Assuming that a normal working professional gets up at 7 a.m., works from 9 a.m. to 6/7 p.m., and then goes off to bed at 11 p.m. This regular, hardworking employee spends about 60% of their waking hours at work. When this person has deadlines to meet, they might end up working for more than 80% of these hours, sometimes even on the weekends. How stressful would this person’s life be? Maybe on a good day, they get to sleep for 7–8 hours, considering it was an uneventful day for them. Otherwise, the stress of meeting the deadlines or having to deal with a difficult co-worker/ manager may hack away at some of their blissfully sleeping hours. How can this person deal with this everyday stress? They are a sincere employee who has the pressure of performing well and getting up the ladder, just like many others. This everyday stress and often long working hours have started taking a toll on their health, especially their mental health. Oftentimes, the physical symptoms like headache or exhaustion are secondary to mental stress. If this person has an understanding manager, maybe they can share their issues with the manager, who in turn can try to lighten their load or maybe help them deal with their stress. But what if the manager is not an empathetic person or has a hard time understanding such issues? These managers, just like the employee, are also in the rat race, wanting to prove themselves, show progress, and move ahead in their professional careers. Who should be blamed? Or rather, should anyone be blamed for this situation? One of the simplest solutions is to change jobs. Perhaps the next one would be less taxing! Another solution that I can think of is to become a monk-like person who does not care about climbing the ladder. You take up as much as you can deal with and refuse the rest. And when your manager/ co-worker is being difficult, just take a deep breath, let it all go, and be at peace within you. Sounds easy, right? But are these the easiest options for everybody? Perhaps not! This is a universal problem. How do we deal with it? I don’t think there has been anyone who is immune to work-related stress, be it an entry-level employee or the CEO of a company. What can be done about it? Lately, there has been a lot of awareness about mental health and how it is the responsibility of each and every individual to take care of their mental health just as much as they are concerned about their own or their family’s physical well-being. What if it becomes mandatory for organizations, regardless of whether they are private, public, or government-owned, to have a mental health counselor as a permanent or part-time employee? The only job this mental health advisor/ counselor would have is to schedule appointments throughout the year with the organization’s employees and make sure they are mentally healthy. This employee can also organize regular and mandatory workshops and one-on-one, as-needed sessions to help individuals deal with stress and difficult situations. For larger corporations, perhaps a team of counselors would be needed. These counselors can assess an employee’s mental stress level and recommend actions to the leadership to help mitigate such stress. The ones with high mental stress levels can be followed up on to check on the progress of those actions. In an ideal world, we would not take our mental health for granted and welcome such a move. What do you think about such a motion being passed?

If you too are an advocate of mental health awareness and believe that mandatory mental health supervision is the need of the times to strengthen a positive working atmosphere, then please sign this petition.

#mentalhealth #mentalhealthmatters #mentalhealthawareness #workstress #stress #healthyworkplace #healthyworkforce #healthyworkenvironment #WHO #UN #NIMH #WPA #TLLL