For many of us, a large part of our lives is connected to our work. We spend much of our time working, very often it’s where we make our friends or even our life partners. So this Stress Awareness Month, we’re focusing on our wellbeing at work.
Working during the pandemic – whether you have been working from home, have been furloughed, moved to a different job role, volunteered, or were made redundant – has had a large impact on our mental health.
Being in work of any kind, paid or unpaid, can be good for our mental health and wellbeing. Although that isn’t always the case.
Everyone has times where life gets on top of us. Sometimes it’s connected to our work, when we have looming deadlines or pressure, and sometimes it’s life outside of work that gets on top of us. Either way, it these stresses can have an impact on our work – as employees, our work and personal life don’t always sit entirely separate.
The UK economy has value added to it by working people who have (or have had) mental health problems. This can be as much as £225 billion per year, which represents 12.1% of the UK’s total GDP.
So it’s vitally important to ensure that employees’ mental health is supported inside and outside of work, whether that is supporting them to access occupational health services, giving them time to add therapy/support appointments, or ensuring their work/life balance is maintained and they take all the annual leave they are entitled to.
Stress Awareness Month is a reminder of the importance of wellbeing at work, this year more than ever.
- A number of our services offer free and confidential support and advice to our patients who are experiencing employment difficulties relating to stress, anxiety, or depression. Find out more about our employment advisor support.
- We also offer employee assistance programmes to a wide range of public, private, and charity sector organisations across the country. Find out more about our Wellbeing at Work service.