Why we still can’t talk about the ‘m’ word

A survey of 1,428 employees in the UK by MetLife has provided pointers to how the cost of living crisis is putting serious strains on mental health and relationships.

38% said the state of their finances was making them stressed or anxious, and a further 26% had experienced feelings of depression. 31% had lost sleep; 15% said that money problems had led to arguments at home. And the data comes from research carried out in February — before the more recent escalation in energy bills and inflation generally.

The MetLife survey suggests that 30% have no-one to turn to for financial advice (the 70% who do mainly just mean talking to their partner our family).

Not talking

A separate report, Aviva’s 2022 Working Lives report, has highlighted an underlying issue. Around 75% of employees have never had a conversation with their life manager about financial wellbeing — confirming the idea that people are uncomfortable with talking about personal finances at work.

The 45-54 year-old age group of employees were least likely to have talked about financial wellbeing; 18-24 year-olds were most likely.

At the same time, awareness of the central role of stable finances for both employees and organisations is high. 35% of employers said the cost of living crisis was their top boardroom concern; 34% of staff said wages were their main worry.

Orderly house

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “Talking to professional EAP advisers is a hugely beneficial way for employees to start organising their finances, to get a grip on outgoings and how they can get themselves onto the most solid basis possible.

“Managers can flag ways to get help, but they’re not in a position to solve problems. And going to a boss with just worries and fears, hoping this will lead to a salary increase just isn’t the best or most practical approach.

“Employees need to be able to help themselves first of all, with the clear-eyed support and insights from an EAP, to demonstrate they are taking action.”

Why we still can’t talk about the ‘m’ word -EAPA UK

Is it healthy for 8 million adults in England to be taking antidepressants?

According to data on NHS prescriptions, 8.3 million adults in England took antidepressants in its 2021-22 reporting period — up from 7.9 million in the previous year (a 5% rise).

This is now the sixth year in a row that the numbers have risen. Women are twice more likely than men to be prescribed antidepressants.

There was a larger proportional increase among young people: 8% among 10 to 19 year-olds.

Talk or medicate?

The debate continues over the value of therapies vs medication in treating cases of depression and anxiety. NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) has recommended exercise and therapy over antidepressants for milder cases, as well as group classes in meditation, CBT and individual counselling.

But other mental health groups have argued that it’s important for there to be a range of options to suit different circumstances, seeing antidepressants as a vital part of the support offering: drugs shouldn’t be stigmatised as the ‘quick fix’ option, they say.

Early interventions

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “The rise in antidepressant prescriptions may well reflect changing attitudes and more awareness and openness in society generally. People feel more able to go to their GP and admit they’re having problems.

“But we also have to take into account the pressures on the NHS. Access to therapies is limited and involves waiting lists that just don’t work for people experiencing a psychological crisis.

“There needs to be more attention to how so many of us get to that stage in the first place. People need to be able to access support, have someone to talk to much earlier rather than waiting until mental health is a problem needing immediate action. This is the next step in improving the mental health of the nation — making it normal to talk about worries and problems, getting support from professionals like those working for EAPs whenever needed.”

Can the four day week put an end to burnout and poor mental health at work?

A six month project will see more than 3,300 employees at 70 companies work a four day week with no loss of pay.

The pilot runs from this month until the end of the year among a variety of employers, ranging from a seaside fish and chip shop to finance, construction, education and IT businesses. The organiser, 4 Day Week Global, is running the scheme alongside Cambridge and Oxford universities, Boston College, Autonomy and the 4 Day Week Campaign.

New frontiers for quality of life

The UK is leading the way in testing the potential of new ways of working, said 4 Day Week Global’s CEO Joe O’Connor. “As we emerge from the pandemic, more and more companies are recognising that the new frontier for competition is quality of life, and that reduced-hour, output-focused working is the vehicle to give them a competitive edge.”

Researchers will be tracking the progress of participants in terms of their wellbeing (stress and burnout), productivity, the changes in environmental footprint (travel and energy use) and issues like gender equality.

“The 20th-century concept of a five-day working week is no longer the best fit for 21st-century business,” said the chief executive of one participant, the Charity Bank. “We firmly believe that a four-day week with no change to salary or benefits will create a happier workforce and will have an equally positive impact on business productivity, customer experience and our social mission.”

