Depression, anxiety and burnout plague South Africa’s workforce. Ignoring it puts both people and profits at risk.
It is sobering to look at the figures from the recently published Working Life Survey carried out by the SA Depression and Anxiety Group (Sadag).
The mental conditions reported by workers countrywide look like the trauma you would expect to find on a bloody battlefield in a war.
According to the survey, 52% of those interviewed had been diagnosed with mental health conditions.
These ranged from 32% with depression, 25% suffering from stress, 18% from generalised anxiety disorder, 13% from burnout 13% and 10% who reported they had suffered trauma.
It would be easy to laugh off the findings in a typical “cowboys don’t cry” manner, accompanied with the suggestion to “toughen up.”
After all, those thick-skinned people would argue, any person who has a job should consider themselves fortunate because almost 40% of adults are unemployed.
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Those sorts of approaches don’t help people who are suffering, though. Krystle Kemp, Sadag projects manager, says: “Living with depression, anxiety, or burnout can feel incredibly lonely, especially when your support system doesn’t understand what you are going through because the family members often can’t relate if they don’t have their own first-hand experience.”
Labour analyst Bukani Mngoma said the survey results were not surprising because there has been an increase in the workload workers are carrying daily.
People therefore have to work harder, for the same pay and feel they cannot complain because they might get fired or retrenched.
Few organisations are really aware of the importance of having mental health support programmes, which do not enjoy priority in an economy where firms are under increasing financial pressure.
However, surely having a happier, settled workforce will improve productivity and, therefore, a company’s bottom line?
Above all, though, should we not treat all people in a humane way?
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