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Is Work making you crazy? Short answer: Yes!
We all have heard or said it: this place is making me nuts! Turns out, it is also true. A recent article in Fast Company chronicles the soaring cost of health care is driven by mental health costs. An example of “soaring” from a Price Waterhouse Coopers report shows inpatient mental health claims have jumped a ridiculous 80% in the last 24 months! So what is driving this mental health crisis? The article proposes and I have long agreed it is the way we manage people. Also reinforced by Jeffery Pfeffer’s groundbreaking book Dying for a Paycheck.
A Mental Health America report noted that nearly 40% of employee’s specifically name their manager as the top cause of their mental health issues. Couple this with research that says 66% of all new managers now receive NO training on how to manage. Not coincidentally 60% of all new managers fail in their first 24 months! I compare this to 20 years ago when a young P&G manager would get a whole list of required courses to attend in their first 24 months. At Coors back in the day, we required supervisor candidates to attend 8 core courses and an assessment center simulation just to be eligible to apply for a supervisor role. These were not on-line course taught to 300 people where you can put your comment in the chat, but real time, face to face courses taught in classes of 10 or 15, taught over several days not 2 hours.
Also 84% of employees name at least one workplace factor is damaging their mental health. No one personal issue causes this huge percentage harm. Work is driving us crazy. Let’s make this simple. Pfieffer says the research proves if you work more than 48 hours a week you are creating a chronic illness. Heart disease, diabetes etc. The mental health component comes in where people never completely relax. Emails never stop its Monday at noon somewhere in global companies. The FC article proposes the lack of Boundaries between work and home is DILIBERATE. Companies may quack about “work life balance” but it is reinforced or ignored when push comes to shove? Fix the crisis, squeeze out more profit with less resources and less humans to do the work.
As long as we are here, let’s talk about the consequences of decades of downsizing have come home to roost. You have all told me the people get downsized but never the work never does. More work with few human beings. So, your day get longer. Managers have less time to lead, develop or be developed. One on one time is only for a crisis not for how is your son or daughter doing at college? Everything is transactional and nothing is of human connection. No one has the time.
I compare this to my time at Coors in the 1980’s where we never worked more that 40 hours unless there was a true crisis not one caused by neglect and non-existent planning. I was the only one of the young mangers who didn’t own a Dairy Queen or a couple of apartment buildings on the side. They had time. We were paid well. My $52,000/year salary had me in the top 5% of employees in Colorado. Our first house was $67,000 with a view of Pikes Peak. We got our mortgage by Susan taking my check stub from Coors to the bank. No other paperwork. We had amazing health insurance that cost employees nothing and no deductibles. We couldn’t make enough product and the top guy felt responsible for employees and their families. He knew the exact number of all employees and dependents not just the share price.
Leaders don’t lead this way because they don’t think this way. We prize algorithms over happy workers. Greed has so become normalized. Egos of CEO’s require three vacation homes and second private jet. Private equity wants its 18% first so don’t expect grama’s nursing home to have enough adequate care.
Since we can’t jump on the way-back machine to 1983 what can you do?
#1 Make a hard boundary of 48 hours a week max. If you go over 48 create comp time for yourself the next week. Whether you do it publicly is up to you.
#2 Find good bosses in your current company or elsewhere. Forget about job titles. With a great boss you have a chance of being healthy and making a difference.
#3 If your company won’t pay for the training you need, pay for it yourself. It’s what Susan and I did early in our careers, I am sick to death of people saying I really need this course, but the company won’t pay for it.
#4 Check your financial priorities. Do you have to have granite counter tops everywhere? Do you have to have the big house and the cabin at the lake and an RV? Does your wedding have to cost more than a small house? If you are spending to the max, you will feel trapped like you can’t afford to quit.
#5 Ask yourself the hard question what is my mental health worth?
As always, we invite your comments.
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