A few weeks ago I saw a comment from David Goggins which read:
It’s a brutal comment that doesn’t pull any punches. I’ll admit that my first temptation was to get a little defensive. “What a jerk. What does he know?” But, after the initial reaction faded, I managed to swallow my ego and explore this a little further.
I think it’s valuable to speak about workplace mental health more thoroughly and with more care.
As a society, we talk a big game regarding resilience, toughness, grit, and “rising with the tide.” Yet, we don’t always translate that into action.
What Search Patterns Suggest About Employees and Mental Health
To get a better idea of workplace mental health, I took a look at search data. Since 2004, this is what I’ve found:
- The number of searches for the term “workplace mental health” spiked in 2004, then came down, and has been gradually increasing
- Search numbers for “mental health” have incrementally risen over the last 8 years
- Search numbers for “resilience” have increased since 2004, with a peak in October 2020, a small drop, and then a continued increase
- Search numbers for “safe spaces” have remained fairly steady over time over time with occasional spikes (most notably around 2015/16) and a large spike in December 2019
- Searches for “discipline” have decreased over time, with a slight increase beginning in January 2022
- Searches for “self-discipline” had been relatively stable since 2005, with an increase in searches since October 2021.
It’s valuable to see how this applies to various areas of mental health in the workplace.
An Awareness of Workplace Mental Health Importance
Based on these results, we can see that people recognize the value of mental health, and mental health in the workplace by extension. That indicates that a lack of mental health resilience is not due to a lack of awareness.
The Confusion of Resilience with Safety
The searches above suggest that many people believe there is a link between resilience and safety. However, this is a misconception.
Resilience can be considered a person’s ability to recover from some type of adverse situation. The term safety, by comparison, means living free from any risk of injury, danger, or loss. To put it another way: resilience is a response to adversity, while safety is an avoidance of it.
A Concern for Self-Discipline
As we consider the importance of mental health, there’s also a need to think about self-discipline. Since the changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, people seem to be chasing safety but have not necessarily worked concurrently to improve their personal strength of character. It is plausible to believe that the pandemic’s prompting of isolation, attacks on social norms, and forcible changes in environments forced people back to the drawing board.
That could indicate that people are not set up for disaster because they’ve lowered their guard.
Mental Health and Learned Helplessness
Consider learned helplessness. When animals are subjected to repeated stresses that are out of their control, they give up and “take what’s coming,” even after they are removed from that situation.
Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD and Steven F. Maier, PhD creates a study called “Learned Helplessness” in 1972 through the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.
The study was on a group of dogs, where one set has a lever to stop shocks while the other does not. When moved to an area allowing them to avoid the shocks, one group moved out of the way to do so, while the second group, the group that didn’t have the lever, laid down and whined.
This shows that, when one is in a situation where they lack control over negative stimuli, they not only suffer mentally, but they can continue to perceive a lack of control once their situation has changed, thus leading to learned helplessness.
Given the world situations of recent years, there’s been a lot of big stressors that seem too big for an individual to contend with. This could account for the spike in suicides, especially among younger generations. In the U.S., for example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicate that suicide was the 12th leading cause of death in the USA in 2020. It accounted for the loss of 45,900 lives.
How to Improve the Mental Health of Your Workplace
Workplace mental health is an invaluable tool, and the status of it in your office cannot be avoided. How can we build this into our day-to-day work life?
Controlled Non-Avoidance
In a workplace where a diverse group of people works together, adversity and conflict are inevitable. Rather than running and hiding, you embrace it. Make sure to give the parties involved control over the outcome they have. This can directly impact workplace mental health.
The Safety of Strength
Instead of building an isolated fortress to hide inside, we should expose ourselves to uncomfortable or unfamiliar, but not untenable, situations that help us build our inner strength. Sit down with employees and have a frank, honest conversation about workplace satisfaction. Encourage them to be open and honest. It will be uncomfortable, but if everyone approaches it with the goal of building personal strength, everyone will find some benefit from it. That betters workplace mental health.
The Push and Pull of Motivation and Self-Discipline
Motivation is our thirst to achieve something. The end result is often some type of reward or benefit. It’s a North Star, pulling us in a given direction.
But motivation wanes over time. When motivation gets tired of driving, that’s when self-discipline takes over. Self-discipline links us to powerful drivers like ego, character, reputation, and personal values. I can recall many times during my military days when my motivation had all but dwindled, but self-discipline begrudgingly kept me going, along with the desire not to let myself or my team down.
Most people aren’t going to be motivated about everything they do, and that’s okay–as long as they are disciplined enough to keep moving forward.
Conclusion
What I can say with absolute assurance is that this investigation has shifted perspectives on workplace mental health. Perhaps I will conduct more research about how personal strength and self-discipline can be refined and incorporated, including their role in workplace mental health. If this prompted one person to do the same thing, then it’s successful.
As a business leader, it’s critical to foster a sense of learning and growth. Check out our online courses at The Eighth Mile to learn more about how to improve the mental health of your workplace.
