Under a fifth of UK employees were told to ‘man up’ when they told their boss they were dealing with mental health issues.
This comes from research conducted by Slater and Gordon a UK and Australian law firm which found that 14 per cent of UK employees received this response from their senior.
This is made worse by the fact that 13 per cent are either fired, forced to leave or demoted when they talk to their boss about this issue.
In the last five years a quarter (25 per cent) of people admitted to leaving at least one job due to the negative impact it was having on their mental health due to high pressure.
Just under two thirds (65 per cent) of employees are calling for support to be provided in the workplace, as well as employees saying their office does not have a positive attitude towards mental health.
The weekend is not being used to relax with 37 per cent of employees struggling to ‘switch off’ and 60 per cent suffering from ‘Sunday dread’.
On average UK employees take four ‘mental health days’ a year but are lying to their boss about why they are taking the day off.
Peter Lyons, employment liability lawyer, at Slater and Gordon said:
We speak to a lot of people who are feeling so stressed and anxious with work they are forced into taking mental health days.
Many isolate themselves, trying to work harder, which causes their personal lives to suffer and mental health to deteriorate further. The biggest thing we would say is don’t fight stress alone at work.
If staff do not even feel supported enough to seek help without fear of prejudice that’s a huge concern.
Staff feeling unsupported and unable to deal with work related mental health issues should seek advice.
Slater and Gordon asked 2,000 UK employees of working age from around the country to acquire this research.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.