Written by Lina Tärnholm, Consultant, Quicksearch.
Mental illness in working life can be seen as one of our biggest working life problems. Most people can probably relate to this and many of us have someone close to us or in our circle of acquaintances who has suffered sick leave caused by, for example, negative stress.
Sick leave due to stress-related mental illness is today the most common cause of long-term sick leave in Sweden. In September 2016, psychiatric diagnoses accounted for 44% of all ongoing cases of illness (82,000 out of 189,000) according to the Social Insurance Agency, and the largest increase has occurred in the diagnosis of adjustment disorders and reaction to severe stress. Considering how the development looks when it comes to these questions, there is every reason to raise the psychosocial perspective and, not least, think about how we can prevent ill-health in working life from occurring.
My interest in these questions led me to recently immerse myself in the HR field by studying a master's degree in Working Life and Health. It has been an incredibly rewarding year where the focus has been on the psychosocial work environment within working life and all that it includes when it comes to, among other things, stress, leadership and labor law issues.
A group that is oh so important to focus on when it comes to work environment work and that sometimes seems to be overlooked are managers. Managers not only affect their own but also their employees' work environment, which is why this group can be seen as extra important. The interest in this target group led to an essay about the psychosocial work environment of middle managers linked to the intention to stay or quit their workplace. The background to the essay was rooted in the fact that the company in question had had a major challenge when it came to retaining its managers. The results showed that the intention to quit their managerial position was greater among the managers who experienced a lack of social support (mainly from their boss) and among those who experienced role conflict (for example incompatible demands and lack of resources at work). Social support in the workplace is important for both employees and managers and is something that we measure in our employee surveys, both in terms of support from colleagues as well as support from the immediate manager. In a workplace, we make up each other's psychosocial work environment and this is where we spend most of our waking hours.
That we enjoy and feel good at work is something we all strive for, regardless of our service level. A supportive environment at work can be a buffer against ill-health (such as stress) and given how society is developing in terms of sick leave linked to psychiatric diagnoses, it is an area that should be prioritized if there are deficiencies.
Our employee survey Insight has a clear connection to the Work Environment Agency's laws and regulations (AFS 2015:4). These regulations regulate what is central to preventing ill health and promoting a good working environment. By continuously working with employee surveys as part of the systematic work environment work, signals can be picked up about possible shortcomings.
Another aspect that I think is important to highlight is the importance of focusing on "health factors" in working life, which can reduce the risk of mental illness and which can be used for preventive purposes. Examples of such factors are balance between demands and control, participation, a positive social climate, balance between effort and reward. Not least, good leadership is a healthy factor that can positively affect the work environment, and managers thus have a very important role. That managers get the right conditions to carry out health-promoting leadership also assumes that they themselves get the support they need, which must not be forgotten. Managers are not superhumans, they are employees like you and me with the same challenges as all of us. According to Sweden's managers' organization Ledarna (2015), research studies have shown that managers have become the group at work that has a high tendency to suffer from depression or anxiety.
Talking about the psychosocial work environment today feels as obvious as talking about the physical work environment, at least for me and my colleagues. Hopefully this will also be the case for society at large, and the hope is that more and more people will begin to work systematically with these issues with the aim of creating prosperous, healthy and successful companies and organizations on all levels. It will benefit the individual, companies and society at large.
