The added stress is causing a mental health crisis
Employees are working longer and longer hours, buried under intense workloads and unmanageable deadlines. Emerging research from Self Financial found that 42% of employees are working extra hours, with 27% working six extra hours each week. Furthermore, 20% of employees who’re putting in these additional hours will work $432.72 weekly unpaid overtime – amounting to a staggering $5,626 a year. Remote work has given rise to a toxic culture of unpaid, unappreciated, overtime – something which is having a disastrous impact on employee mental health.
HRD spoke to executive coach Lori B. Rassas, who revealed how this worrying trend is impacting our psyches.
“While employers may benefit from the long hours worked by their employees, this is a very short-sighted approach and has the potential to have a negative impact on the larger workforce,” she told HRD. “This is particularly the case in our current environment, where everyone predicts a turnover tsunami as employees reassess their post-COVID lives and reprioritize all of the demands on their time.
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“All employers have an interest in ensuring that employees are only expected to work manageable schedules because longer hours and a lack of work-life balance lead to lower productivity and decreased workplace morale. Further, while mental health challenges may not be as visible as other physical ailments, they can cause great harm on their own and can manifest into other physical problems. This situation can lead to greater rates of absenteeism - because an individual who may take time off from work to tend to their mental health might end up needing additional time to recover from any resulting physical conditions.”
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The burden of working these additional hours is devastating worker wellbeing – with 46% of teams reporting increased levels of stress. A further 88.5% workers claimed they woke up earlier and went to bed later in the pandemic – just to fit in the extra work. As for remote-working parents, their childcare duties have skyrocketed by 73%.
So, what should HR leaders do now in order to put an end to this disturbing pattern of behaviour?
“The best thing HR leaders can do if they become aware of this potential problem is to speak with the managers to try to get to understand exactly why some employees are working excessive hours,” Rassas told HRD. “Does the employee have the necessary skills to complete the work, or does it take an employee three hours to complete a task that should take 15 minutes due to a lack of training? HR leaders should work with management to discover what’s actually going on – and whether roles need to be restructured, or there’s a need for additional headcount.”