Not just productivity

EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell said: “The Covid-19 experience in itself was a huge experiment in the impact of home working and more time for friends and family. What was clear from that was how differently people reacted. For some, more free time was a golden opportunity; for others it only heightened their sense of isolation.

“The four day week will certainly improve satisfaction levels for a proportion of the workforce, provide more of a release valve for pressures. But more time off is not going to be the simple answer to the UK’s challenges around stress and mental ill-health.

“It’s very clear in the trial that employers expect to maintain, and believe they can raise, levels of productivity. In other words many staff will find they’re under more pressure to deliver outputs and results in the four days. As we all know, holidays can be a welcome relief, but they don’t mean anything has changed when we’re back to our routines. A healthy balance for employees happens when organisations understand the pressures, are willing to listen to individual concerns and be flexible in everyday ways, when there’s a culture of trust and support.”

Don’t become the next social media wellbeing lampoon

A new trend has seen more staff using satirical posts to highlight what they see as feeble attempts to support employee wellbeing.

In one viral post on TikTok, ‘HR in 2022’ an English comic pretends to be an HR professional explaining how important mental health is for the company, inter-cut with shots of struggling employees. Staff come up with ideas around reducing workloads and four-day working weeks, but are instead signposted to a take part in a lunchtime webinar.

Another series of viral posts came from a US employee forced to live in their office cubicle because of the cost of living crisis and lack of practical support.

Box ticked

The concerns about box-ticking approaches to mental health have showed themselves in a number of research studies. A survey by Headspace Health showed that while 25% of UK staff had missed at least a week of work due to mental health issues, two-thirds still felt their employer wasn’t taking steps to give them support. Just 25% said the additional focus on mental health brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic had led to anything long-term.

“I am struck by how often managers offer every support possible, with the exception of anything that will actually solve the problem,” said Terence Robson, Deputy Head of the COVID-19 Team at the Ministry of Defence.

Fair focus

“With the combination of the cost of living crisis and more staff having to on extra workloads due to cost-cutting and staff changes, this is no time for letting slip the focus on workplace wellbeing,” says EAPA UK chair, Eugene Farrell.

“At the same time there’s a need to understand that HR themselves aren’t immune to the difficult context we’re all living through. They’re obviously facing their own issues with workload and levels of change.

“All of this means there’s more need than ever for access to practical support, professionals who provide personalised advice on what to do next, counselling when it’s needed, and take some of the pressure away from HR.”

Don’t become the next social media wellbeing lampoon – EAPA UK

Why we’re on course for an epidemic of loneliness

A new report by Buffer (State of Remote Work 2022) has found that more remote and hybrid workers are struggling with loneliness — up to 24% from 20% in 2020. Working conditions aren’t getting any easier, there’s no signs of a ‘settling in’ to new ways of working and a balance between isolation and workplace community.

The report also found that 52% of employees globally feel less connected to their co-workers since they moved to remote working. Work routines in themselves have become more formal ‘transactional’ with no space for ad hoc social contact and gatherings which provided more human ‘breathing spaces’ throughout the day.

Social duty of care

The problem of how to better support staff and create a more sociable and connected hybrid environment is one for employers: a survey by workplace tech firm Silicon Reef claims that 73% of UK remote workers believe their employer should be doing more to deal with the issue of staff loneliness.

The general view is that HR and employers can best help with workplace wellbeing by making the ‘check-ins’ with staff more regular. Managers need to get better at spotting changes in manner and behaviour virtually. Employees should be given even more flexibility in their working day at home, with more opportunities to break up the day — a move away from micro-management towards judging performance purely through outputs. 

Head-on

“When an issue is so difficult to raise in conversation — the ‘L’ word — employers need most of all to make sure their remote and hybrid workers have someone they can speak to in confidence, without making a big deal of it with a manager or colleagues,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. 

“All the evidence suggests it’s not something people want to do, they’d rather grin and bear it; and that can only happen for so long before loneliness becomes a factor in mental wellbeing. All the efforts by HR to introduce new forms of virtual social contact have their place, but it’s critical that people have a means of talking about the issues openly and in the context of their personal situation.”

Read more about the report here

Why we suffer from sick day stigma

A report from BetterUp Labs claims more than 70% of UK employees have tried to avoid taking time off, despite having mental health concerns, in the past three months.

28% had taken at least one day off during that same period — but more than half of those had claimed their absence was due to a physical illness. At the same time there’s an issue with taking any kind of sick day, as 59% also said they’d worked through a physical form of sickness.

