Interview with a psychologist: Do companies have responsibility for employee mental health?

Author: Zuzana Kocáková

Mental healthHealth

Learn why your work environment needs to be healthy, when it’s time to see a psychologist and how to get rid of acute stress. Alena Jancigova is a psychologist and an expert in depression, long-term grief, neurotic, stress, psychosomatic diseases, psychohygiene and personal development. Read why your workplace environment needs to be healthy, when it’s time to see a psychologist and how to get rid of acute stress. Covid has brought radical changes in our lives and work habits. We were cut off from the environment, from our colleagues, often even from ourselves. How can you maintain your mental health when working from home if you are not used to this type of work? It is very important to maintain activities, hobbies and interests in your life that are outside of work. If we suddenly stay at home and only devote ourselves to work or duties, it is possible that our roles will get mixed up. In one room I am suddenly everything – I am a worker, I am a partner, I am a mother, a daughter, a father, a husband… It is important to separate it, for example by stopping for a moment and asking myself who I am in this moment and what I need. The office often helps us to do this, because when we close the door behind us, we can leave our work and our role as a worker behind. Even though we mentally carry it with us for some time, we physically distance ourselves from it, and when we get home, we are able to leave it that way. That said, maintaining mental health if I’m forced to work from home is easier when we don’t forget about other activities and other roles within us. Some people I know do it through props. For example, if I’m a mom and I’m going to cook, I put on an apron. When I’m a manager who just got a work call, I put on a jacket… That’s a good example and an excellent idea! Many people who work remote long-term often work in their pyjamas. Is that okay or is it important to keep the habit that when I work, I actually change into work clothes, just as if I were physically going to work? There is no clear answer to this, it depends on the person. There’s a huge difference when I knowingly apply for a home office job or full remote job, or if that happens because of coronavirus when we were all left at home unprepared for this lifestyle. So I do think that partly work clothes can help at least those people who like to be in a working environment, but for some people, I don’t see a problem with putting on comfortable clothes. Someone may like it, someone may not. It is necessary to be guided by the inner feeling. The young generation is referred to as the internet generation. Is it easier for young people to switch to teleworking? Does such work suit them better or is it just a myth? I cannot judge this. I can imagine that it may be easier for them in some ways, but I believe it has its pitfalls. You have been doing psychological work for several years, so you will probably be able to compare whether there has been an increase in the number of your clients after the covid pandemic. Do people feel worse than before? I don’t think we’re feeling the full impact of the corona yet. I’m definitely seeing people who are coming in because of isolation and anxiety, possibly with post-covid symptoms or syndrome. I can’t tell if there are more of them because of covid, or if it’s a natural increase given the times we live in. The pandemic has been the trigger for many changes.If you look at it globally, people feel threatened by climate crisis or war.Even when I was a student on work experience, we were told by senior colleagues that people’s psychological problems often reflected a systemic situation. According to one of our surveys, the most popular benefit is the home office.Do you think the home office is a blessing or a curse for employees?Is it healthy to work from home? I think that psychologically healthy is what makes a person feel good.I meet people who have been on home office for a long time and they are totally fine. (Read the Tips for home office efficiency article ) I get the feeling that they are balanced, have very nicely formed habits and schedules.https://msg-life.sk/en/articles/lifestyle/home-office-efficiency/And I also know people who are “messed up” by it.Everything has its advantages and disadvantages, it’s very individual. My colleagues and friends and I dealt with a very unexpected problem during the covid.In addition to staying at home and being a worker, parent and partner in the same space, we often had to come to terms with our role as educators.I have met many of my friends in utter despair that this role has passed to them.Doesn’t homeschooling lead to children being less educated and parents more frustrated with themselves? We as people, as parents, we don’t have the education, the teacher training.And the other thing is that if we wanted to be teachers, we would go and study and do that instead.This is such a punch to the stomach.It may have an impact on children’s education, but on the other hand I cannot judge the impact.That is certainly a good question, but it is better to ask my colleagues who work in this area.We have a young girl in our family who spent half of high school studying online.In her own words, she was terribly missing her schoolmates.She was at home at the age of 15 and 16, when young people are forming their identity in the class.If you lack socialization at this age, anxieties can develop.Suddenly, in your third year, you come to a school with students you only know from screens, and it’s quite a challenge to adapt.But this is also individual.No one had to go through a similar experience before.It was a big hit to integrity.At home, kids don’t have as much motivation and discipline to learn as when they physically see their classmates studying every day.We also have a lot of distractions at home, whether we are students or working.We know where we can find all the candies, movies and other “distractions”.We don’t allow ourselves to do that at work or school.One study revealed an interesting