When you have a manager who believes “we can always do more,” and scoffs at discussion of wanting to maintain a “manageable workload,” what can you do? This kind of well-intentioned, though misguided, manager likely exists in at least of our readers’ organizations—maybe even yours!
Clearly, managers who do not respect the need for assigning workloads that enable employees to enjoy a personal life, and limit stress, are not good for mental health. And it doesn’t matter if the managers themselves are working just as hard—or harder—than their employees. It still isn’t good for mental health. I speak from first-hand experience on that!
Fast Company’s editorial staff recently published an article online on ways to create a mentally healthy workplace. It offers simple, easy-to-overlook actions a company can take to improve the work-related mental health of employees.
Model a Balanced Approach to Work
The piece quotes Zoe Sinclair, founder of workplace mental well-being consultancy This Can Happen, as recommending that leaders in the company start the conversation. They should be the first to bring up the need for mental well-being.
“As leaders, the most important role you can play in creating a mentally healthy workforce is to tackle stigma by having conversations in the workplace around mental well-being,” Sinclair told Fast Company.
For instance, that would mean that instead of insisting “we can always do more” and scoffing at concerns about maintaining a manageable workload, an effective manager would be the first to raise the question. After presenting a new project to the department, the manager might proactively say to the team: “Now, let’s talk about how this additional work is going to play out so none of us gets overwhelmed but we can still meet our deadlines and responsibilities for this new project.”
The manager then would lead by sharing their own concerns or ideas for keeping the workload manageable and then would open the floor for employees to share concerns about and/or ideas for making their new assignments manageable.
Make Mental Health a Company Value
There are many values a company can put at the forefront. The first, by necessity, is usually profitability. If your organization’s leaders are ethical, caring people, then a co-equal value is being socially responsible and upstanding in how you serve customers. Somewhere in the top values spoken about during onboarding and new manager training should be the mental and overall well-being of employees.
Just as you take care of your bottom line and your customers, so, too, do you take care of your employees. A key part of that care is making sure their workloads are manageable so they can enjoy the money they earn doing their work for you. After all, what is the purpose of working hard and earning money if you hardly have any time to enjoy it?
That very question should be posed during new manager and leadership development training. On the one hand, leaders have their obligation to the company and customers, and on the other hand, there are the people who make it possible to do all that you do for the company and customers. Those people, your employees, are most likely not yet all artificial intelligence bots. Therefore, their workload should be deliverable within the constraints of the work schedule they agreed to—typically 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday. The occasional night or weekend is understandable, but managers should be trained that chronic nighttime and weekend work violates the company’s values.
Encourage Employees to Report Toxicity
Onboarding and yearly booster training sessions should make clear to employees that they can anonymously report toxic manager behaviors, even if they believe those behaviors are occurring without malice.
The employee might say: “My manager is such a nice person and I’d hate to see them get into trouble. It’s just that I feel like I’m constantly working, that no amount of work is ever the absolute most I’m going to be given. There always seems to be a new project or assignment, even though I have expressed to my manager that I am at full capacity and even have to work about a quarter of my weekends.”
A well-trained Human Resources manager then might respond: “This isn’t about getting anyone in trouble. It’s about ensuring you can do the great job you do for us and still have time in your personal life to unwind and enjoy all the leisure activities you love—in other words, so you can have a life that’s more than worrying about getting work done.”
Generative AI Can Help
Generative artificial intelligence (genAI) can help relieve employees of repetitive, tedious tasks. In addition to that, Fast Company notes that it can be used to take the emotion out of employee feedback.
Over the course of my career, I have gotten directives and feedback that included multiple exclamation marks or question marks, and, in some cases, it made it like I was being yelled or snapped at.
Inputting feedback into a generative AI bot and asking the bot to rewrite it so it comes across as kind and understanding is a way to ensure employees are not unnecessarily angered or stressed out.
So much that is averse to promoting mental health in the workplace can be easily avoided—if the company and its managers care enough to make the effort.
Do your organization’s leaders seem to care about employee mental health and general well-being? If so, what related actions do they take?