Navigating Mental Health in a Multigenerational Workplace - Sun and Planets Spirituality AYINRIN
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Summary.
Today’s
workers increasingly expect their employer to play a role in improving
mental health. But with five different generations coming together in
the workplace, who were all raised with different expectations about how
to talk about mental health challenges at work, it’s no wonder that
it’s a tricky topic for managers to navigate. But one thing is clear:
Future leaders — and workers — are demanding a level of vulnerability
that’s new, uncomfortable, and 100% necessary. This article offers three
approaches for organizations to support better mental health and more
productive conversations across generations going forward.
With
five generations of workers coming together to collaborate in today’s
workforce — all of whom were raised in different times and with
different expectations — it’s no wonder that mental health is a sticky
subject in the workplace.
But there’s no denying that the future of work is about mental health. Mental health challenges, such as stress, anxiety, and depression, are the number one reason why people miss work. And workplace culture is pivotal to employee mental health: 60% of employees say that their job is the most significant factor in their mental health. Employees also say that managers impact their mental health even more than their doctors or therapists (and on par with their spouses). Workers increasingly expect their employer to play a role in improving mental health.
The numbers also suggest generational discontent. Recent data
from the American Psychological Association found that only 45% of Gen
Zers reported that their mental health is very good or excellent, and a SHRM survey found that 27% of Generation Z
reported feeling depressed by their job at least once per week in the
last six months, compared to 18% of Millennials, 14% of Gen Xers and 7%
of Baby Boomers and Traditionalists.
That
said, are these statistics fully reflective of what’s actually
happening with mental health in the workplace, given differing
generational comfort levels surrounding the expression of feelings and
needs? The stats probably don’t tell the full story.
Many
older workers — including me, a GenX-er — were raised to suffer in
silence at work. We often feel threatened when people with less
seniority freely ask for what they want and share what they think. And
as Gen Z enters the workforce, there can be confusion and resistance in
older leadership on how to manage a generation that is more depressed
and anxious, and also more comfortable talking about it.
But
leadership needs to listen. Christina McCarthy, executive director of
the nonprofit One Mind at Work, works with executives from some of the
world’s largest companies. In a recent interview, she told me that
there’s a real danger in dismissing the mental health conversations that
are happening with Gen Z and younger Millennials as “just feelings”
rather than something more serious that requires committed attention.
“We’re not going to see meaningful progress in this space if people
don’t feel comfortable expressing their needs,” she said.
Jen
Fisher, Deloitte’s U.S. Human Sustainability Leader, told me that the
conversation can be clouded by misconceptions on all sides: “Younger
people don’t believe that the more senior people understand, and the
more senior people don’t believe that the younger people understand.
Instead of coming together to have a real discussion on real issues,
we’re letting our own perceptions and beliefs get in the way.”
So
what can organizations do to support better mental health and more
productive conversations across generations going forward? Here are
three approaches that can help:
Increase Mental Health Literacy and Define Terms
The
most fundamental thing organizations must do is help their people
create a common vocabulary around workplace mental health. How we
identify and share our emotions is dependent on our own backgrounds,
upbringing, and comfort and education in talking about mental health. A survey
done by the nonprofit Made of Millions found that 80% of managers lack
confidence in addressing sensitive issues around mental health and
equity because they are afraid of using the wrong words. One in five
respondents said that “unclear language” and “fear of saying the wrong
thing” are top concerns for effectively managing mental health
conditions on their team.
At
the same time, we all regularly misuse terms. We conflate stress,
anxiety, and overwhelm. We joke about being “OCD” or “crazy.” Of Gen
Zers, Leah Smart, LinkedIn News Editor – Personal Development, says,
“They’re young, they’re open, they’re free” — and they expect to talk
about their feelings. “Words like ‘trauma’ or ‘toxic’ or ‘depressed’ or
‘panic attack’ are words Gen Z uses often to refer to their own mental
health, but they’re oftentimes using it in a way that’s blown out of
proportion,” she says. When coaching young people, she’ll ask, “Did you
really have a panic attack? Or were you just anxious and you don’t yet
know how to identify that and how to talk about that?” [Disclosure: My
own podcast is hosted by LinkedIn, and I am compensated for this work.]
Yale psychology professor Marc Brackett sees in his research
that people are not skilled or knowledgeable about how to distinguish
emotions. “It’s really hard to teach people how to deal with their
feelings if they’re not labeling them properly,” notes Brackett.