phenomenon: while employers thought people didn’t work as hard from home as they did in the office, it turned out that people worked much harder from home.They were afraid that their employers would see them as lazy and inefficient and that they would lose their jobs during the time of covid.So what is the norm for us: to work more or less when we work from home?I deal more with hardworking people in my office.Sometimes I wonder if their work borders on workaholism.We are a hardworking culture.For us, work is one of the highest rungs on the value ladder.Even if you bring home your partner for the first time, a common question is what is their job.It’s a cultural thing in our country.But again, that doesn’t mean we’re all performers.I think when the threat of losing my job is upon me, I start trying harder.And it’s natural, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that I didn’t try hard enough before. Are companies responsible for the mental health of their employees? From my point of view, yes, but at the same time I think the employee is not powerless.When I set up a company, I am also responsible for the climate I create for my employees, so my behaviour and internal policy setting has an impact on the mental health of my employees.It is also important that I work on my relationships with my managing director or subordinates and take an active interest in conflicts.It also depends on the internal climate and atmosphere created by the employees, so they can also influence a lot and change for better or worse. So is it true: like the boss, like the company? As an employer, I have a higher hierarchical position, so if I start saying that mental health is important, and I want my people to have , then it’s much more likely to get more into the employees’ subconscious and maybe they start to notice their mindset around work as well.And in the same way, an employee can have a lot of awareness and a nicely managed work-life balance and can teach me as an employer. captionaligncenter1200https://msg-life.sk/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/aky-sef-taka-firma-1200-800-text.webpyoung blonde woman smiling profile photo1200800Like the boss, like the company culture and employee satisfaction.Influencers, social media creators and similar creators have also helped the media coverage of this topic.When you’re documenting your life and showing every shred of it to the world, it would probably be weird if you didn’t have some problems… Social networks are such a double-edged sword – on the one hand, they cause anxiety and depression, on the other hand, you can find a community through them that can help you overcome it. I’m very grateful that many celebrities, artists, businessmen and politicians have started to talk about mental health issues, and since these people have an impact on the cultural scene, many people have also understood that mental health needs to be protected and that you need to learn to work with yourself. Do you like social networks? I use them and spend some time on them, but I can’t say I like them.What I don’t like about them is that sometimes people don’t take responsibility for their words, which can have a big impact on others.If I have a lot of followers, I should be careful what I put out into the world and be accountable for what I say.That’s why I’m glad for those who have positive outreach.I wish there were as many as possible. Many try to wriggle out of this by claiming that they have no responsibility for “our children” and can say whatever they want. If I want to be known and publish some content, I also have a responsibility for how it sounds or how it can be understood, and for that I need to stay awake.This is important so that I do not incite hatred, marginalisation and so on. Many of us have the same definition of professional success – having a higher position, higher salary, more time for yourself.What does success really mean and does it lead to burnout? For someone success is a career, for someone it means having a healthy relationship, for someone it’s just money.It is very individual, there is no general formula for it. We evolve over time.It used to be an achievement for us to climb the career ladder, but that has changed over time. You have to look for it.It is very subjective how much one has to work to not burn out.Someone is happy to work 12 hours a day and someone can work a maximum of 4 hours and then pass out from fatigue.Everyone has to find that balance for themselves, because nothing works the same for everyone.And it’s okay. Many call today’s time a data age, I think it’s more of a stress age.Many experience it in the workplace.Are there any quick techniques to get rid of acute stress when you get overwhelmed at work, for example when you need to give a presentation? Sure, they’re called stabilization techniques or breathing exercises.I like to recommend pranayama, that’s yogic breathing.However, someone may not be calmed by breathing exercises, someone needs pressure exercises.Many of us have our own “gadgets” – we rub our thighs, we stroke our fingers… We just need to notice it.The important thing is to do it consciously.Noticing what it feels like when I touch my palm to my shoulder or thigh.Then my mind stops disturbing me, my nervous system stabilizes.Contact with the body is very helpful to be able to ground and calm ourselves, but it may not help everyone.Today mindfulness is very popular, also very good techniques that many people use. Today, workaholism and burnout syndrome are the most frequently mentioned work-related diagnoses.What leads people to workaholism and what are its symptoms? When should I tell myself it’s time to address it?Workaholism is an addiction like any other, so when I stop controlling it, it’s really a problem. (Look also at our arcticle Workaholism symptoms and prevention)https://msg-life.sk/en/articles/lifestyle/workaholism-symptoms-prevention/Workaholism has many triggers – for example, I can be dissatisfied in a relationship and compensate for it with work, it can be an escape from loneliness… I can also really enjoy my work, I can want to achieve a lot. Until