Linked – Here’s how to celebrate World Mental Health Day 2024
This year’s theme seeks to prioritize mental wellbeing within the workplace
If you’ve read anything I’ve written over the years, you probably already know how I feel about mental health at work. Not just from a “how to handle stress” point of view, but especially the “how does work contribute to mental health issues and how do we change that” perspective.
So I appreciate that the focus seems to be on creating a workplace that changes this:
The statistics don’t lie: burnout, anxiety, and depression are increasingly becoming workplace epidemics. According to a 2024 research series by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), they found 44 percent of 1,405 surveyed US-based employees feel burned out at work. Meanwhile, 45 percent feel “emotionally drained” from their work, and 51 percent feel “used up” at the end of the workday.
I’m sure some CEOs out there read that and think we’re supposed to be drained and used up. That just shows how dedicated we are to our work. That ignores the fact that work is only part of our lives. They ignore the damage that does to society when we have adults who are uninvolved with their kids’ lives, disconnected from their community, uninformed about what is happening in the world, and lacking many meaningful friendships because work requires them to have nothing left to give to those endeavors.
That’s why having a workplace that accounts for those impacts on employees’ lives is so important.
For more on World Mental Health Day and mental health in the workplace:
Navigating Mental Health in the Workplace
The Mental Health Benefits of Remote Work
World Mental Health Day: How leaders can prioritize well-being in the workplace
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