Growing mental health problems in the workplace are worrying for the organization. After the Covid, people are more conscious about their health. The consciousness sometimes causes over thinking. As the work pressure increase, people start developing anxiety and stress.
Addressing mental health in the workplace is the most critical for any organization. People lose productivity due to a lack of focus on the job. Mental health also reduces the motor skill of the problem. A simple task that should be done in a few minutes could take several hours if the person is mentally sick.
Additionally, discomfort caused by mental health will develop physical pain in various parts of the body. You must address the symptoms early to avoid the long-term health problem.
Type of Stigma Seen in the Workplace
The first and most important thing before addressing the problem is awareness. There are different kinds of stigma behaviors seen in the workplace. Let’s dive down to understand the causes of Stigma with their different types.
1) Self Stigma
The self-stigma is a personality that makes you believe the world is sick. You assume the person you are interacting with has some attitude or self-belief that makes them not respond the way you want.
Instead of seeing them as authoritarian personalities, you should look at another side of the picture. It might be possible that the person is going through a challenging time.
Stress and depression because of broken relationships might be causing them to develop unhealthy relationships with those around them.
Such people need help from others but cannot ask for it because they do not find anyone around them. Low esteem could cause anxiety and make you take harmful actions. Medical treatments are available for people who are going through the problem.
2) Public Stigma
The conventional belief system causes Public Stigma to be passed through generations. A negative attitude toward a social group of people is a state of mental health that develops over time.
Our brain is designed to consume information from nature. When you consume too much negative information about a particular subject or thing, your belief system strengthens, and you start following the same path without giving it a second thought.
People in such conditions feel low energy, feared, discredited, and most are found in the isolated condition.
3) Structural Stigma
The workplace goes through systemic discrimination, where a person is treated based on cultural norms, policies, or institutional practices. The outcome of such practices ends up developing a team not aligned to a single goal. Mixed feelings in the team are not a sign of an excellent organizational culture.
Ways to reduce Stigma in the workplace
Diverse perception is seen in people dealing with various workplace conditions. Addressing the issues is the first step to making every aware of the brain’s reaction to certain activities performed in the workplace.
Talk to the employee about what matters most in the work environment. Interaction with the employee improves the mental health of the person. The employee’s conscious decisions will make them healthy and drive them on the right path.
Here are some tested formulas to reduce Stigma
1) Shifting the negative perspective
Perceptive of the person make them think in a particular direction. The negative depictions of the surrounding environment cause mental health. Shifting the person’s perspective would give you a good start in changing the Stigma.
2) Mental health management training
Help your team make wise decisions when things are not going as planned—support the team in recognizing behavioral health problems.
Knowledge about the symptoms and their impact on everyday life will make the team aware of the problem. Giving them the tool to effectively deal with the different challenges will enhance the people’s experience.
3) Distress signals
Leaders are in a position where they have a top view of the team. Teaching leaders to identify distress signals in the work environment will make them take necessary action to reduce stress.
4) Open communication
Sharing helps the team to feel connected with each other. Encourage open communication in the work environment so people can share their personal experiences and stories and depict their personalities to others.
Employees feel stressed when they are in an isolated environment. It is the most common reason why people develop mental health issues. Dealing with the behavioral health problem is important because it could affect the organization’s culture.
5) Eliminate discriminatory attitude
Bias decisions should be avoided in the work environment. Treat everyone equally and help them to get the necessary help whenever needed. Do not hurt people’s sentiments with any comments or behavior.
A single decision could make the person develop negative sentiments about you. Treat everyone with the same skill, attitude, and urgency so no one will feel that you have a soft corner for one person and others are treated like they are unimportant in the organization.
Summery
Immediate action is needed if things are going out of hand. Apply the given solution to break the stigma and make your work environment happy again.
