By Daniel Shore
Public discourse on mental health has made significant progress, with mental health becoming recognised as an important focus across organisations globally. This is a positive step forward and raises the importance of addressing mental health in corporate environments. A growing body of research provides guidance on both the root causes of poor mental health and what support structures organisations can implement, and corporate leaders now have an obligation to apply the research.
Recognising the extent of the challenge
Feelings of stress, anxiety, and depression contribute to poor mental health, whether they stem from personal or professional causes. Regarding the latter, we can turn to an extreme professional environment—cybersecurity—to learn more and extrapolate to other industries. Cybersecurity is one of the most fast paced, demanding, high risk sectors, and many folks who work in this environment experience some combination of the factors that contribute to poor mental health.
A new MultiTeam Solutions’ report titled, “Stress & Burnout in Cybersecurity: The Risk of a Thousand Papercuts” has revealed the mental health pressures cybersecurity professionals are facing. The report found that while 52% of cybersecurity professionals felt quite resilient to stress, almost the same number (50%) said that within the next year or sooner they are going to reach a point of burnout (with “burnout” generally representing a point at which employees are no longer having the motivation to do their job well) . Within this, the data indicated that 35% of respondents are going to reach burnout in the next six months.
When asked about the support in place within a professional work environment, four-fifths (81%) felt that Senior Level Management (SLM) at least somewhat understand their stress. Yet concerningly, only 23% of cybersecurity professionals believe that SLM actively works to reduce their stress, with nearly half of respondents perceiving that SLM is adding to their stress.
While the findings from MultiTeam Solutions’ report provide insights into the mental health struggles being faced in cybersecurity, the identified trends can be applied across the broad range of industries that make up the professional services industry, including finance. There are serious implications if these issues are not properly addressed, including employee burnout, low productivity, employee turnover, and a heightened risk of work not becoming completed to required standards. The latter point is important, as this can have grave legal, regulatory, and financial repercussions, and this is not to mention the similarly concerning repercussions of losing employees who take with them the institutional knowledge and expertise they’ve developed while working for an organisation.
Below are two examples of applying this research to address mental health challenges at work.
Breaking down silos
While work silos ensure the effective distribution and management of work, they also isolate departments or divisions from others in their organisation. And, furthermore, silos develop within silos, isolating working groups and individuals. The latter, isolated individuals, is of the greatest concern when it comes to mental health.
Isolation is a common instigator of poor mental health in the workplace, and particularly at the individual level (though also for teams). When a person’s or team’s tasks are being completed and goals are being met, isolation seems effective. On the other side of the spectrum, though, when an individual is overwhelmed by their tasks and goals are seemingly unattainable, isolation can lead to frustration, blame, shame, anger, guilt, etc. with nowhere to turn for support. What people need in these situations, especially isolated individuals, is collaboration to connect with others, support each other, and problem-solve together.
The key for organisations is to open up channels of communication between silos, first by identifying specific employees to connect as boundary spanners between silos, and second by shifting toward a more matrix structure that allows individuals and teams to share functions and responsibilities. Additionally, leaders need support, because managing these processes requires resources to enact key leadership behaviours such as connecting goals within silos to higher-order goals that everyone is working toward together and coordinating the sharing of information across silo boundaries.
Challenging the imposter syndrome
Imposter syndrome is a common feeling experienced across all organisational levels, from senior management through to junior teams. It is often triggered by self-doubt, whereby individuals consistently question their ability to fulfil what is required of them at work. According to a survey conducted by Reed Recruitment, 40% of workers in the UK admitted to experiencing self-doubt in their abilities during their career. This is usually accompanied by fears of being exposed by colleagues, which then enables feelings of anxiety, sensitivity to minor mistakes and feedback, and fear of failure—all of which take a toll on one’s mental health.
Importantly, there are strategies that can be deployed in a corporate environment to address imposter syndrome, with a focus on the individual who is experiencing these feelings. First, supporting employees to mentor their peers or subordinates on separating fact (e.g., demonstrable examples where they have excelled in their position), from fiction (e.g., their own self-doubting interpretation of their performance) is a meaningful exercise. Often with imposter syndrome, the feeling of dissatisfaction stems from the individual’s own interpretation, which sets them against a hypothetical benchmark that cannot be reached. Second, organisations can create forums with employees of all levels within the organisation to share challenges they might be facing from a professional standpoint. This approach brings people into connection and community to see they are not the only one experiencing challenges.
A focus on the individual
Of the strategies offered above, the common factor is that the focus starts with the individual. Clear actions can be taken, from breaking down work silos that isolate individuals (and teams) to addressing the human and workplace factors that contribute to feelings of imposter syndrome, burnout, and workplace stress.
There is a clear business case for such initiatives as well. A positive work environment, regardless of industry, lends itself to increased creativity, motivation, work satisfaction, performance, and, overall, employee retention. It’s the reason why mental health needs to be a priority for the corporate sector.
About the Author
Dr. Daniel Shore is an expert in workplace psychology. He focuses on teams, multi-team systems, and leadership with a human-centred approach to fostering connections within and between teams. He is the co-founder of the Integr8 training program, which is built on 5 years of US- and European-government funded research.
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