I totally agree with this, we took a week off in August. We didn’t travel, per se, though we did take some day trips to explore some wildlife preserves and state parks in the area, but I know that I needed that break. Heck, with the way this year is going, I might need another…
I think this is interesting in a couple of different ways. Clearly, workers are putting a much higher value on their own mental health, and companies that don’t get that, and support it, are going to end up having quite a bit of turnover.
But, the other thing that I wanted to think more about was what those specific reasons say about the mental health of Millennial and Gen Z workers. They seem to be dealing with a lot of stress around finances, and having that stress impact their mental health. Is that new? Or is it more likely that Gen X and Boomers have had those same stresses, but didn’t really identify them as mental health issues, like anxiety.
I think there’s something to that. Not to start talking about how things were “back in my day”, but I don’t recall anyone talking about anxiety in the same way we talk about it now. I suspect that many of us had anxiety around finances, we just didn’t call it that, and our solution to that anxiety was, of course, to work harder and longer.
And guess what? The next generations watched us do that, especially the Baby Boomers, and realized that it doesn’t actually work. Our mental health has sucked, for years, and we just didn’t admit it. They are willing to talk about it, and look for work that fits with lessening stress, especially stress that is related to finances.
Now, you would think that if they had more stress around finances, they would also just “work harder and longer”, but that assumes that the relationship between employers and employees is the same as it was 25-30 years ago, and it’s just not. Companies come and go now overnight. They run out to hire when things are growing, and rush to fire when things are not growing. Whole industries barely exist anymore. None of us live in the same work world that we grew up in any more.
My point in describing these things is not to brag about how much work I do, or how many teams I interact with, but to point out that it’s easy to find your time and energy completely blocked and scheduled for you. Fighting burn out means protecting, and sometimes fighting for, your free time, including a lunch break.
Employers who are interested in not burning out their employees would do well to recognize that as well. As the article below points out, remote working gives us all a lot more flexibility to take breaks, and then do some of our work on our own schedule, since we no longer have to commute, or be in a location, but that doesn’t mean you work all day, and then also into the night.
Breaks matter. Balance matters. Remote work is a great way to find your own level of flexibility, and to provide it to your employees. I suggest you figure that out.
I could see this being true, because we know there is a lot of stigma surrounding mental health issues in the workplace:
“New research from recruitment agency Hays claims that nearly a quarter (24 percent) of those who have or have experienced a mental health condition feel they do not have equal access to the same career progression opportunities as other colleagues. Similarly, 12 percent of those who have had or experienced mental ill health said they felt this had led to their chances of being selected for a job being lowered.”
Specifically, as this article points out, companies seem to think they’re doing a bang-up job supporting their employees during all of this forced work-from-home stuff, and pandemic fears, but employees don’t seem to agree: Nearly three-quarters of managers in the survey say they’re helping their staff learn skills to work in a new way. But…
The article below does a really deep dive into what is available, and where we are lacking, when it comes to mental health support for employees. I think this really sums it up though: “Stigma, access and funding were the biggest hurdles to expanding mental health care, Swayze said. While studies show millennials were more…