eventually I start overdoing it.As humans, we are predisposed to addiction, constantly satiating some feeling of hunger for something.But neither does this apply to every person. So is there a line between a person who loves their job and a workaholic?And how to find it? The principle of addiction, and therefore of workaholism, is that it is a disease.I don’t control it anymore, it controls me.A boundary can be, for example, that I can really switch off from work – physically, but also mentally – and I’m ok with that.Alternatively, that my life is more balanced and it’s not just work. Workaholism is an old diagnosis, though we may not have named it at the time.Even our parents and grandparents were used to working till death.But burnout syndrome is new.It’s like people are only starting to get burnt out now because they couldn’t afford it before.Isn’t burnout actually a consequence of workaholism? It may or may not be.Not every workaholic burns out.You can have burnout syndrome without being a workaholic.It’s not an equation.With burnout, it’s more about losing boundaries and not having enough resources to compensate for the stresses I’m experiencing.Workaholism is again about quantity and seeing the world through performance and work, but I also lose the boundaries of what is healthy for my psyche, relationships, life. Mental health issues are coming up as a topic in the media more and more.While with depression everyone takes it seriously and says they never want to experience it again, with burnout syndrome they often take it lightly and say they’ve had it three times.Is it okay to downplay it? From my point of view, it’s not okay to downplay it, but, you know, a lot of our clinical terms are used in common parlance.That’s why I check with my clients how they experience burnout syndrome itself.And when I notice that they confuse it with fatigue, for example, I just name it.Of course, we can’t take away people’s experience, since we don’t know how they feel.Therefore, even if someone says that they have had burnout three times, it certainly shows that at least three times they have not been well in their experience.Burnout, like any psychological problem, is continued and someone may experience it mildly, for someone it has a clinical manifestation.However, I do occasionally encounter belittling. Someone tells me they’ve been given advice that dark chocolate is the best for depression or that depressed people are just lazy and making stuff up.However, even if people are meaning well, it may not feel like that for people getting the advice.What I would add to that, though, is that if we’re talking about depression, I’m certainly not going to be helped by chocolate or going to the cinema or listening to my favourite rapper.It might lift my spirits by half a percent, which is also great, but it doesn’t solve the problem itself.That is why I would like to encourage people who feel unwell to talk to a professional.And I’ll say it again – it’s fine.It’s okay that when I feel bad, I address it with a professional.Many times our neighborhoods have well-meaning advice, but it may not always be helpful. Many people who suffer from burnout or depression make a resolution to do something about it.We have recently moved into a new year, many of us have made resolutions.How does psychology look at them?Do they work? I think it’s so sweet.A resolution is functional if all my parts agree with it.For example, when I want to stop being a workaholic, it’s hard for me because it feeds me, it ennobles me, it gives me a sense of awareness or self-actualization.If I decide I want to quit, the parts of me that suffer from it always agree.But those who are saturated with that feeling are against it, and I need to negotiate with them internally.Otherwise, if you’re already making resolutions, it’s better if you make some real ones. I know that as a psychologist you don’t give out advice, but I’ll give it a try in the end. Do you have any advice on how to be in harmony with yourself and live a happy life? Yeah.Look for what makes you happy, look for what your needs are, get to know yourself and live the life you want to live. employee-mental-health The pandemic has been the trigger for many changes. If you look at it globally, people feel threatened by climate crisis or war. Even when I was a student on work experience, we were told by senior colleagues that people’s psychological problems often reflected a systemic situation. According to one of our surveys, the most popular benefit is the home office. Do you think the home office is a blessing or a curse for employees? Is it healthy to work from home? I think that psychologically healthy is what makes a person feel good. I meet people who have been on home office for a long time and they are totally fine. (Read the Tips for home office efficiency article ) I get the feeling that they are balanced, have very nicely formed habits and schedules. And I also know people who are “messed up” by it. Everything has its advantages and disadvantages, it’s very individual. My colleagues and friends and I dealt with a very unexpected problem during the covid. In addition to staying at home and being a worker, parent and partner in the same space, we often had to come to terms with our role as educators. I have met many of my friends in utter despair that this role has passed to them. Doesn’t homeschooling lead to children being less educated and parents more frustrated with themselves? We as people, as parents, we don’t have the education, the teacher training. And the other thing is that if we wanted to be teachers, we would go and study and do that instead. This is such a punch to the stomach. It may have an impact on children’s education, but on the other hand I cannot judge the impact. That is certainly a good question, but it is better to ask my colleagues who work in this area. We have a young girl in our family who spent half of high school studying online. In her own words, she was terribly missing her schoolmates. She was at home at the age of 15 and 16, when young people are forming their identity in the class. If you lack socialization