Covering up

Younger employees are more prone to covering up their issues and sticking to their desks. 85% of 18 to 24 year-olds and 78% of 25 to 34 year-olds reported pushing through in spite of mental health worries (compared with under half of the 55 and overs).

Employers need to be doing more to make conversations about mental health more of a normal part of working lives, say the report authors.

“It’s unfortunate that more than half of people who took time off for mental health reasons felt the need to use a different excuse,” says Erin Eatough, Manager of Behavioural Science at BetterUp Labs,  “Mental health is health, and this ‘covering’ behaviour demonstrates that there’s work to be done to normalise both reactive and preventative mental health self-care.”

Opening up

“Just because mental health is now more visible in workplaces and society as a whole, doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easier to talk about when it’s you,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “Mental illness is still something that we’d like to think only happens to other people.

“That’s why employers have to make it easier to have that initial conversation about individual struggles and situations when it comes to mental wellbeing. Until we admit out loud that we’re not coping it’s still something we can keep locked up, as something to deal with another time.

“EAPs are the most obvious channel for employees to open up: talking in confidence to an independent professional who’s not just a sounding board but someone who can signpost and arrange the most practical next steps.”

Why we suffer from sick day stigma – EAPA UK

Let’s lift more people out of loneliness

We’re living in a different world for mental health, both in workplaces and more widely in society. As the Mental Health Foundation’s report ’Mental Health in the Pandemic’ made clear, relationships with friends and family were disrupted and broken, particularly among those on lower incomes or with physical disabilities.

At a time when more bodies, including the NHS, are calling for national action and planning to deal with a mental health crisis, Mental Health Awareness Week (9-15 May 2022) is more important than ever.

Every Mind Matters – Loneliness

This year the Department for Health & Social Care, alongside the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, are encouraging everyone to think about ways they can ‘lift someone out of loneliness’, as part of the Better Health — Every Mind Matters campaign.

The campaign web pages provide advice on the issues and how to help yourself and others

There’s also a toolkit and campaign materials which can be used by employers

Small acts

“Those small acts of kindness, making time to get in touch with people who might be feeling isolated can make such a difference,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “We all need that kind of reassurance, no matter how well connected we might feel ourselves to be. Busy modern lives and our absorption into social media mean we can often forget the importance of face-to-face contact.

“At the same time, actually opening up about feeling lonely is a difficult thing to do. As ‘successful’ and independent modern people, it’s not something we’re not supposed to feel. That’s why it’s so important for HR to make the EAP visible, and keep on sharing the message that speaking to someone in confidence through an EAP is a normal thing to do, before negative emotions and experiences become too much. Together we can always find a better way forward.”

Why employees expect to burn out

Research published in time for Stress Awareness Month suggests that 62% of British employees had experienced burnout (a state of physical and emotional exhaustion) in the past year. A quarter believe they had been burnt out ‘consistently’ over that period.

The figure was one headline in the Anatomy of Work Index produced by global software firm Asana from surveying 10,000 employees internationally (2,000 in the UK).

Why it’s happening

Burnout is supposedly more of a problem for women (67% compared with 58% of men had gone through the experiences), and for younger workers (72% between 16 and 38 compared with 56% of 39 to 64 year-olds).

Hybrid working isn’t helping with stress. Almost half 46% said they felt more isolated working remotely. 56% were multi-tasking during virtual meetings, and 55% were checking work emails outside work hours.

“The perception that burnout is an inevitable part of career success suggests that there may be a trend of championing overwork in some UK companies,” says Asana’s Simon O’Kane. “If businesses don’t take action, they risk workers falling into a cycle of exhaustion, poor performance, and low morale.”

Stress as a drug

“Burnout should never be seen as a badge of honour,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.  “It’s bad for anyone’s health, no matter how strong they believe themselves to be. The exhaustion involved is serious and has implications in terms of work and home life — and the potential for ongoing problems with physical and mental wellbeing.

“HR should be working with their EAP provider to promote the importance of healthy attitudes to work and the importance of a balance in people’s lives. Stress at ordinary levels is a good thing for motivation and for the pay-off in terms of a sense of achievement and overcoming problems.

