Don’t hang up: ‘Always-on’ nature of work impacting on employees’ mental health

Technology may have made it easier to do your job, but the increasingly blurred lines between work and personal life are negatively impacting the emotional wellbeing of modern employees. Combine this with long working hours and widespread job dissatisfaction, and the mental-health needs of Irish workers are higher than ever.

Given the “always-on” nature of work in the digital age, are employers attuned to the need to maintain the emotional wellbeing of their staff?

According to Allison Keating, a chartered psychologist and bestselling author, who runs her own BWell Clinic in Malahide, Dublin, she sees “a huge amount” of work-related anxiety.

“People talk about that constant sense of no matter how much is being done, they are feeling very unproductive and that they are always behind,” she says. “There is that constant feeling of being overwhelmed and it’s a very unsatisfying feeling.”

Keating often encounters two distinct problems when she speaks to her clients.

“There are issues with not being challenged enough and having no sense of meaning or purpose behind your work, or else being too stretched – men and women are trying to juggle work with young families, and it does feel like the working day is never done.”

And despite increased awareness, Keating says people are often reluctant to raise these issues with their employers.

“There is a lot of talk about mental health and workplaces being more open but what I see on the couch is a different story. People are afraid to go back to their boss and tell them they are having a tough time,” she says.

“People’s basic contract may say one thing, but the psychological contract they have with their company may ask and even demand a heck of a lot more. Being contacted at night is like your boss knocking on your door as you’re watching TV, asking you to do something. We are taking our work home and letting it in when we are in the living room with our families or when we are in bed with our spouse at night.”

Walking the talk

She adds that employers aren’t walking the talk when it comes to being mindful of the impact these demands are having on employees. “We have the policies and robust mission statements, but they need to be put into practice and not just for a week or over their lunchbreak.”

Some organisations are realising they may need additional help to ensure the emotional wellbeing of their employees. Richard Murphy, chief executive of Zevo Health, saw a gap in the market two years ago when he established his business, which provides bespoke workplace wellness programmes that focus on nutrition, exercise and psychological support.

"Employee wellness is now a business trend and management teams are now adopting wellness as a business strategy," he explains. This means Zevo Health's services are in demand by large national and multinational companies such as Google, Twitter and Circle K.

“In the past two years, we have seen a steady increase in companies implementing and adapting our services. Employees now want to go to work and know that they will be looked after. We are seeing several HR representatives coming to us as many of their employees have approached them due to their increased workload, which has led to increased stress levels,” says Murphy.

The organisation has also recently launched “Zevo Connect”, an engagement platform that provides employers with the tools to get closer to their employees, he explains.

“This focuses on five measurements including wellbeing, individual work performance, communication satisfaction, job satisfaction and trust. Companies need to ensure they are looking after their employees’ overall wellbeing in order to remain attractive, retain their staff and ensure they are competitive within their industry,” Murphy says.

Mary Connaughton is director of CIPD Ireland, the professional body for HR and people development. She says organisations are aware of the risks modern working practices pose to the emotional and mental health of their employers but warns there is a lack of consensus on how best to address this.

“They are aware of the challenges of trying to support people around their mental health and emotional wellbeing, but they are also aware that technology and the smartphone is preventing a work-life balance. While it’s a tool that we all love, there is a downside to it.”

CIPD commissioned research earlier this year, which found one-third of employers were concerned about employees not “switching off” out of hours. “They could see the downside of this,” says Connaughton.

And although the research determined this issue is on the agenda of senior leaders, only 32 per cent of organisations in the survey reported having a formal strategy around addressing health and wellbeing, she adds.

For most organisations, it’s unclear how to practically address the problem, she says.

“I don’t think employers haven’t got their heads around that,” she admits. “Nobody wants to go down the route like in some places in Europe where they have cut off access to systems out of hours.”

Flexible working hours

The issue also clashes with increasing employee demand for agile and flexible working hours, adds Connaughton.

“One of the conflicts that’s emerging is the employee interest and how employers are responding around agile and remote working. The whole thinking behind that is to give people the freedom to choose when they work and how they work but if you are giving people that freedom, then you can’t turn around and say you can’t be on your phone at night.”

The global agenda will also necessitate this flexibility, she adds.

“We have so many global companies and the different time zones people are working in are also driving this, so if they have to contact somebody in the US or Far East, there are different times of the day, they need to do that. That means having some availability and responsiveness out of hours but it’s important to make sure there are very clear protections in place so that employees know what’s expected of them.”

Some employers are taking small steps to begin with, explains Connaughton.

“It has started to happen that some people, particularly senior people, will put on their email footer that they don’t expect reponses to out-of-hours emails. I also saw a CEO whose email footer says, ‘I don’t respond to emails after 5pm’.”

But it’s not just oppressive working hours affecting employee wellbeing. According to Connaughton, the meaning of work has also come centre stage for employees.

“Employees want to know how they are adding value and have a socially contributive perspective in terms of what the organisation is about,” she says.

“For companies where the focus is on profit and driving the bottom line, despite them saying they are doing some socially contributive work, it won’t land with employees unless they are seeing that translated into practice – companies need to make sure it’s authentic.”