Mental Health at work

Is work affecting your mental health? Is work affecting your worker’s mental health?

Have you thought about how to manage it? Did you know you have a duty to manage the risks that work poses to mental health?

We all know that work can affect your physical health. There are risks and hazards on-site that can cause you harm like slips, trips, and falls, hazardous substances, dust and so many more. Working can also impact your mental health in more ways than one. Here is a list of some common workplace hazards that can affect a worker’s mental health:

• Financial Pressure
• Lack of work
• Too much work
• Long hours and fatigue
• Workplace bullying or harassment
• Increasing costs of materials
• Projects not going to plan

There are many things at work that can impact mental health. Sustained exposure to workplace stressors increases the likelihood of poor mental and physical health. Businesses have a duty to manage the risks that work has to mental health. If the risks can’t be eliminated they should be minimised.

Businesses should try to prevent mental health harm at its source. Identifying risks and controlling them should be done by communicating with workers about what workplace conditions are harming their mental health. Things like low job control, low support, poor environmental conditions, exposure to injury or harassment can increase the likelihood of mental harm. Businesses should look to create workplaces that remove exposure to stressors, such as:

• make sure people understand their role
• increase workers’ ability to make their own decisions about their work
• offer a good balance between effort and reward
• take a long-term view of productivity
• focus on retaining staff 
• promoting work-life balance.
• no tolerance to workplace bullying

Start managing mental health at work today. Have a toolbox meeting to discuss the common issues that impact your workers mental health. Discuss ways to eliminate or minimise these risks. It’s good practice to keep records of your meetings, this can be done in the HazardCo App.