expected us to have had a stress-free holiday. In my mind it was, except that every Monday to Saturday, early morning, mid-day, and early evening, I would spend 30 minutes per call checking with my Managing Director and Finance Manager on how things were progressing in office.

I had this misguided belief that the office could not run effectively in my absence. I was overly anxious, and stressed, about what could go wrong. In fact, as I recall, other than for two minor instances, there was nothing significant which required my attention during that period. The stress was not dragging me down unduly and therefore it did not bother me. My wife, a professional accountant herself, possessed the natural ability to switch off and she hardly contacted her office. The regional director, being the empathetic leader he was, was visibly upset about my ‘carrying the office in my head’ and he castigated me roundly for that and immediately booked an appointment for me to meet with the Anglo-American Corporation workplace counsellor based in Johannesburg. 

I met her as scheduled, and she diagnosed my problem as ‘an acute lack of delegation.” I followed her instructions meticulously over a period of three to four months and I easily learnt, and mastered, the art of effective delegation. August 1995 was the last time I carried my ‘office in my head’ when on holiday. Between 1996 and 2017, being the year when I formally retired from John Keells Holdings (JKH), I enjoyed many long holidays. There were just three instances in that period where I was contacted by my boss, colleagues, or team to get views on a work matter. Thanks to the guidance I received from my counsellor I had learnt how to switch off and switch on. Needless to state, at both Anglo and JKH, I had the fortune of working with committed finance and accounting teams, initiative-taking colleagues, and world class leaders. At JKH, I was also fortunate to work with the best CFOs in the world!

Performance management

A discussion on ‘work stress’ will not be complete without a few thoughts on performance management. I am a staunch advocate of integrated performance management (IPM). It is a ubiquitous feature of modern workplaces and is aimed at enhancing employee productivity and efficiency through regular evaluation. Whilst it is primarily meant to provide clarity and focus, it can inadvertently contribute to feelings of insecurity, self-doubt, and emotional distress among employees. The pressure to meet expectations, the fear of failure, and the perceived lack of support are contributors to such distress and trauma. 

Steps which can be taken to mitigate and/or lower such trauma are, * fostering open and honest two-way communication between superior and subordinate in agreeing role expectations, goals, objectives, key performance indicators and evaluation criteria, * creating a workplace culture which values psychological safety, empathy and mutual respect, * recognising the importance of work-life balance by facilitating remote work options, wellness initiatives and encouraging flexible scheduling without a lowering of standards, * emphasising on growth and development than overfocusing on negatives, * signalling the absence of bias in performance reviews/evaluations and availing equal opportunity to all via transparent policies, procedures and processes and, * promoting fairness, equity and inclusivity in all aspects of organisational decision-making.

A study by Oswald, Proto, and Sgroi in 2015, a Gallup Report in 2017 and a summation of studies by Krekel, Ward and De Neve in Lancet Psychiatry in 2019 provide empirical evidence that emotional wellbeing is a crucial driver of productivity in the workplace. Given the definitive link between employee well-being and productivity, modern and progressive organisations are adopting strategies which promote healthy work environments. Studies also confirm that organisations which prioritised employee well-being were more effective in unlocking the full potential of their workforce by enabling higher productivity, greater innovation and enhanced competitiveness. These organisations are, in addition to providing access to mental health resources, facilitating flexible work arrangements, encouraging physical activity, enabling mindfulness at work through activities such as yoga and meditation, fertilising a culture of recognition and support and, in recent times, appointing corporate psychotherapists. 

Many forward-thinking organisations, especially medium to large sized corporates and/or corporate groups, are integrating corporate therapy into their organisational structure. By providing employees with access to a corporate psychotherapist, these organisations are positioning themselves to reap the multitude of benefits which flow from a healthier, happier, and more engaged workforce. Corporate psychotherapists are helping companies to improve employee well-being and performance by reducing stress and anxiety, improving communication, identifying work-related stress problems and solving them effectively, resolving sensitive conflicts in healthy ways and teaching emotion management, thereby assisting in creating healthy workplaces where employees can thrive and optimise their potential. 

Corporate psychotherapists

Corporate psychotherapists also provide a safe and confidential space for employees to address and manage their mental health concerns. Through therapy sessions, employees are assisted in developing coping strategies, reducing stress levels, and gaining valuable insights in improving their work-related well-being. Integrating a corporate psychotherapist into the workplace offers other benefits to both employees and the organisation and it is proving to be a powerful step in creating a workplace which values the holistic well-being of its employees. 

For instance, corporate psychotherapists are trained in facilitating workshops and in coaching/mentoring to improve communication among employees and management and this has enabled employees to express their ideas and concerns more freely and effectively and resolve conflicts in a healthy and productive manner. The ensuing positive work culture reduces misunderstandings and increases overall team cohesion. There is growing empirical and anecdotal evidence that corporate therapy is playing a vital role in preventing long-term mental health issues and in addressing concerns at their infant stages.

Admittedly, corporate psychotherapists do not come cheap. They are very costly. However, the benefits far outweigh the costs. By creating a culture which encourages proactive mental health care, organisations are now able to nip issues in the bud through early intervention, thereby minimising the impact of mental health issues, reducing absenteeism and workplace conflicts and other costly disruptions to productivity. 

Employee engagement, being the level of dedication and enthusiasm an employee feels towards his/her job, and employee wellbeing, being the overall state of physical, mental, and emotional health, are highly complementary. Engaged employees are more likely to be healthy and happy while employees who are fearful or overworked are likely to be less motivated and less productive. Proactively addressing work-related stress, mental health and burn-out is a ‘no-brainer.’ Do not think twice. 

(The writer is currently a Leadership Coach, Mentor and Consultant and boasts over 50+ years of experience in very senior positions in the corporate world – local and overseas. www.ronniepeiris.com.)