Today’s generation of workers faced increasing levels of job stress, a known risk factor for mental health conditions, warned beyondblue workplace and workforce senior project manager Nick Arvanitis.

“The definition of job stress basically is to have a role or expectations that you feel you are not able to fulfil,” he said. “You do not have the skills or resources.

“There is also definitely more expectation on staff — more time pressures, more workload pressures, working in a more competitive environment, as well as downturns in the broader global economy.”

Research also suggested, he said, that new technology had led to a high expectation of staff being engaged with the workplace 24/7, answering emails and taking calls.

“People are also now less likely to take their lunch breaks or breaks generally to refresh and give them an opportunity to get back to their full productive self,” he said.

The attitude of managers was also known to have an impact on mental wellbeing.

“There is a category of manager that can assume the worst and be very cynical and sceptical about staff,” Mr Arvanitis said.

“They do not support them and expect them to leave all their personal issues at the door. The other category of manager is going to be supportive and check in with their people regularly, just to see how they are going generally and in terms of the workplace as well.”

WA Association for Mental Health president Alison Xamon warned that workplaces designed for past decades might not provide the support needed to cope with the pressures of 2014.

“Even small changes can make a big difference to team morale, staff resilience and creating mentally healthy culture,” she said.

“It could be as simple as incorporating mental health into your morning toolbox meeting, placing a stress-less tips poster in the lunch room, engaging a professional mental health speaker or enrolling managerial staff in a mental health course.”

While it’s easier to spot a broken railing or a busted office chair than a bullying manager or chronic heavy workload, health and safety obligations still apply just as much to mental health as they do to physical health, warned Mr Arvanitis.

“We encourage businesses to be proactive and think about what some of the stressors might be within their workplace,” he said. “The best way to do that is to talk to your staff — to ask your people.

“There will be some stressors that you probably can’t do much about. You can’t expect to be a doctor and not be exposed to death and suffering on a constant basis. But there are things that organisations can still do that can reduce the impact of those risks.

“We commissioned some research, which was effectively about employer of choice, and one of the findings that emerged was that people value workplace mental health.

“In a competitive environment, if you are thinking about as a business how you are going to set yourself apart from that other organisation that is fighting for the same skills and experience within a worker, what people now do value more is the mentally healthy workplace, one that actually thinks about supporting staff if they may be experiencing issues.”

Workplace checklist

Workplace job stress, when prolonged or excessive, can be a risk factor for mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.

Contributing factors:

• Working long hours or overtime, working through breaks or taking work home
• Time pressure, working too hard or too fast, or unrealistic targets
• Work that is monotonous, and dull or does not use an employee’s range of skills or previous training
• Roles where a person has low levels of control or inadequate support from supervisors and co-workers
• Lack of role clarity
• Low levels of recognition and reward
• Poorly managed change
• Industry-specific issues — mining industry employees isolated from family and friends and with fly-in-fly-out rosters, doctors with high levels of exposure to death and suffering and also those exposed to verbally aggressive customers
• Bullying and harassment
• Discrimination — whether based on gender, ethnicity race or sexuality

Does your work look after your mental health by:

• Working with employees to set achievable targets and timeframes, and review these regularly
• Encouraging employees to speak up at an early stage and raise any concerns over meeting deadlines
• Planning for periods of peak demand such as holidays and increase staff resources
• Avoiding unplanned overtime and if extra hours are required give as much notice as possible
• Giving employees the opportunity to determine the pace and order of tasks, and rotate tasks that require prolonged concentration
• Ensuring training is adequate and regular retraining occurs
• Managing breaks and consider job rotation
• Providing debriefing or regular supervision if employees regularly deal with emotionally disturbing issues or are required to mask their emotions

Make a change

Create a customised mental health action plan for your business with Heads Up (www.headsup.org.au), a government-funded Australian-first workplace program, run by Mentally Healthy Workplace Alliance
See WA Public Sector Commission and WA Mental Health Commission recommendations for promoting workplace mental health and wellbeing in their report, Supporting Good Mental Health in the Workplace: A Resource for Agencies (mentalhealth.wa.gov.au/).
Addressing helps address stress-related issues, promoting self-responsibility, reducing risk and enhancing wellbeing with the Wellbeing@Work program – Holyoake (holyoake.org.au)

© The West Australian

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