If
you’re an employee advocating for change in your organization, language
matters. Christina McCarthy notes that sometimes people feel these
conversations are implicit criticisms of leadership, which can lead to
alienating the very people who can create change. She recommends framing
mental health into language that resonates with the people in the
conversation. “Speak to leaders in the language that they’re familiar
with, such as data. Then mental health can be an issue that we address
together, designing solutions that really make that impact together.”
It’s
ideal to commission your own data about how employee mental health
affects your company’s workforce. (You could start by including some
questions about mental health in engagement surveys or other annual
reviews or reach out to the nonprofit One Mind at Work.) But if that’s
not available, there’s a lot of data available to help make the business
case for investing in employee mental health — the American
Psychological Association and SHRM are good resources. There are also
plenty of resources online to help define terms and educate your work force about mental health. You can choose to hire consultants or do simple online training; just do something!
Give Peers Brave Spaces
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution to improving mental health across generations, but data is showing that peer support is valuable for supporting mental health and whole body health alike. Peer-support programs are most effective
when they’re centered on individuals’ current challenges and life
circumstances. Given generational differences in approaching mental
health at work, this might mean pushing beyond a single Mental Health
Employee Resource Group (ERG) and creating opportunities for
psychological safety among more specific groups of peers. You could
bring together people of similar generations, life stage, or level of
responsibility at work.
For
example, Google’s director of health and performance, Newton Cheng, has
seen that when leaders who are in similar stages and life stages get
together, they can feel safer to share their own struggles, which in
turn opens up more space for helping others. “They’re in a safe cohort
where they can express how they’re doing, because they feel like people
will get it.”
Brave
spaces take different forms, but brave spaces encourage people to speak
up and share, even when they feel different or like their opinion might
not be what’s “expected.” This is an important consideration for Gen Z,
the most diverse generation, and one that approaches institutions
differently than older generations. Crystal Widado, a Gen Z advocate for
Mental Health America, said that many young people are “retraumatized”
when they go to traditional resources like therapy and counseling, and
prefer peer networks. Headspace CEO Russ Glass agrees that finding the
right modality is crucial. “Mental health support may look different
across generations. Older people may prefer speaking on a phone with
someone, whereas Millennials and Gen Zers might prefer video support
from their home, or even chat-based support. Enterprises have to think
about how they are providing different mechanisms of support.”
Center Personal Stories and Experiences
A
wise person once told me, “You never know what a person’s going
through.” When I was just starting out, I had a boss who was frequently
irritable and terse with me for about a year. I became anxious around my
boss. I thought it was all my fault, until I learned she was having a
difficult time and going through infertility treatments. It wasn’t until
I heard her story that I could understand. And even though I was many
years away from thinking about having kids, I could connect and
empathize with her experience once I knew.
That’s
why centering personal stories and experiences is a must. Colleagues
who want to share their own mental health challenges can encourage us
all to be a little more open with each other, which in turn reduces
anxiety at work. We don’t need to tell each other everything, but we can
choose when some vulnerability might really help a situation.
McCarthy
points to the need for a more strategic approach to workforce
involvement and engagement around issues such as gender and
representation, diversity, equity, and mental health. “We need to build
structures within organizations that facilitate meaningful contribution,
at all different facets of the organization, and at all different
leadership levels,” she says. This is why storytelling is one of the
most powerful ways multi-generations and peer groups can connect around
complex topics.
Workplace
mental health is intersectional, and cannot be stripped away from other
systemic inequities and failures. Esther Fernandez, a GenZer who works
at the Made of Millions Foundation, notes that, too often, discussions
around mental health at work focus on diagnosable conditions and
benefits, and not enough around external situations and other issues
that also affect our mental health. “If there’s police brutality
happening in the news and you’re a person of color, or if it’s happening
in your city and all you’re seeing is mass death, you carry that with
you into work,” she notes.
The
reality is, when we get vulnerable, we create the space and permission
for others to get vulnerable, too. At a recent company gathering, Fisher
was approached in the hallway by a more senior partner in the
organization, who recognized her because he had seen her recent TEDx
talk. He was quite emotional as he approached. Fisher’s experience was
that the partner always looked buttoned up, like he had it all under
control. But he shared that her TEDx talk about burnout had caused him
to identify for the first time that he was suffering too, and that he
needed to seek help.
It’s
not easy navigating the different lived experiences, needs, and
emotional fluency of five generations in one workplace, but one thing is
clear: Future leaders — and workers — are demanding a level of
vulnerability that’s new, uncomfortable, and 100% necessary.
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