Mental health: when private life interferes with work
12 January 2025 | Comment(s) |
Dr.Carole Nielsen
Mental health, and stress in particular, is a growing problem in the workplace. In fact, it currently accounts for around 30% of absenteeism in Swiss companies.
Let's take a look today at mental health problems in employees' private lives, which have an impact on day-to-day working life and stress in the workplace, and the role that managers and employers can play.
The figure: 50% of the population suffers or will suffer from mental health problems at some point in their lives.
As a manager, what can you do to protect your employees’ mental health?
Team leaders, managers and executives all have a role to play when it comes to the mental health of their employees. Many of them are already aware of the importance of flexibility and adaptation in relation to psychological problems directly linked to the professional world.
But let's try to go a step further than stress in the workplace, and look at possible responsibilities when it comes to problems originating in the private circle (family or close friends).
Below are a number of points that managers should be aware of when their employees are experiencing mental health problems or stress at work linked to their private lives. Although they are not caused by work, these concerns can interfere with the day-to-day working life of the people concerned. The manager, leader or executive can therefore assume a certain responsibility by showing a supportive attitude:
- Listening to employees and working together to find tailor-made solutions would be an ideal form of management. But be careful, the manager should not play the role of therapist and therefore not accept every request from employees.
- Consider adapting working conditions, such as rearranging working hours, reducing working hours, flexibility and working from home. These measures are more easily implemented in office jobs.
- Ask employees from time to time how they are doing, how they are feeling, or get to know them better. This could perhaps open the door to dialogue and relieve employees of the need to pretend they're doing well.
- Encouraging formal and informal exchanges between team members.
Focus on motivation, not pressure. The latter more easily causes stress at work and can therefore be harmful to mental health.
Support, but with certain limits
As a manager, it is therefore important to show initial support to employees, but you also need to set limits. A manager must not take on the role of psychotherapist.
- Before listening and addressing the problems of their staff, managers must first feel good about themselves and be fully available to the person they are talking to.
- If necessary, the manager can refer the person concerned to someone else within the company (Human Resources, support person, etc.), or even encourage them to contact their family doctor.
- Above all, you need to express your limits to the employee, because listening also requires a lot of energy. Even if it has a professional impact, the problem is primarily caused by the private sphere.
The company's role in managing mental health at work
Employers also have a role to play in raising awareness, preventing and managing mental health and stress in the workplace. This applies to both private and professional mental health problems. In the workplace, companies can introduce a range of measures to prevent mental health problems and thereby safeguard the well-being of their employees, while reinforcing their image as a committed employer:
- Raising employee awareness of the issue (awareness campaigns, posters, seminars, health days or weeks).
- Encourage dialogue with a professional in the event of a problem (for example, by setting up a hotline for companies (Employee Assistance Programme).
- Promoting a culture of caring within our teams, based on trust, sincerity and respect, to improve the recovery phase, by setting an example on a daily basis.
- Offer ENSA training, which is a kind of first aid course in mental health.
What are the results?
What are the expected results of these actions taken to improve the mental health and work-related stress of employees with personal problems?
- Firstly, the mental health of employees will be preserved or improved, as will their general well-being. Employees will also benefit from a better working climate for dealing with worries in their private lives, and will feel more confident in their team.
- For executives and managers, insofar as they set limits, they can play an active role in the well-being of their staff and play a supportive role, which is measured but necessary, also for the well-being of the team.
- For the company, raising awareness of and managing mental health and stress at work, whether in the private or professional sphere, helps to reduce absenteeism and reinforce the image of a caring employer.
Mental health, an essential part of Corporate Health Management
Groupe Mutuel has more than 20 years' experience in Corporate Health Management, thanks in particular to a pool of qualified specialists in the field and partnerships with CHM experts. The Group's activities are based on two main areas of support, CorporateCare and HumanCare, which aim to raise awareness of, prevent and manage health issues in the workplace.
