How good are you and your staff at juggling?
By Marisa Abate (Associate MAPS)and Freya Hinrichsen (MAPS)

(AIM News August 2007 Edition)

How many balls can you juggle at once? Well one certainly gets better at juggling a number of different balls at different times.... but what about when the different balls keep getting thrown at you from all sides at the same time? Handling work, personal, and social demands can be like juggling. Sometimes it feels fun and exciting, and sometimes like too many things are in the air at once. Some balls seem to move at their own pace or need to be handled differently. Sometimes what you used to be able to handle easily, for some reason starts to feel too much or out of control, or that you just don't have the energy to maintain the pace.

Today, it would be no surprise to know that stress, anxiety and depression are the most common presenting problems at G.P. offices. This is particularly the case given that people are generally working longer hours in the workplace and are still expected to fit in a myriad of other activities in their lives including social engagements, children's extra curricular activities, home chores etc. So we could safely translate that into a workplace setting and assume that these are issues that employees are regularly dealing with in their lives: finding that healthy work-life balance may be getting more and more elusive particularly for those individuals who are more prone to higher levels of anxiety, depression or stress.

So why are these issues not more visible in the workplace? Why don't people own up to them, you may well ask? According to the results of the WORC Project (a recent national study of 58 companies and 90,000 employees) people are loathe to open up about issues such as depression because they do not want to be negatively labelled and don't therefore want to create a negative impression on their manager or on others in the organisation. Ultimately they may be concerned about losing their job.

So how might one know if an employee is experiencing such issues? Employees may appear to be less reliable than what they used to be; having more unexplained days off, late to work, less efficient, teary, cranky, "bringing their personal problems to work', physically slower, mentally slower on the uptake, being busy (but getting less real work done!) or agitated may be some good starting points.

One then needs to follow up fairly promptly because if ignored, such behaviour means that the employee is not working or performing to their optimal level (thereby impacting negatively on the level of output). Furthermore, if it is being experienced at a more severe level, unless the employee is given some form of professional assistance with their issue, it is unlikely to simply disappear or go away. The consequences are lower efficiency or loss of staff, with the subsequent costs of searching, hiring, and inducting replacement members. The costs to business of ignoring this problem can, therefore, be huge. In fact, the WORC Project stipulated that about 5% of the workforce (or 1 in every 20 workers) experiences a mental health problem, and that this adds up to over $9,000 per year to an organisation for every employee not treated.

A further major consequence, if left untreated is that the behaviour of such an employee could impact negatively on the organisational culture and could lead to other employees adopting a more laissez faire approach to their work... "If they are not pulling their weight…why should I have to carry the slack?" Starting with one person, this could have a ripple effect on others in the team, with an effect of general lower effectiveness and morale; this, in turn, leading to poorer work relationships and teamwork. It could also create a work culture where there is the unquestioned acceptance that personal life impacts on work life, for example, "Don't talk to Paul on a Monday - he is always unapproachable after the weekend". As a manager, one needs to take care and ensure that one responds appropriately to the employee with a mental health issue so that they don't think it is a performance appraisal. Rather, the person needs to be approached in a non-threatening way, and a manager's manner should be one of care, concern and empathy (according to Dr. Nicole Highet, deputy CEO of Beyondblue).

The benefits of having a truly integrated health and well being program extends from demonstrating care to staff, assisting employees to lead more effective and balanced lives, creating a corporate culture that supports the individual and team, improving relational networks, problem solving, to fostering an environment where people are excited to invest their intellectual and personal capital to create an innovative, productive organization.



Freya Hinrichsen & Marisa Abate from Australian Health Assist have set up a program which provide employees with an effective way of taking stock of their lives, help redress the imbalances and move forward with a clear action plan. Australian Health Assist can be contacted on 9893 5995.