The Missing Link: The Role of the Workplace in Mental Health

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, employee mental health has never received more attention and occupational health and safety professionals (OHPs) have a role to play. Mental illness is experienced by 20% of the U.S. population (Kochanek et al., 2019) and workplace conditions, both physical and social, can have a significant impact. Most efforts to improve mental health and social connection—a strong correlate of mental health—have focused on individual-level counseling strategies, family, and peer support (Anger et al., 2022). Although these strategies and targets are important, they are stretched thin, often leaving individuals in need of additional resources. Despite the long history of research on the relationship between and work (e.g., job demands, job control, social support; Niedhammer et al., 2021), the workplace is rarely identified as a source of social connection or as a prevention target to support worker mental health, regardless of the known positive workplace social support–employee well-being (Kossek et al., 2011).

Loneliness and isolation, indicators of social connection, cost U.S. businesses more than US$154 billion annually in lost productivity (Bowers et al., 2022) and workplace stress costs upward of US$190 billion in annual U.S. health care expenditures (Goh et al., 2015). Thus, there is both a human (i.e., improved mental health) and business case for OHPs to pay more attention to workplace social support, and specifically, the role of managers in providing such support.

Evidence-based workplace intervention research has demonstrated the benefits of supervisor support training on employee well-being (e.g., Hammer et al., 2011). Mental health awareness training for managers has also demonstrated specific effects on managers’ mental health literacy, stigmatizing attitudes, and ability to recognize warning signs, and employees’ use of resources (Dimoff & Kelloway, 2019). Therefore, OHPs can serve a critical role in educating managers about how they can impact workplace mental illness prevention through evidence-based trainings that are critical to bolstering social connection and improving employee mental health (e.g., www.supportiveleadership.org). In addition, they can help reduce demands at work and increase control over where, how, and when people work, all strategies that improve well-being.

To better support mental health, it is imperative that OHPs recognize and communicate that the workplace is (a) a significant contributor to overall health and well-being, (b) an accessible and important point of intervention through manager actions, and (c) a social determinant of health (Wipfli et al., 2021). With stress, fatigue, and burnout on the rise, the data are clear: OHPs, leaders, and managers must play a critical role in national efforts to address workers’ mental health.