• Home
    • Workplace Rehabilitation
    • Drug & Alcohol
    • Injury & Claims Management
    • Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
    • Psychology & Counselling Services
    • Work Health Safety
    • Pre-Employment and Drug and Alcohol Screening
    • Medico-Legal Assessments
    • Allied Health
  • Training Services
  • For Businesses
  • For Individuals
  • Schemes
  • News
  • About Us
  • CONTACT US
  • Membership Program
  • TESTIMONIALS
  • Home
    • Workplace Rehabilitation
    • Drug & Alcohol
    • Injury & Claims Management
    • Employee Assistance Program (EAP)
    • Psychology & Counselling Services
    • Work Health Safety
    • Pre-Employment and Drug and Alcohol Screening
    • Medico-Legal Assessments
    • Allied Health
  • Training Services
  • For Businesses
  • For Individuals
  • Schemes
  • News
  • About Us
  • CONTACT US
  • Membership Program
  • TESTIMONIALS
  Mend Services - Making A Difference

NEWS

Poor work culture can damage mental and physical health

19/5/2016

 
Poor workplace culture can have a huge effect on people’s mental and physical health, and it’s time ­business leaders addressed the issue urgently.

Measuring how a workplace affects staff has been difficult to do accurately, which has meant other aspects of business have taken priority over culture. Culture was seen as important but not urgent.

It’s time the quarterly figures included metrics other than ­dollars, square metres and ratings — otherwise the unintended consequences can be horrific, as has been the case with Orange France.
Between 2008 and 2009 the company, then called France Telecom, had 35 employees commit suicide. Chief executive Didier Lombard took the legal position that he could not be held accountable for people he had never met deciding to take their lives.

The fact is some suicides happened on premises, and most of the notes left behind blamed the working environment and the culture. One note described the culture as “management by terror”.

Even after Lombard resigned in 2010, the culture remained emotionally violent. In 2013 11 people took their lives, and in just the first three months of 2014 10 people killed themselves.

What is unprecedented about the Orange France case is that it raises the question of who is accountable for the way an employee feels. The case strongly suggests while one person may have a powerful effect on others, the truth is we all affect each other.

The law in most countries sides heavily with individuals being accountable for their own reactions to the way they feel. This is definitely the most efficient method of addressing the problem, but it is not a solution because the reaction is not the problem. The problem occurs before the reaction.

The solution lies in people changing their thoughts and ­feelings before the behaviour causes negative effects to occur. This will require a mind-shift where everyone takes responsibility for the way they feel and the way they make others feel.

It’s not about blame. It’s about accepting we are all able to respond in ways that create a positive working climate around each other. Especially now in Australia.

In 2013, Australian levels of bullying in the workplace were 6.8 per cent, as reported by Safe Work Australia. This was above international levels. Work pressure and work-related harassment made up more than 50 per cent of all mental stress claims.

“Depression costs Australian employers about $8 billion per annum, and $693 million per annum of this is due to job strain and bullying,” according to Safe Work Australia.

The most commonly cited ways the workplace negatively affects employees are criticism, undervaluing efforts, false accusations, gossip and having comments dismissed in meetings.

Part of reaching a solution requires that we recognise negative effects in the workplace before they cost the business financially and employees their health and, in extreme cases, their lives.

North Carolina State University has used facial recognition software to recognise when students are unchallenged or overwhelmed by their work. Microsoft uses the same kind of affective computing to create more immersive gaming experiences for customers.
​
Heightening our awareness of what affects us requires each of us to take responsibility for how we affect others. Focus and reflect on how you affect others and, no matter how frightening it is, interact with people face to face.
Technologies that promise to connect people without the need for “inefficient and messy” interactions with people are masking the core issue.

Source: The Australian Business Review

Comments are closed.

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed