Companies’ human resources areas began to pay more attention to employee mental health care when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out. However, a survey carried out by Paul Ferreira, deputy director of the Center for Organization and People Studies (NEOP) at Fundação Getulio Vargas’ Sao Paulo School of Business Administration, in partnership with the companies Talenses and Gympass, shows that 43% of respondents claim to be overworked.

Furthermore, 31% of respondents say they are under excessive pressure to achieve results and goals. Several other negative impacts on employees’ mental health were identified in the survey: feeling the need to be available all the time (30%), lack of recognition (30%), lack of empathy/support from direct leaders (27%), finding it hard to perform at their full work capacity (22%), lack of communication with direct leaders (17%), having to deal with household care responsibilities during the pandemic (15%), and inflexible working hours (12%).

Workers are also affected by issues such as discomfort in sharing their challenges with teammates or leaders (12%), physical distance from colleagues (11%), feeling that their performance is being negatively judged because of other necessary responsibilities during the pandemic (11%), and lack of mental health initiatives (9%).

Another worrying fact is that, according to more than 75% of the respondents, current employee benefits are not sufficient to maintain their mental health. The survey shows the impact of management on people’s well-being, since four key negative impacts are all related to forms of management and leadership.

Workers were also asked which strategies they would use if diagnosed with a mental health problem. Therapy was chosen by 82% of people, followed by changing jobs (32%), reducing working hours (24%) and resigning without having a new job (21%).

Breaking down the results by gender, it was found that reviewing the scope of work is significantly more important for women. Greater visibility for the benefits of emotional well-being is a priority for both genders. Looking at different age groups, the older people are, the greater the desire for leaders to be concerned with mental health. Specifically, the Baby Boomer generation prefers benefits like yoga, mindfulness exercises and physical activities. The data also points to a key opportunity for companies: implementing benefits focused on physical and mental well-being and improving communication of these initiatives.

Baby Boomers and Generation Z reported more freedom to make mistakes, while the “middle” generations (Gen X and Millennials / Gen Y) feel less free to make mistakes.

Methodology

The survey was carried out in January of this year, covering 572 Brazilians, 90% of whom were working. Of the participants, 55% were male, 44% female and 1% other. In terms of generations, 49% were Millennials, 34% were in Generation Y, 10% were in Generation Z and 7% were Baby Boomers. In relation to current work regime, 50% were working in hybrid format, 28% were working exclusively from home and 22% were working exclusively in person.

You can see the survey’s complete results here.

This article was first published on the “Impacto” blog on June 13, 2022.