Employee Mental Illness: Managing the Hidden Epidemic

Abstract

While the high prevalence of mental illness in workplaces is more readily documented in the literature than it was ten or so years ago, it continues to remain largely within the medical and health sciences fields. This may account for the lack of information about mental illness in workplaces (Dewa et al. Healthcare Papers 5:12-25, 2004) by operational managers and human resource departments even though such illnesses effect on average 17 % to 20 % of employees in any 12-month period (MHCC 2012; SAMHSA 2010; ABS 2007). As symptoms of mental illness have the capacity to impact negatively on employee work performance and/or attendance, the ramifications on employee performance management systems can be significant, particularly when employees choose to deliberately conceal their illness, such that any work concerns appear to derive from issues other than illness (Dewa et al. Healthcare Papers 5:12-25, 2004; De Lorenzo 2003). When employee non-disclosure of a mental illness impacts negatively in the workplace, it presents a very challenging issue in relation to performance management for both operational managers and human resource staff. Without documented medical evidence to show that impaired work performance and/or attendance is attributable to a mental illness, the issue of performance management arises. Currently, when there is no documented medical illness, performance management policies are often brought into place to improve employee performance and/or attendance by establishing achievable employee targets. Yet, given that in any twelve-month period at least a fifth of the workforce sustains a mental illness (MHCC 2012;

Employee Mental Illness: Moving Towards a Dominant Discourse in Management & HRM

“…Diagnostic surveys of mental illness also reveal that large numbers of employees may not know they have a common psychiatric disorder such as anxiety, depression or substance use disorder (ABS, 2007). Meanwhile, as managers and HRM staff are not normally trained to recognise or understand the prevalence and features of common mental illnesses in the workplace when such illnesses impact negatively on employee performance and/or attendance, concealment serves to hide the true causes of impaired work outcomes (De Lorenzo, 2013). In fact, both deliberate concealment and/or unknown mental illness that impacts negatively in employee work outcomes, may be viewed as poor work ethic and incorrectly managed with employee control policies such as performance management policies, which have the capacity to exacerbate the underlying causal issues of such illnesses (De Lorenzo, 2013).…”

“…In this regard, it is important to note that psychiatric illnesses come in a range of symptoms and time frames that belie established stereotypes of societal construction. For instance, when considering how particular symptoms have the capacity to affect a person's ability to function in the workplace, factors such as cognition, attendance and safety are arguably the most common features of most mental illnesses, particularly those which are concealed, undiagnosed or not appropriately managed (De Lorenzo, 2013;Harvard, 2010).…”

“…While the issue of presenteeism per se is gaining recognition, its association with mental illness is still fragmented (De Lorenzo, 2013, Sinclair &、 O'Regan, 2007. Reduced employee attendance, or absenteeism due to mental illness is costly, although as noted above, studies show that sickness presenteeism is far more costly (Collins, Baase, Sharda, Ozminkowski, Nicholson, Billotti, Turpin, Olson & Berger 2005;Dew, Keefe Corrigan, Todd & Bodenhausen, 2010;Small, 2005) with large numbers of employees compounding this by often choosing not to disclose by deferring to their concerns about stigma, privacy and other reservations rather than to disclose their illness for accommodation purposes (Munir, et al, 2005;Dewa et al, 2004).…”

“…The twin issues of a fragmented discourse in relation to employee mental illness, and organisational inertia has contributed to an often ad hoc approach to the workplace management of a group of common mental disorders (anxiety disorders, affective disorders such as depression, and substance use disorders) that are often not declared or managed (De Lorenzo, 2013, ABS, 2007. In healthcare, while stress has been found to exact a high toll on this industry, there is a discourse of impregnability that almost refuses to consider that nurses may sustain a mental illness (Moll, 2014).When mental illness becomes a common part of the curricular for managers and HRM staff, then organisations will begin to implement a range of appropriate policies to deal with the relevant issues of this area; namely to increase employee diagnosis rates, ensure employees have confidential means of disclosing mental illness, ensure managers and HRM staff are trained in how to best manage employees with mental illness per se, and finally, how to reduce stigma impacting on employee disclosure decisions (De Lorenzo, 2013;ABS, 2007).…”

“…Media portrayals of mental illness add to the belief system that its incidence is low and almost always a feature of inherently hostile persons who are less likely to be in paid employment (Edney, 2004;Francis, Pirkis, Dunt & Blood, 2001). Moreover, as most employees with a mental illness make the deliberate choice to not disclose these disorders (Rüsch, Corrigan, Todd & Bodenhausen, 2010;Munir, Leka & Griffiths, 2005;Dewa, Lesage, Goering & Caveen, 2004), even when facing performance management concerns for output and/or attendance issues resulting from hidden mental illness (De Lorenzo, 2013), managers need to be readily aware of the size of this problem so that they can formulate policies for undisclosed employee mental illness. Given the paucity of information about employee mental illness, operational managers and HRM staff are typically forced to piece together whatever information they can from the internet, media, societal views, anecdotal accounts and personal reading (Sinclair & O'Regan, 2007).…”