PROTECT THE MENTAL HEALTH OF YOUR TEAM

We are almost becoming accustomed to acquaintances, relatives or colleagues breaking under the pressure of the rat race and being absent from work for several weeks or months. At the same time, burnout is fortunately no longer a taboo. Some authors even go so far as to consider burnout as a status symbol indicating how busy and important you are.

Most of us know someone who has struggled with mental health complaints. And the media regularly present alarming figures about burnout and other mental health issues – however you label them. Over the past few years, researchers have studied burnout from various angles. In their findings, they refer to people’s resilience and other personality traits, to the role of work pressure or to interpersonal connections and support. To find the causes and solutions, they look at so-called work-related stressors and assume that improvement is possible by addressing these aspects.

Quality leadership

Scientific studies have shown that quality leadership has a major impact on the well-being of employees. The way managers lead their team unarguably has a positive or negative impact on the happiness of the team members. A lack of people skills may result in employees becoming demotivated or even leaving the company. On the other hand, managers can also lift employees up.

Scientific evidence also suggests that the well-being of team leaders themselves is also impacted (positively or negatively) by that of their team members. In simple terms, this means that a team member will experience chronic stress or even fall ill due to work-related mental issues more quickly if they are supervised by an overburdened and stressed-out manager. If, on top of that, the latter has insufficient leadership skills, things can really get out of hand.

Extensive research

A recent German-Danish study conducted by researchers from the University of Bremen and the Technical University of Denmark  (brought to the attention of the Belgian public by The VIGOR Unit) has shed light on the correlation between leadership and work-related mental health problems. Danish researchers monitored the mental well-being of thousands of managerial and non-managerial employees in over 17,000 organisations over a period of twelve years. This in-depth study was aimed at determining the degree to which mental disorders are ‘contagious’. Are they transmitted by newcomers to the company who fled from an ‘unhealthy’ work environment? And what role do managers play in this context? The researchers investigated the extent to which employees infected their colleagues with mental problems they suffered in a previous ‘unhealthy’ organisation (excessive workload, high absenteeism rate, bad management, etc.). They also determined whether the negative effects of this ‘contagion’ were greater among managers entering a new organisation. The researchers therefore looked at the effect of newcomers from various professional backgrounds on the well-being of colleagues in their new work environment.

Findings

The study did indeed reveal a correlation. Newcomers who previously suffered from depression, anxiety disorders or stress-related disorders increase the likelihood of similar health problems occurring among colleagues over a period of up to three years. So employees who left an ‘unhealthy’ organisation (where mental disorders occur more frequently) contribute to the risk of such disorders in their new work environment. The effect is significant for newcomers who were diagnosed with a mental illness as well as for those who had not been diagnosed. After all, numerous people with a mental health problem do not (immediately) look for help. Some only do so after a few years.

The contagion effect is furthermore greater in case the newcomer occupies a managerial position within the new company. The correlation is also stronger in larger companies and dependent on the newcomer’s seniority with their previous employer. Those who worked longer at an ‘unhealthy’ company have a stronger impact on the new work environment than those who worked there for a shorter period.

Conclusions

The study has shown that  employees who change jobs play an important role in the spread of mental health issues. Without a policy framework, the number of disorders is likely to increase if an organisation hires an employee from an unhealthy organisation, especially in case of newly recruited managers.

Of course, it would be unethical and illegal for a company to decide not to hire anyone who previously worked in an unhealthy work environment. However, it seems advisable to adopt a preventive approach and develop strategies to prevent mental disorders from spreading and sufficiently support the employees involved. In this respect, the researchers advocate implementing appropriate onboarding procedures that address the stress, anxiety and insecurity on the first workday of a new employee, since these factors can reinforce existing symptoms. The authors also recommend creating an environment focusing on and enhancing the newcomer’s strengths. Incidentally, this approach is effective for the prevention of mental disorders not just among newcomers, but also among employees who are already working in the organisation. Within this scope, an inclusive climate in which employees support each other and accept individual diversity is important too.