Common workplace culture isn’t conducive to facilitating success. Period! Human Resources hands you a packet after a series of interviews and tells you that you should take a half hour lunch, get up every 20min and getting enough sleep at night is critical. It just doesn’t work that way though. Google recently put out their research study on workplace culture. It’s a long read but they found some fascinating information on group behavior.
I have been preaching this for years; you can talk about workplace culture, you can hire executive coaches, perform team-building exercises, etc. etc. What it comes down to are actions. You are provided an iPhone or Blackberry, not so that you can be flexible when life beckons your presence (as HR doc’s may claim), it’s so that you can work 24/7, 365.
I learned that culture from being awakened at midnight when an e-mail came in, requesting an immediate response from an EVP.
When on my wedding day I was answering e-mails while walking out in my wedding dress for pictures. I think the photographer even had to crop out my iPhone in one!
I could have easily not answered those e-mails, but there was a fear instilled, from observations, that I would have received a lesser year-end bonus, been passed over for a promotion, or simply looked upon as unfavorable. It’s those hidden, intangible, totally unintentional lessons that we learn; the non-verbal, body language cues, the social relations, that truly rule the workplace culture.
“The ignorant mind does not question appearances to determine if they are correct; it merely accepts that things are as they appear.” ~Dalai Lama
If your power performers are instinctively motivated by ego they will lack structure in their own schedules, create bureaucratic structures and roadblocks which stifle free thinking and communication. This type of behavior defines the values of the organization. Sorry, but your values driven mantra and HR paper is garbage if the true culture doesn’t reflect them. It’s the lack of proper hiring and oversight that breeds this unintentional culture and its dangerous. Perhaps, lethal!
Health problems associated with job-related anxiety account for more deaths each year than Alzheimer’s disease or diabetes. The American Institute of Stress states “Increased levels of job stress as assessed by the perception of having little control but lots of demands, have been demonstrated to be associated with increased rates of heart attack, hypertension and other disorders.” People are dying, and that it’s costing BILLIONS of dollars. It’s killing people!
Did I mention ridiculously expensive? According to Forbes; workplace stress is responsible for up to $190B in annual U.S. healthcare costs. We have proven that workplace culture (or lack thereof) is a problem.
What am I getting at here? If mental health awareness is to really take root in our society, we need to start embedding it in our cultures. We can start by fostering empathy and open communication in the workplace. Holding executives accountable for setting an example of a healthy workplace culture each and every day. It will trickle down!
If people who have no history of PTSD, Bipolar, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, panic attacks, etc., are dying at the hands of their employers workplace cultures, how can you expect those who have mental health illnesses to possibly be able to integrate?
My Purposeful Mind 
You mentioned deaths related to health concerns, like heart attack and so on. I’ve heard of stress-induced suicides, even taking place in the office, at my husband’s job. Honestly, it scares the crap out of me. I have lost 3 people in the last 6 years to suicide and to think that someone at my husband’s job killed himself because he couldn’t handle the stress anymore, that’s a little too close to home. I am glad, at least, that he only works there part-time and has hope for a teaching job in the future.
HR at my job is so counterproductive – they’re rude, they make themselves available for questions yet look at you like you’re stupid for asking, and they don’t do any performance reviews unless they are requested. Who wants to ask for a raise from a team like that?
I find that in our weekly meetings, we address the same issues and yet the problems never get fixed. It’s severely frustrating. But I’m looking forward to a degree and a different job – there is hope!
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Because of my Bipolar and Anxiety Disorders, I am no longer in the workforce and receiving SS Disability Income. Every job is going to have stress because there will always be expectations. Yet it is when the expectations are not aligned with the realities of the workplace or fall within the realm of doable from physics point of view that is when things get messy, Then throw in dysfunctional family dynamics, people trying to make the most money while doing the less amount of work, etc. and my disorders go haywire.
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I am also on SSDI. I have found that workplace dynamics in and of themselves really throw me off. Isnt it crazy how what used to be normal is now quite impossible?! 😉
I find myself still pushing to be manic because I felt fully functional in that mode…but I guess my perception wasnt exactly reality *ha!
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I have to be disciplined about taking my ‘sedatives’ because I resist the drowsiness, seeking that manic functionality.
What I have said in the past is that all my bosses loved me in the beginning because I was at functional manic level, while working 60+ hours a week, coming in on weekends, never complaining. Then I hit that tipping point and suddenly me being manic wasn’t so cool to them after all.
One of the problems for me is that I would use as benchmark my productivity from that brief moment in time when my mania was at its highest just before it became dysfunctional and debilitating. So I was always berating myself for not doing as “best as I could (should)” and pushing myself harder to achieve it, which caused the meltdown to speed up. Vicious cycle.
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