By day I’m an academic and researcher, but in my spare time fill a niche as an expert witness on workload and safety in many different sectors.
Overwork and failure to manage it has serious consequences for individuals and organisations. Having an intolerable workload is not just about being a bit too busy – a constantly high workload, pressure to perform or overwork eventually causes people to make mistakes while suffering from physical and mental exhaustion.
Workload has a profound effect on the mental health of those working in higher education. A survey for the Guardian in 2014 found that heavy workloads, lack of support and isolation are the key factors contributing to mental illness and affected all levels of the academic hierarchy according to respondents, who ranged from PhD students to vice-chancellors.
Invariably my work brings me into contact with the human resources (HR) departments of many universities. They often have to deal with the fallout of overwork and the resultant mental health issues – yet they seem ill prepared.
Mental illness and HR don’t seem to be happy bedfellows. Ask most university HR departments what assistance they have given a staff member with mental illness and you will get a fairly standard response – the fall back is helping the staff member to access the often outsourced employee assistance scheme, absence management and a referral to occupational health by a manager.
Ask them what support is given for work induced mental illness and one is met with either vehement denial or a wall of silence.
Mental health seems a long way down the priority list of most HR directors. To assist an employee with work induced stress is to admit to a situation that is contrary to most of the policies. It’s hard to help in a situation that they cannot acknowledge exists.
This approach is also surprising given the scale of the problem. For example a recent freedom of information request to a Russell Group university showed that one in five of days lost to sickness were due to stress or mental health issues. So what can be done?
In my dealings with HR departments, there often appears at all levels to be a fundamental knowledge and attitude gap towards mental illness. There is a lack of awareness of mental health issues which requires at least some education.
For every beautifully written equalities statement I have read emails belittling the experience of a person with mental health problems.
Telling employees that they will be subjected to capability proceedings because they are no longer “productive”, or that because they have taken part in rehabilitation activities they must be fit enough to come to work and are therefore on unauthorized absence.
The fact that people have good days and bad days and that mental health often undulates seems to be a difficult concept – the erosion of self-esteem that comes with overwork results in a mental state is far from constant. I have seen some good practice but have also seen HR departments try to twist a person with mental health problems in knots of despair and frustration-changing the goalposts and never showing any thoughtfulness or compassion.
If a staff member suffered a serious physical illness or injury as a result of working at an institution there would be some kind of investigation. There is no such provision for the effects of stress induced illness and no legal obligation to carry out an enquiry.
Any healthy organisation should seek to discover the causes of ill health if induced by work and yet most HR departments appear to insist on slavish adherence to policy, of bringing a grievance for example. Given that this is often beyond the staff member due to illness there should be a safe way for issues to be examined and lessons learnt.
Mental illness, work induced or otherwise, is still a taboo. Organisations need to work toward a culture of openness. There also needs to be support for those who are stressed, beyond the various perfunctory employee assistance schemes and occupational health.
In my experience there is a general disbelief and lack of sympathy or empathy – something that education might address. There seems to be a reluctance to treat mental illness as a legitimate illness.
The research excellence framework has made the pursuit of results above all else much more damaging to work-life balance.
HR should be a pivotal part of organisational development to help resolve issues. But while HR directors and their staff deny or belittle the experience of those suffering from overwork and workplace stress, it’s unlikely anything will change and a lot of people will continue to suffer.
This week’s anonymous academic is a professor.
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