Toxic workplaces have many consequences, from a fall in productivity and cooperation to sinking morale and employee engagement. Research from the University of South Australia highlights the impact they can also have on our mental health.
Indeed, the study found that the risk of depression rose by around 300% in such workplaces. At the heart of the researchers’ thesis is what they refer to as the psychosocial safety climate (PSC), which is the management practices and communication that helps to protect the mental health of workers.
Poor management
The researchers believe that poor mental health at work can be directly linked to poor managerial practices, priorities, and values, which then flow through into the excessively high demands placed on workers and the inadequate resources to meet those demands.
“Evidence shows that companies who fail to reward or acknowledge their employees for hard work, impose unreasonable demands on workers, and do not give them autonomy, are placing their staff at a much greater risk of depression,” they say.
The researchers suggest that while most managers say they value enthusiastic workers, the impact of long hours is often underestimated, especially on men who are at particular risk of depression as they seldom pay sufficient attention to their mental wellbeing.
A global burden
Depression is a global issue that is believed to affect around 300 million people. Despite enhanced awareness, there’s no real sign of things improving, and the researchers believe poorly functioning work environments, and the role they play in depression, are only now being understood.
The researchers found that low levels of PSC were often a strong predictor of factors such as emotional exhaustion and workplace bullying, both of which have obviously harmful consequences for mental health.
“Lack of consultation with employees and unions over workplace health and safety issues, and little support for stress prevention, is linked to low PSC in companies,” the researchers say.
“We also found that bullying in a work unit can not only negatively affect the victim, but also the perpetrator and team members who witness that behavior. It is not uncommon for everyone in the same unit to experience burnout as a result.”
Committed to mental health
A key finding from the research is that negative behaviors, such as bullying can readily be predicted by the commitment of an organization to mental health.
Such a commitment is not only ethically the right thing to do but the rational thing to do, as issues such as burnout and bullying have huge costs to the workplace,whether from poor productivity, low engagement, absenteeism, or sick leave.
Indeed, the scale of the problem was highlighted by the International Labor Organization in 2019, when their Global Commission on the Future of Work called for a more human-centered approach to leadership and society.
“The practical implications of this research are far reaching. High levels of worker burnout are extremely costly to organisations and it’s clear that top-level organisational change is needed to address the issue,” the researchers conclude.
