Last week marked the start of Mental Health Awareness Week (Monday 15 – Sunday 21 May 2023); and the official theme for this year, as set by the Mental Health Foundation, is anxiety.
The Mental Health Foundation created the week 27 years ago with the hope of inspiring and educating people to understand and prioritise their and others' mental health.
Anxiety is a fitting topic for this year; a recent mental health survey carried out by the foundation revealed that a quarter of adults said they felt so anxious that it stopped them from doing the things they want to do some or all of the time and that 6 in 10 adults feel this way, at least some of the time.
Anxiety at work is a big issue for leadership. Anxiety has been linked to increased employee errors, burnout, workplace rage, sick days, and poor employee health. Research from Harvard Medical School states that workplace mental health issues, imperils workers' careers and company productivity.”
It's something that needs to be addressed; more than half of millennials and 75 percent of Gen Z have quit a job for mental health reasons.
Here at Vyou, workplace anxiety forms part of our holistic work wellness mission and is just one area that we, through the Vyou platform of AI and human 1:1 coaching, support teams with.
This Mental Health Awareness Week, we've pulled some of our top reads from elsewhere, and our own blog, around anxiety:
Workplace anxiety: articles we love
Forbes: Tips for dealing with anxiety at work
Many business leaders—at least the ones who've stayed alert—learned something really important during the global pandemic lockdowns. They came to the realisation that anxiety is a serious business issue.
FT: Workplace anxiety and how to overcome it
https://www.ft.com/content/0239be22-a04a-4d80-9490-180484f4f9cf
We all deserve to have a day at work without having the fear of God put into us. Which is why one of the most striking recent examples of a bad day at the office” remains alarmingly fresh in my memory, almost two months on.
Stylist: Why we feel more anxious than ever about going to work
https://www.stylist.co.uk/life/careers/workplace-anxiety/659526
How the pandemic has shifted our workplace stress to anxiety.
Deadlines, juggling multiple projects and navigating new realms of hybrid working: the realities of work are enough to make anyone feel exhausted and overstretched.
From the Vyou archives:
How to support employee wellbeing
This post was written last year but still holds lots of great information on supporting your team's wellbeing.
https://www.vyou.co/blog/how-to-support-employee-wellbeing-in-2022
What is work wellness and why does it matter?
Employee wellbeing. Employee engagement and loyalty. Productivity, motivation, purpose, and drive. Corporate wellbeing programs. Is it all sort of the same thing? What's the difference?
https://www.vyou.co/blog/what-is-work-wellness-and-why-does-it-matter
Handy links
Please note, Vyou supports a holistic approach to wellbeing at work but is not a replacement for specific mental health support. Please contact your healthcare provider or the listed charities and contacts below if you think you may need support, or to find out more about anxiety or any other aspect of mental wellbeing:
Mental Health Foundation: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/
Mental Health UK: https://mentalhealth-uk.org/
