Psychological/mental health improvement programs for employees are in trend. Although not all participants in the process fully understand what exactly they heal and why, but the green tick in the personnel policy says that we are a fashionable organization, follow the trends and “we have them”.

However, there is a problem. We have been working out, we’ve been creating, we’ve been implementing the program. And they don't go. They don't heal. And now we do not know whether we are all healthy, or very sick.

So why don't employees participate in mental health programs?

Let's start with definitions. There is a lot of confusion with this. If we shorten and simplify the definition of WHO, then mental health is a state. That is when you psychologically slash mentally fit. In good shape. Vigorously. Do you feel when you are physically fit? You do feel.

The situation is similar with mental health. Have you noticed that mental performance, sharpness of perception, attention, memory, mood have become dull and feel like “I need a cappuccino and a gun”? Then you definitely don't fit.

According to the American company Mind Share Partners report on mental health at work in 2021, the top 5 symptoms of poor mental health are:

1. Anxiety

2. Depression

3. Burnout

4. Eating disorders

5. Fears

The list of factors that spoil our mental health at work:

1. Emotionally exhausting work - stressful, excessive or, on the contrary, boring and monotonous

2. Difficulty of combining work and other areas of life

3. Lack of recognition at work

4. Bad communication

5. Little opportunity to develop

42% of workers worldwide have experienced a decline in mental health and general psychological fitness since the start of the pandemic. This is just the beginning of a trend. You are not surprised. I know.

Let's continue. Think about it. Who goes to the Smooth and Slim program? Right. Slouchy and thick. And who goes to the program "Strong memory"? Amnesic and cognitively retarded. Who will go to the mental health program? Blunt. Brilliant.

90% of people shut up and turn away when they hear the word "mental health". This is a program for those who are sick. Mentally. Well, like the one who is crazy, that needs to be treated with brains.

In our minds, we need to seek help when one of two things happens: either schizophrenia or burnout. And so everyone is strong and omnipotent to the end. Fall from burnout-a heroically valiantly. It's embarrassing to admit a problem and seek help.

I was once hired by a company to work with a 50+ head of a large division of a manufacturing company who thought he had been "signed out" as a coach because something was wrong with him. And he needs to be treated. His leader believed that he should be supported.

In 2021, 68% of millennials and 81% of buzzers quit for mental-health reasons. It is a painful loss of drivers of change within an organization. And it's also a loss.

New recruiting and training costs. Plus sick pay. A launched psi-form leads to a decrease in immunity and other psychosomatics. Employees become not only lethargic and lack of initiative, but also get sick more often.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that the loss of worker productivity due to depression alone is worth between $17 billion and $44 billion a year.

What to do?

Solution one. Destigmatization. Removing the stigma from the concept of mental health is a cultural shift within the organization, in which everyone is involved - from top managers to executives.

Companies need trained leaders who can spot symptoms of stress in their team and can build a safe and structured conversation about it.

On Facebook, employees share their challenges under the hashtag #openup in a closed indoor area. This creates a culture of acknowledging the problem, discussing it and finding a solution. Brilliant, isn't it?!

The easiest way to remove the stigma from the topic of mental health is to connect people with those who already had psychological problems at work and coped with it. This is much more effective than just talking about symptoms and taking people to trainings and workshops like Moses of the Jews in the wilderness.

Solution two. Personal experience. Own example.

Even before the pandemic, the leaders of Roche Genentech released a series of videos under the hashtag #let'stalk, in which they talk about their personal mental health challenges and solutions. So they form a culture of trust and discussion of psychological complexities.

Leading by example is the best way to support employees in their decision to ask for help. Managers, leaders and top-line employees, tell us about your own challenges and victories. Show that you are human too and experience anxiety, stress and resilience issues at work at times. Do not hide your regular work with psy-specialists.

Engage millennials and buzzers. Without knowing shame, they openly ask and even demand psychological support at work. What will inspire others to openup.

We figured out that the first problem why employees do not go to get mentally healthy is stigma and shame. And the second problem. It's scary to open up.

Most of us come from the USSR. Every Soviet child knows how much one parental one cost: "Tell the truth, I won't do anything to you."

To talk about problems, mistakes and other reasons from which stress and impaired psychological health is salt on an open wound. This is wildly scary, since the software of the 70s and 80s is flooded into the head, which has never been updated for many since then. We were taught through fear and shame that you shouldn’t whine and that you should do something useful. You must take control of yourself. Be strong (oh), because there are people who are much worse.

So, managers and HR expect that a crowd of middle and top managers, stuck at an age somewhere between a midlife crisis and a second youth, will massively go mentally to recover? Yes, come on.

A pioneer for all the guys! It is impossible to soil the status of a scarlet tie with mistakes and confessions. It's embarrassing and scary.

Gen Z aka Buzzers, all of the above is none of your business. But still, read carefully as a guide to interacting with your parents and superiors. Show empathy and continue to be an example of self-care. Remember, you are about to be the most influential demographic and already the leaders of change in organizations.

Believe me, your bosses, now they are called leaders, like dogs. Everyone feels and understands about themselves. But they cannot say. So brought up, sir.