Research on mental health issues, involving 2,000 UK employees of working age from around the country, has been conducted by Slater and Gordon - a UK and Australian law firm.
It was found that 14 per cent of employees - when they spoke to their boss about mental issues - were told to ‘man up’ and 13 per cent were either fired, demoted or forced to leave their job.
Many of the employees recognised that their mental health was not as good as it should be but neither was their employer’s attitude towards it - with 65 per cent of workers calling for the provision of more support.
On average, UK employees are taking four mental health days off each year, but are lying about the reason for doing so.
It was found that one in five workers in Yorkshire is faking a physical illness in order to take time off work for their mental health - over fears of being judged or sacked - which is over the national average.
Yorkshire was also above the national average for people staying in the job that was causing them stress, depression or anxiety, with 18 per cent of workers stating this was the case - compared to 16 per cent over the whole of the UK.
The biggest causes of stress were found to be unrealistic deadlines and pressure from above, with 25 per cent of workers admitting to leaving at least one job due to the negative impact it was having on their mental health. Weekends were not being used to relax as 37 per cent of staff stated that they were struggling to switch off from work and 60 per cent admitted to suffering from ‘Sunday dread’.
Peter Lyons - principal lawyer at Slater and Gordon - said that the firm regularly speaks to people who feel unable to work because of mounting stress and anxiety.
He added:
“We speak to a lot of people who are feeling so stressed and anxious with work they are forced into taking mental health days. Many isolate themselves, trying to work harder, which causes their personal lives to suffer and mental health to deteriorate further. The biggest thing we would say is don’t fight stress alone at work."
Louise Aston - wellbeing campaign director at Business in the Community - said that the research shows employers still need to do much more to support staff dealing with mental health problems adding:
“The statistics... show that there is a significant amount of work to be done to challenge the stigma of mental health in the workplace. Employers need to create the kind of culture where staff can be transparent about their mental health and they need to lead by example. Training and flexible working should be top considerations.
It’s OK not to be OK. We need an inclusive targeted approach to ensure that managers receive quality training, are knowledgeable about key issues in the world of mental health, and are aware of reasonable adjustments that can be made such as flexible working. The business case is clear in terms of showing a clear impact on productivity and staff engagement and retention, and we challenge all UK businesses to make good employee mental health a strategic priority.”
