Work isn’t always fun, but it should never cause depression. Unfortunately, this is what young workers are saying about their jobs in a new report released by the SHRM Foundation.
After surveying 1,000 workers, the organization found that 1 in 3 employees shared their job had adverse affects on their mental health over the past six months with 30% percent of respondents saying they feel overwhelmed and anxious. Generation Z and millennial workers were the biggest generational groups to report feeling this way as compared to baby boomers and Generation X.
SHRM points outs that employers should take this information seriously and make a concerted effort to address it.
“An employer’s role in addressing employees’ mental health as it relates to the workplace has obviously become increasingly important,” Wendi Safstrom, president of the SHRM Foundation shared in a press release. “Finding, communicating and providing access to the benefits and support that reflect the needs of your employees, especially in a multigenerational workplace, is key.”
As previously reported by ESSENCE, another workplace report by Aflac released earlier this year, Americans are more burnt out now than they were at the height of the pandemic.
The study’s results showed that more than half (59%) of American workers are experiencing at least moderate levels of burnout, a notable increase over 2021 (52%) and on par with the levels reported in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“A major concern of employee burnout is the impact on their well-being and how it affects engagement and retention,” said Matthew Owenby, chief human resources officer, Aflac Incorporated in a news release. “Employers are looking for new ways to offer benefits that help improve their employees’ mental health balance. At Aflac, we help support our customers with access to mental health benefits, which is available through our individual short–term disability and group critical illness products.”
Employee burnout can partially be attributed to the Great Resignation and “quiet promotion” movement, in which employees quit their jobs in droves during 2021 and the early part of 2022, subsequently leaving remaining workers with more responsibilities and more work to cover the absences. Now, the load is taking its toll.
“Soaring health care costs, lack of understanding of benefits on health insurance policies and the economic downturn have contributed to employees’ anxiety about their insurance coverage,” said Owenby. “Hispanics and younger workers have been hard-hit by inflation with nearly half indicating that rising costs have driven them to choose between paying medical or other bills.”