at this age, anxieties can develop. Suddenly, in your third year, you come to a school with students you only know from screens, and it’s quite a challenge to adapt. But this is also individual. No one had to go through a similar experience before. It was a big hit to integrity. At home, kids don’t have as much motivation and discipline to learn as when they physically see their classmates studying every day. We also have a lot of distractions at home, whether we are students or working. We know where we can find all the candies, movies and other “distractions”. We don’t allow ourselves to do that at work or school. One study revealed an interesting phenomenon: while employers thought people didn’t work as hard from home as they did in the office, it turned out that people worked much harder from home. They were afraid that their employers would see them as lazy and inefficient and that they would lose their jobs during the time of covid. So what is the norm for us: to work more or less when we work from home? I deal more with hardworking people in my office. Sometimes I wonder if their work borders on workaholism. We are a hardworking culture. For us, work is one of the highest rungs on the value ladder. Even if you bring home your partner for the first time, a common question is what is their job. It’s a cultural thing in our country. But again, that doesn’t mean we’re all performers. I think when the threat of losing my job is upon me, I start trying harder. And it’s natural, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that I didn’t try hard enough before. Are companies responsible for the mental health of their employees? From my point of view, yes, but at the same time I think the employee is not powerless. When I set up a company, I am also responsible for the climate I create for my employees, so my behaviour and internal policy setting has an impact on the mental health of my employees. It is also important that I work on my relationships with my managing director or subordinates and take an active interest in conflicts. It also depends on the internal climate and atmosphere created by the employees, so they can also influence a lot and change for better or worse. So is it true: like the boss, like the company? As an employer, I have a higher hierarchical position, so if I start saying that mental health is important, and I want my people to have , then it’s much more likely to get more into the employees’ subconscious and maybe they start to notice their mindset around work as well. And in the same way, an employee can have a lot of awareness and a nicely managed work-life balance and can teach me as an employer.

Influencers, social media creators and similar creators have also helped the media coverage of this topic. When you’re documenting your life and showing every shred of it to the world, it would probably be weird if you didn’t have some problems… Social networks are such a double-edged sword – on the one hand, they cause anxiety and depression, on the other hand, you can find a community through them that can help you overcome it. I’m very grateful that many celebrities, artists, businessmen and politicians have started to talk about mental health issues, and since these people have an impact on the cultural scene, many people have also understood that mental health needs to be protected and that you need to learn to work with yourself. Do you like social networks? I use them and spend some time on them, but I can’t say I like them. What I don’t like about them is that sometimes people don’t take responsibility for their words, which can have a big impact on others. If I have a lot of followers, I should be careful what I put out into the world and be accountable for what I say. That’s why I’m glad for those who have positive outreach. I wish there were as many as possible. Many try to wriggle out of this by claiming that they have no responsibility for “our children” and can say whatever they want. If I want to be known and publish some content, I also have a responsibility for how it sounds or how it can be understood, and for that I need to stay awake. This is important so that I do not incite hatred, marginalisation and so on. Many of us have the same definition of professional success – having a higher position, higher salary, more time for yourself. What does success really mean and does it lead to burnout? For someone success is a career, for someone it means having a healthy relationship, for someone it’s just money. It is very individual, there is no general formula for it. We evolve over time. It used to be an achievement for us to climb the career ladder, but that has changed over time. You have to look for it. It is very subjective how much one has to work to not burn out. Someone is happy to work 12 hours a day and someone can work a maximum of 4 hours and then pass out from fatigue. Everyone has to find that balance for themselves, because nothing works the same for everyone. And it’s okay. Many call today’s time a data age, I think it’s more of a stress age. Many experience it in the workplace. Are there any quick techniques to get rid of acute stress when you get overwhelmed at work, for example when you need to give a presentation? Sure, they’re called stabilization techniques or breathing exercises. I like to recommend pranayama, that’s yogic breathing. However, someone may not be calmed by breathing exercises, someone needs pressure exercises. Many of us have our own “gadgets” – we rub our thighs, we stroke our fingers… We just need to notice it. The important thing is to do it consciously. Noticing what it feels like when I touch my palm to my shoulder or thigh. Then my mind stops disturbing me, my nervous system stabilizes. Contact with the body is very helpful to be able to ground and calm ourselves, but it may not help everyone. Today mindfulness is very popular, also very good techniques that many people use. Today, workaholism and burnout syndrome are the most frequently mentioned work-related diagnoses. What leads people to workaholism and what are its symptoms? When should I tell myself it’s time to address it?

