Staff are Facing the Winter Blues

While Blue Monday has come and gone, it’s been revealed that the UK’s staff are struggling with more than just the winter blues; research from CV-Library, the UK’s largest job site, reveals that over a third (35.5%) of the nation’s workers are dealing with depression. While many organisations work to raise awareness surrounding mental illness, it seems that the attitudes surrounding depression in Britain’s workplaces are in dire need of changing.

This comes after the job site conducted research amongst over 1,100 of the nation’s employees, to further explore mental health in the working environment; of those dealing with mental illness at work, a huge 41.7% confessed that they feel judged by their colleagues. It’s unclear whether workers are choosing to keep their illness to themselves due to a fear of judgment, or whether employees are living by Britain’s ‘stiff upper lip’ motif, but an overwhelming 74.3% of the nation’s employees admitted that they wouldn’t feel comfortable talking to their manager about their issues.

It’s no secret that there are huge gaps in society when it comes to supporting those with mental illness, however, these issues appear to have spread to the workplace; 70% of depressed workers have in fact confessed that they don’t feel supported by their employers. Ironically, this lack of support may even contribute to the isolation that often comes hand-in-hand with depression; meaning even more suffering for Britain’s struggling workers. The data suggests that perhaps HR professionals could be doing more to ensure that there is adequate support within the workplace, whether this is by promoting mental health awareness through staff events, or sitting down with affected individuals and discussing their needs.