By Rose Jacobs
Issues surrounding mental health affect people from all walks of life, including high-level corporate executives. In recent years, some top execs have opened up about their challenges related to mental well-being—with a candor that could have widespread effects. High profile cases have highlighted the need for companies to be prepared to deal with any health issues, including mental, among executives, while keeping in mind both the protection of the business and of executives' privacy.
These issues played out in November 2011, as trading began on the
Lloyds' then-relatively new and much lauded chief executive, António Horta Osório, and his employer avoided the word “stress” in the release, but it later became clear that he hadn't been sleeping for more than two or three hours a night for several months. After intense days trying to turn around a bank waylaid by the credit crisis, “I could not switch off,” Osório told The Independent newspaper. “I understand now why they use sleep deprivation to torture prisoners.”
Clearly, investors were shocked by his revelation. But for most people, the surprise was not that a chief executive under intense pressure would have trouble sleeping; it was that he'd admitted to it.
Raising awareness
Indeed, in a 2007 survey of HR managers by the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health in the United States, eight in 10 respondents said they felt employees suffering from mental illness might refrain from seeking treatment due to "shame and stigma." This attitude does not seem to have changed significantly over the years: More recent polls by the Disability Management Employer Coalition suggest the degree of stigma associated with mental illness has not waned. In this context, an employee's decision to keep quiet about his or her issues, particularly at work, can seem like self-preservation. But trying to cope with mental well-being issues on your own can be frightening and ineffective.
“We're trying to tackle a culture of silence,” says Louise Aston, director of Business in the Community's Workwell campaign, launched this year in the United Kingdom to raise awareness of mental well-being in the workplace—including issues related to stress, anxiety and depression.
Osório was certainly not alone in his suffering. The National Institute of Mental Health reports approximately one in four adult Americans experiences mental illness in a given year.
There is little reason to believe top managers would be spared, and, indeed, increasing numbers of celebrities, politicians and executives have admitted in recent years to issues related to mental well-being. In the United Kingdom, Hector Sants,
All of this poses a challenge for society—of eliminating a stigma that could dissuade people from seeking treatment or even recognizing warning signs. It also raises a number of questions for businesses and boards of directors over how best to protect both employees and the bottom line.
Business cost
Often, what's best for the individual and what's best for the company overlap, not least because employees are an important business asset whose health will have an impact on profits.
A PwC report published in March stated that for every dollar invested in creating a mentally healthy workplace, $2.30 is generated in benefits to a company. However, these kinds of investments are not being made: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development figures that mental health issues cost the United Kingdom about $120 billion every year, or 4.5 percent of gross domestic product; Switzerland $21 billion, or 3.2 percent of GDP; and Denmark $8 billion, or 3.4 percent of GDP. These losses derive from lower productivity and higher health care costs.
Nor are these numbers likely to shrink. The Workwell campaign points out that “the pressure on employees is increasing as companies work to become more efficient and maximize their long-term growth. Longer hours, increased competition for jobs and the blurring of traditional work-life boundaries is quickly leading to unprecedented emotional demands on employees.”
PwC lists a number of concrete ways companies can combat these forces, including offering on-site physical activity programs, coaching and mentoring programs, mental health education for managers, resilience training, and well-being checks or health screenings. The Workwell campaign also calls on companies to discourage "presenteeism," which the organization defines as "attending work whilst sick or disengaged."
A boardroom issue
Workwell's Aston believes that what once might once have been an HR issue should migrate to the boardroom, where directors should actively engage in promoting mental well-being at the workplace and should benchmark their company's mental well-being policies, practices and environment against those of peers.
As for mental well-being at the top, we may be some way off from companies taking out insurance policies against depression or anxiety as they do against, say, a chief executive's life (known in the insurance industry as “key man” policies). But just as boards concern themselves with succession planning, they should be sure that others are prepared to step in if and when a colleague needs a break—even if that colleague happens to be a member of the C-suite.
As with diseases like cancer, boards also need to keep employee privacy in mind—and to be open to guidance from the individual whose health is in question, rather than adopting any sort of one-size-fits-all policy.
Taking these steps will benefit all employees, which will directly benefit the company, says Aston: "Personal resilience equates to organizational resilience.”
Rose Jacobs has worked as a copy editor, features editor, news editor and, most recently, as an FT business reporter covering transportation.
For other good reads about conquering the workplace, check out:
1. Top Secret: Laughter In The Workplace Can Create A Great Place To Work
2. Stress On The Job: 5 Ways Your Are Mentally Sabotaging Yourself
3. How To Win At Work: Try This Business Philosophy On For Size
