Growing mental health problem costing firms ‘plenty’

“Over the last few months, more and more of our members have highlighted the increase in mental health issues in their workplace and are seeking to find out what their responsibilities are and what can be done to address it,” said The CEO Institute’s spokesperson, Joanne Neely, Chief Executive – Vic.

The CEO Institute organises syndicates throughout Australia of about 16 CEOs each, who meet monthly to work through issues and share knowledge in a confidential setting.

“This gives CEOs and business leaders the opportunity to workshop strategies to address this and other important issues with their peers,” Neely said.

The most recent National Survey of Mental Health and Wellbeing¹ estimates one in five adult Australians experience mental health problems.

Therese Fitzpatrick from Beyond Blue said: “It’s often people in their peak working years who experience depression and anxiety disorders, and it’s an issue that is likely to affect every workplace across Australia at some time or other.”

So we have finally discovered that people are human beings with feelings and have needs other than the profitability of a business (get it and get it good, employees really don’t care if the boss gets rich or not  -people have a need and that is to feed their family, it is the responsibility of the business to make the job interesting and rewarding on a personal level so as to stimulate interest to achieve company goals) In the 1970-1980’s when we made decisions at board level for change, we spent more time discussing how the transition would be introduced so as to afford us continuation and acceptance by the employees without disruption.

Now, it’s get the turnstile ready so we can eliminate a few more who cannot cope with our new policy. The paradigm shift in attitude toward people as human beings is both despicable and a certain recipe for disaster for the species. It is high time to take stock and a have a good look at how we manage people.

It is obvious that watching how efficient (??) the Chinese are at manufacturing, Yes! we fought for a hundred years to improve conditions so we as developed countries did not treat our people like slaves…basic human rights, so people are not coping with turning the tables to the old depression years of the 1930’s I wonder why?!

Gone are the days when we sat around and discussed what is happening in our lives with our boss. The boss has one need survival (money and profit), employees have a need to be happy and to fulfil their basic needs to care and love their families. When business and society get back to the reality of why we exist then these problems will disappear. Changing times Yes!, but if you care to read “The Origin of Species”, you will note evolution and change within the species takes many generations…hundreds of years. “It is not the strongest of the species who will survive but the ones most adaptive to change”. This is true but please take care to allow time for the human species to adapt to living in constant fear (job, bills, terrorism) after many years of love and compassion and empathy when our lives were not driven by technology at warp speed. It is time to take stock and determine what is important…unfortunately it is not only MONEY! and the need for growth and bigger profit than last year!.

Today as we seek solace from the one machine that doesn’t snipe or judge us – the TV, here too we are constantly challenged are we fit enough, is our shape right, are we over weight, are people drinking too much, are our children smart enough, where are the speed cameras, who has been drinking and driving.

Has anyone really stopped and studied what is happening here. It is not the viewer we should be telling this morbid depressing information, it is government, community leaders, business owners those who have the final say, the decision makers. This is where the problem stems from. How many times have I written, Baaaaa! and I mean it.

The people are the sheep, they have no control over who “mis” governs them or pushes them over the limit of mental endurance to meet the profit expectations of a foreign owned business. When we hear business owners and leaders saying it is not their responsibility to take care of the next wave of problems in society…Derrrr! Yes it is. This is where change is implemented.  Gone are the days when there was a 12-18 month plan to make a simple change within a business process or practice, now it is published on Monday, a meeting of “soft touch” on Tuesday and its in action by Friday and get the turnstile ready the following Monday to wave goodbye tot the next round of unemployed!…the human species can adapt superficially to change very quickly, however we have to be prepared to take the consequences of these actions on a group and species who like birds and rabits take generations to adapt and change.