The appointment of Michael Wilson as a special advisor to the federal government on mental health issues, as reported on page one, is welcome news. Many organizations express concerns about work-life balance and stress — underlying factors in workplace mental health — but often little more than lip service is paid to the problem. Deadlines don’t ease, toxic bosses aren’t addressed and if a few people go down in the pursuit of doing more with less, oh well, that’s business.
But it’s not sustainable. Increased absenteeism is one of the first visible signs an employer is ignoring mental health problems. Another cost to the balance sheet is the exodus of valuable staff. People will only burn themselves out for so long, and if they’re not already sidelined by mental health problems, they’ll find an exit strategy that includes self-employment, a career change or simply an employer with a more enlightened attitude about work-life balance.
The final stage is the employer that ignores mental health to the point where it earns itself a reputation as a high-octane burnout station, and HR’s problem shifts from retention to recruitment. Not only are people fleeing, requiring expensive recruitment initiatives and lost time as new staff get up to speed, but getting people to join the firm in the first place becomes harder and harder.
The nursing profession is a case in point. For more than a decade Canadians have heard of workplace stressors in the health-care field, and have experienced it themselves when seeking treatment. Staff are too taxed to provide the quality care they wish, hours are long, the work can be dangerous (violent patients, SARS). And if you tough it out and do your best, well there’s still the cyclical threat of being laid off when government budget-cutters roll up their sleeves. It’s hard to know who to feel more sorry for, the unemployed nurses or the ones left who have to take on even more work.
The end result is a loud and clear message — don’t choose nursing as a career.
The same holds true elsewhere. Employers that ignore workplace mental health get reputations as pressure-cookers. The only people willing to work there do so for the high salaries they’ll collect until they climb to the top or until they’ve paid their dues, collected their cash and can move on.
Hopefully, Wilson’s appointment will pay dividends. As a long-serving federal finance minister he was a master of the rough-and tumble politics on the Hill. Tragedy in his personal life — the suicide of a son — has made him determined to change how mental health is treated in Canada. Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh moves to create an interdepartmental mental health task force, as well as asking other ministers to identify a senior official in their departments to co-ordinate mental health efforts, are signs that Ottawa may indeed be serious in providing the workplace mental health example the nation is sorely in need of.
But it’s not sustainable. Increased absenteeism is one of the first visible signs an employer is ignoring mental health problems. Another cost to the balance sheet is the exodus of valuable staff. People will only burn themselves out for so long, and if they’re not already sidelined by mental health problems, they’ll find an exit strategy that includes self-employment, a career change or simply an employer with a more enlightened attitude about work-life balance.
The final stage is the employer that ignores mental health to the point where it earns itself a reputation as a high-octane burnout station, and HR’s problem shifts from retention to recruitment. Not only are people fleeing, requiring expensive recruitment initiatives and lost time as new staff get up to speed, but getting people to join the firm in the first place becomes harder and harder.
The nursing profession is a case in point. For more than a decade Canadians have heard of workplace stressors in the health-care field, and have experienced it themselves when seeking treatment. Staff are too taxed to provide the quality care they wish, hours are long, the work can be dangerous (violent patients, SARS). And if you tough it out and do your best, well there’s still the cyclical threat of being laid off when government budget-cutters roll up their sleeves. It’s hard to know who to feel more sorry for, the unemployed nurses or the ones left who have to take on even more work.
The end result is a loud and clear message — don’t choose nursing as a career.
The same holds true elsewhere. Employers that ignore workplace mental health get reputations as pressure-cookers. The only people willing to work there do so for the high salaries they’ll collect until they climb to the top or until they’ve paid their dues, collected their cash and can move on.
Hopefully, Wilson’s appointment will pay dividends. As a long-serving federal finance minister he was a master of the rough-and tumble politics on the Hill. Tragedy in his personal life — the suicide of a son — has made him determined to change how mental health is treated in Canada. Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh moves to create an interdepartmental mental health task force, as well as asking other ministers to identify a senior official in their departments to co-ordinate mental health efforts, are signs that Ottawa may indeed be serious in providing the workplace mental health example the nation is sorely in need of.