Workaholism is an addiction like any other, so when I stop controlling it, it’s really a problem. (Look also at our arcticle Workaholism symptoms and prevention) Workaholism has many triggers – for example, I can be dissatisfied in a relationship and compensate for it with work, it can be an escape from loneliness… I can also really enjoy my work, I can want to achieve a lot. Until eventually I start overdoing it. As humans, we are predisposed to addiction, constantly satiating some feeling of hunger for something. But neither does this apply to every person. So is there a line between a person who loves their job and a workaholic? And how to find it? The principle of addiction, and therefore of workaholism, is that it is a disease. I don’t control it anymore, it controls me. A boundary can be, for example, that I can really switch off from work – physically, but also mentally – and I’m ok with that. Alternatively, that my life is more balanced and it’s not just work. Workaholism is an old diagnosis, though we may not have named it at the time. Even our parents and grandparents were used to working till death. But burnout syndrome is new. It’s like people are only starting to get burnt out now because they couldn’t afford it before. Isn’t burnout actually a consequence of workaholism? It may or may not be. Not every workaholic burns out. You can have burnout syndrome without being a workaholic. It’s not an equation. With burnout, it’s more about losing boundaries and not having enough resources to compensate for the stresses I’m experiencing. Workaholism is again about quantity and seeing the world through performance and work, but I also lose the boundaries of what is healthy for my psyche, relationships, life. Mental health issues are coming up as a topic in the media more and more. While with depression everyone takes it seriously and says they never want to experience it again, with burnout syndrome they often take it lightly and say they’ve had it three times. Is it okay to downplay it? From my point of view, it’s not okay to downplay it, but, you know, a lot of our clinical terms are used in common parlance. That’s why I check with my clients how they experience burnout syndrome itself. And when I notice that they confuse it with fatigue, for example, I just name it. Of course, we can’t take away people’s experience, since we don’t know how they feel. Therefore, even if someone says that they have had burnout three times, it certainly shows that at least three times they have not been well in their experience. Burnout, like any psychological problem, is continued and someone may experience it mildly, for someone it has a clinical manifestation. However, I do occasionally encounter belittling. Someone tells me they’ve been given advice that dark chocolate is the best for depression or that depressed people are just lazy and making stuff up. However, even if people are meaning well, it may not feel like that for people getting the advice. What I would add to that, though, is that if we’re talking about depression, I’m certainly not going to be helped by chocolate or going to the cinema or listening to my favourite rapper. It might lift my spirits by half a percent, which is also great, but it doesn’t solve the problem itself. That is why I would like to encourage people who feel unwell to talk to a professional. And I’ll say it again – it’s fine. It’s okay that when I feel bad, I address it with a professional. Many times our neighborhoods have well-meaning advice, but it may not always be helpful. Many people who suffer from burnout or depression make a resolution to do something about it. We have recently moved into a new year, many of us have made resolutions. How does psychology look at them? Do they work? I think it’s so sweet. A resolution is functional if all my parts agree with it. For example, when I want to stop being a workaholic, it’s hard for me because it feeds me, it ennobles me, it gives me a sense of awareness or self-actualization. If I decide I want to quit, the parts of me that suffer from it always agree. But those who are saturated with that feeling are against it, and I need to negotiate with them internally. Otherwise, if you’re already making resolutions, it’s better if you make some real ones. I know that as a psychologist you don’t give out advice, but I’ll give it a try in the end. Do you have any advice on how to be in harmony with yourself and live a happy life? Yeah. Look for what makes you happy, look for what your needs are, get to know yourself and live the life you want to live.

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Interview with a psychologist: Do companies have responsibility for employee mental health?

Zuzana Kocáková

At msg life Slovakia I take care of the company culture, events and I am part of the marketing team. I like a job where I can be creative and contribute to making my colleagues at msg feel good. I regularly prepare for you not only news and interesting things from the world of information technology and insurance, but also from behind the scenes events at msg life Slovakia.