Everyone suffers stress at one time or another at work, and for the most part, people can cope with that well. However, there are traits within the workplace that can have a detrimental effect. These are:
Bullying and Harassment
This is a no brainer. If someone is bullied in the workplace then this will take it’s toll on their mental health. Bullying can take many forms, but commonly this can be psychological harassment.
Poor Management Practices
This one may seem vague, but this covers many issues, such as:
- A failure of management to explain the expected roles and responsibilities of an individual
- Failing to provide sufficient resources for a role or workload
- Failing to manage staff effectively
- Poor communication leading to a feeling of being unsupported and a lack of guidance on day-to-day tasks
- Unclear reporting lines
- Failing to acknowledge concerns raised
- Limited to no participation in decision making, with limited control over their work
- Inflexible working hours, leading to a bad work/life balance
- Badly defined or unclear objectives leading to people being unsure on what they should be doing
- Giving people tasks which are unsuitable for their skills, or insufficient support, training, or knowledge with tasks which may lead to tasks not being completed
- Unrelenting workloads which mean that jobs are rushed to completion or not completed with due diligence
- Unfair distribution of group work leading to others compensating for an individual’s lack of progress
- Health and safety policies which are missing or do not cover stress and other health and safety issues in the workplace are not identified and managed properly