“In this way, sometimes stress can be a kind of drug, encouraging overworking and risk-taking. But employees have to be able to recognise when the stress is getting unhealthy for them, be able to talk about it openly with their manager and peers, and know when and how to get professional support from an EAP before there’s a collapse.”

Are employers spending enough on mental wellbeing?

Deloitte’s new report —Mental health and employers: The case for investment – pandemic and beyond — suggests the estimated total cost from absenteeism, presenteeism and turnover caused by mental ill health has increased by a quarter since the start of the pandemic: up to somewhere between £53 and £56 billion.

The authors surveyed 3,599 employees about their experiences between September and October 2021 (building on previous work dating back to 2017 for comparisons). The worst period was November 2020 to January 2021 — with some improvements in levels of mental ill health since that time, but ongoing higher rates of problems.

Just a third said that in the past year they had used some tools and resources to help them manage their mental health. Use of EAPs and digital apps has been growing, says the report.

Focusing investment

The most common cause of costs to employees is presenteeism. But the biggest cost overall comes form higher turnover, where people have left their job in the previous year or intended to do so in the next 12 months, for mental health or wellbeing reasons.

In response, Deloitte recommends investment into more awareness of issues, screening (monitoring and measuring) and training around mental health. Its model suggests a £5.30 return on every £1.00 spent on these approaches. It also points to the value of targeting measures to support higher risk groups like younger employees, employees with caring responsibilities outside work, key workers and ethnic minorities. For example, younger employees (under 30) have been more affected by the pandemic, with about two-thirds of respondents in this age group saying they had left their job in the previous year or were planning to do so due to poor mental wellbeing.

EAP ROI

“Increases in costs for employers due to reduced mental wellbeing is, of course, no surprise,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell. “It’s all about what HR is doing in response.

“More employees have been turning to their EAP — backed up by EAPA’s research earlier this year, which found that 347,000 more employees had used their EAP between October 2020 and October 2021 compared with previous years. Higher usage rates resulted in even higher Return on Investment as a result of reduced absence and presenteeism. For every £1.00 spent on an EAP in the UK, employers have seen an average return on investment (ROI) of £8.00. This compares with a previous average of £7.27.

“The key is promotion and awareness, particularly engaging employees around specific issues relevant to them, and making sure the EAP services available are tailored to suit the workforce.”

Are employers spending enough on mental wellbeing? EAPA UK

EAPs step up for Ukraine

Military forces, blue light services and hospitals in Ukraine are consumed by the constant emergencies caused by the invasion from Russia. In the meantime, there is a mass of the Ukrainian population which is having to deal with the stress and trauma of war. Refugees. Parents. Workers still trying to fulfil their job roles.

Their need for support is demonstrated by the experience of one EAPA member, Workplace Options (WPO). WPO has 175 clients with employees based in Ukraine, and provides EAP services to 581,000 employees in the region more widely.

Emergency resources

As would be expected, March has seen massive increases in the number of calls to the EAP: up 2700% in Ukraine; 200% in Slovakia; 130% in Russia; 122% in the Czech Republic. There have been around 100 critical incident requests and 664 calls relating to what are categorised as ‘disruptive events’.

WPO has also been seeing requests for support linked to anxiety around the war from across the world, in the US and UK (with calls up 15% generally). WPO scaled up its EAP services to include 80 additional hotlines within 19 days, ensuring all calls can be answered within 60 seconds. Counselling is made available within two days.

A tailored Ukraine Crisis Resource site was launched in early March to open up advice and content useful for anyone affected by the war (available in multiple languages, Ukrainian, Russian, Polish, Czech, Hungarian and Romanian) — and work is ongoing to create a bank of webinars and guided discussions for Ukrainians, citizens of countries close to the conflict and Ukrainian expatriates.

EAP back-up

“A war like this, with its daily shocks and tragedies, has implications for so many people. Normality has come crashing down to be replaced by inescapable fear,” says EAPA UK chair Eugene Farrell.

“Ordinary people in Ukraine, inside or outside of war zones, are being traumatised by what they are seeing and the threats to themselves and their families. The heightened tensions have spread in waves across the entire region into countries with close links to the affected areas.

“The work of WPO and other EAP providers has demonstrated how state-run services can’t be expected to deliver all the support needed when it comes to dealing with psychological stress and severe forms of emotional distress. EAP professionals continue to do crucial work as a back-up emergency service, making sure many more people can get support and advice that protects their wellbeing and keeps people strong through the crisis.”