In my role as a psychologist, I often get referrals through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to support clients experiencing anxiety, mood, and interpersonal difficulties. Hearing directly from clients as well as reflected by international research, it was clear that there are major themes contributing to decreased workplace wellbeing.
These include:
Ψ Feeling overwhelmed by job demands, such as challenges in coping with nature and/or volume of workload, or loss of work-life separation boundaries.
Ψ Growing disengagement, such as feeling a lack of control and autonomy within one’s role, decreased motivation, or a lack of growth opportunity.
Ψ Interpersonal challenges, such as lack of peer or supervisory support, and even worse, harassment, bullying, conflict resolution difficulties.
Ψ Skills challenges, such as having to cope with new technology or technical skills.
Ψ Lack of reward, such as verbal informal recognition or monetary compensation equitable to work volume.
Ψ Role ambiguity, such as being aware that there are organisational expectations yet being unclear of specific deliverables or performance indicators.
Additionally, personal challenges, such as being in a transitional phase (e.g. new stage of parenthood, relocation), home-front stressors (e.g. marital, caregiver to elderly parents), health decline, also often affect performance at work.
Please know that you really are not alone in your struggles, and I hope that the normalisation brings you some degree of comfort.
In a 2021 local mental health census, 13% reported symptoms of anxiety or depression, 9.3% reported experiencing mild to severe stress, 7.6% had clinical insomnia, and 4.9% confessed to experiencing suicidal thoughts.
An international research on ‘talking about mental health at work’ found that 35% of employees confided in co-workers, 21% in supervisors, 6% in subordinates, 5% in Human Resources (HR) personnel, and 55% did not disclose to any colleague.
Since most EAPs are either paid for or co-subsidised by the company, ‘why not utilise this benefit?’ you might ask.
The reason is because barriers including fear of stigma (i.e. “not coping well with mental health means I’m weak” or “it’s embarrassing and I would be judged”), perceptions that seeking support would result in decreased promotion opportunities or getting terminated, fear that the company would be aware of my personal issues (i.e. uncertain confidentiality boundaries) present as hinderance.
To these obstacles, it is encouraging that they are incrementally being addressed. On a national level, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has rolled out recommendations on increasing workplace healthcare resources, and media channels has also been effortful in increasing public awareness. On an individual level, the younger generation is also breaking the stigma and advocating for better mental health practises, as seen on social media as well as interviews platforms.
Therefore, with the tide progressively shifting, may I gently and strongly encourage, that if you are reading this reflection piece and sitting with the dilemma of accepting the support of therapy/counselling services, please do.
Kirsty Png
Counselling Psychologist
APSY | AKIDS