by Ruvimbo Martha Jeche
Every moment I thought of work, I felt a heat wave that called me to perform, and perform and perform. Constantly my emotions told me my performance will define me, and my presence and existence matter only on my performance.
Ideally, my performance had to keep increasing, bettering with every passing day and time. I lived in fear of being called out for being an underperforming person.
Loads of work multiplied each passing day, expectations rising each day because I would have completed my previous task but to what end? I remember one day when I had an emotional burnout.
I was shaking and could not manage a civilised conversation with my boss. I banged the door as I retired from work for the day well before it was time. That was bad and it’s a bad sign!
I have come to live the fact that I spend more than 60% of my life at work and half of the world’s population is in the workplace.
So imagine if the workplace does not safeguard one’s mental well being, then what world of working adults are we creating?
Mental health is a state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with everyday stressors, work productivity, reach their full potential, and contribute to their community.
An employee’s mental health is as important as an organisation’ desire to achieve set goals and targets. The employee as a resource or instrument has to be in the right mental state to achieve organisational targets.
Then I am always thinking, do our organisations have frameworks top foster discussions on one’s mental state at work, do our organisations understand that the mental being is a function of every task laid on the table, do organisations and colleagues understand what mental health in the workplace is?
These were some of the random questions during my reflections.
Either way, it is important to note that mental health cuts across boundaries of race, nationality, religious beliefs and society.
This makes it a serious humankind issue and discussions about it should be normal and as open as possible.
2024 is yet another year for me as an employee and for the greater part of my January I have been reflecting on my 2023 work life.
2023 has seen me with a decline in mental health and unbearable burnouts at work. Sad is the fact that my mental health is not something I could always bring up in any discussion even with a layman or a fellow professional.
I have been pretty much flowered with the phrases, “that is how work is”, “it shall be well”, and “you can pull through”. I did pull through but at what cost?
Mental health is a topical issue but still when we try talking of our mental health we are not received with the ears we are looking for.
It has so much irony to it, as human beings, we at times despise people for being in the wrong mental state, we are never ready to listen to them talk about it. But is it ever one’s fault to be in whatever mental state they can be in?
Mental health is an important aspect of overall well being and workplace stress is a major contributing factor to poor mental health.
Supporting mental health in the workplace is thus a necessity. We are all in the workplace to live and achieve our career goals, to earn a living and to serve.
The workplace has to be healthy in every aspect as such. Everyone has this right to work and workers have the right to health and safe working environments.
Organisations and management should thus be on a trend to support good mental health by creating wellness solutions that help employees to survive in the workplace.
As I was on this reflections toll, I talked to a number of colleagues from different organisations, I figured out how each of them had some level of dissatisfaction towards their management/ organisations.
I figured out a number of issues that can affect employees’ mental health. These include poor organisational culture, job insecurity, and low levels of support for employees, inadequate health and safety policies, and performance pressure.
All these are critical work risk factors that can affect an employee’s mental health in the workplace.
I realised how these risk factors have so much to build on an employee’s confidence in their work, their performance and productivity, communication with co-workers, and physical capability and daily functionality.
What caught my attention the most is performance pressure as a risk factor to an employee’s mental health.
Many A times as an employee I have been put in situations where I am expected to produce more than I can.
This comes in the form of unrealistic deadlines and unbearable targets. Working with targets you cannot handle in a short unrealistic time is a real threat to one’s sanity.
I was in conflict with myself and the work itself.
I was expected to constantly perform well despite the workload and as a go getter, I also wanted to perform well despite the pressure but that alone meant unreasonable pressure on me.
It was me with an increased workload and work hours, added stress, and emotional exhaustion.
I understand the goals organisations have to achieve and the environment they operate in, competitive and volatile.
As such, organisations work at any cost so they thrive and remain relevant in the market. This however should not be done at the expense of the employee.
As an asset as valuable as an organisation’s capital, an employee’s well being should be prioritised.
