Employee Outlook: Focus on mental health in the workplace - Mind

Impact of poor mental health on absence andperformanceMore than half of respondents (57%) who describethemselves as experiencing poor mental health have takentime off work for this reason. Public sector employees aremore likely than either those working in the private orvoluntary sectors to have taken time off as a result of theirpoor mental health (see Table 5).However, more than half (53%) of people in this categorysay they always go to work when experiencing poor mentalhealth and 42% say they sometimes do, indicating thatmanaging people with mental health problems in theworkplace is just as important as managing their absence(see Table 6).The survey provides some interesting findings on the impactof poor mental health on performance in the workplace (seeTable 7).Four out of five respondents say that they find it difficult toconcentrate as a result of going into work with poor mentalhealth, with more than half saying that they have difficultyjuggling a number of tasks and take longer to do tasks.In all, 42% of respondents say that they put off challengingtasks as a result of going in to work with poor mental healthand 50% report they are less patient with customers andclients.In addition, 60% think poor mental health interferes withtheir ability to make decisions and 37% believe they aremore likely to get into conflict with colleagues. A significantproportion (33%) of respondents say that they find it moredifficult learning new tasks.Table 5: Have you ever taken time off from work as a result of poor mental health? (%)All Men WomenPrivatesectorPublicsectorVoluntarysectorYes 57 63 53 52 74 55No 43 37 47 48 25 45Don’t know/can’t remember 0 0 0 0 1 0Table 6: How often have you gone into work whenexperiencing poor mental health (for example stress,anxiety or depression)? (%)AllPrivatesectorPublicsectorVoluntarysectorAlways 53 64 32 31Sometimes 42 31 63 69Rarely 3 4 1 0Never 1 1 0 0Don’tknow/can’tremember1 0 5 0Table 7: Ways in which poor mental health in the workplaceaffects performance (%)AllFind it difficult to concentrate 80More likely to get into conflict with colleagues 37Have difficulty in making decisions 60Find it more difficult juggling a number of tasks 57Take longer to do tasks 62Put off challenging work 42Rely more on colleagues to get work done 11Less patient with customers/clients 50Find it more difficult to learn new tasks 33Other 10Don’t know 0Not applicable/it does not affect my performanceat work34 <strong>Focus</strong> on mental health in the workplace