October 2019

Don’t overlook depression and anxiety at work

Posted on October 23, 2019January 17, 2024 by Patty Busse

It’s time for workplaces to shine a light on common disorders that often go undiagnosed and unmentioned.

Depression and anxiety. Let’s talk about them.

As two of the most prevalent disorders in the United States, depression and anxiety directly affect the workplace with both social and economic costs.

The National Institute of Mental Health reports that 7.1 percent of U.S. adults – 17.3 million people – experienced a major depressive episode in 2017. Women were more likely to experience depression than men – 8.7 percent to 5.3 percent, respectively.

Anxiety has similarly overwhelming numbers. In the U.S., anxiety sits at number one of the most common mental illnesses. The Anxiety and Depression Association of America says it is affecting 40 million adults (18 and older) or 18.1 percent of the population, annually.

Overall, The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates around 280 million people live with depression.

How depression and anxiety affect work

In a 2016 American Psychological Association Work and Wellbeing survey, 16 percent of employees said mental health problems made job challenges more difficult to handle, and 15 percent said mental health issues kept them from achieving their goals at work.

A national survey on anxiety in the workplace , led by the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA), found that people with anxiety listed difficulty with common job-related situations like meeting deadlines, maintaining personal and professional relationships, participating in meetings, giving presentations, managing staff and dealing with problems that arise.

As a result, those living with anxiety are more likely to call in sick, use short- and long-term disability, or be distracted and restless at work.

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) protects employees from job discrimination when their medical needs impact their working ability, but the ADAA survey revealed that many people living with anxiety have a fear of sharing their disorder with anyone at work. The survey says 31 percent of people fear being labeled “weak,” while 22 percent of people fear it could affect opportunities for promotion and another 22 percent fear it would go in their file.

The costs of depression and anxiety are staggering:

A 2015 study found that depression costs society $210 billion per year .
Presenteeism, when employees are at work but have reduced productivity because of an illness, accounts for $78 billion of that.
The CDC estimates more than 200 million lost workdays each year.
A U.S. Chamber of Commerce report identified depression as one of the top two chronic health conditions driving health-related costs for employers when health-related productivity costs were factored in.

Resources for employees with depression and anxiety

In the APA study, only 41 percent of employees reported that their employer provided the resources necessary for employees to meet their mental health needs.

Because depression and anxiety are so prevalent, it’s important that managers feel prepared if an employee discloses a mental health concern.

Remember that the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) includes mental illness in its requirements for ADA compliance. The EEOC has a guide for workers called “Depression, PTSD, & Other Mental Health Condition in the Workplace: Your Legal Rights .”

Additionally, employers can be proactive in demonstrating that they care about their employees’ well-being. The CDC recommends several strategies for employers to support mental health. The three ideas below can be a good starting point:

Workplace wellness programs
If you offer a wellness program, is mental health a component? If your company does not have a program, your health insurance carrier may provide wellness resources. Recent research from UCLA found that simply participating in a workplace wellness program could improve employees’ mental health. The same wellness program topics that enhance general employee well-being, such as healthy eating, good sleep habits and mindfulness, can benefit employees with mental health concerns.
Health benefits and employee assistance programs
Employers can help employees access professional mental health care resources through health insurance benefits and/or an employee assistance program (EAP) that provides counseling and referrals. The CDC calls EAPs “one of the most effective ways to support employees with depression or other mental health problems.”
Educational resources
Education programs give employers tools and resources to address depression in the workplace. Right Direction is one such initiative. Created by the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, Right Direction teaches employers and employees how to recognize the symptoms of depression and resources to seek help.

By learning more about how depression and anxiety affect individual employees and what it looks like in the workplace, employers can take steps to provide helpful resources and reduce the harmful effects of this illness.

This is not intended to serve as legal advice for individual fact-specific legal cases or as a legal basis for your employment practices.

Forward-looking safety

Posted on October 10, 2019April 20, 2021 by Alyssa Rass

Improving safety performance means looking beyond past injuries

If you’re like many employers, you spend considerable time and money making sure your organization adheres to OSHA requirements. It may be tempting to view this as the finish line for preventing injuries, but in reality, maintaining a truly safe workplace means going well beyond compliance.

Establishing programs to comply with OSHA standards is definitely important, but stopping there leaves workers unprotected from the myriad dangers that haven’t been incorporated into state and national safety requirements.

“We recommend employers look beyond just the hazards that have been documented in the past,” said SFM Loss Prevention Technical Leader Lee Wendel. “If you rely on historical injury trends to predict future risks, you’re catching up instead of looking forward. A genuine commitment to safety means having the capacity to identify issues before they result in injuries.”

Since the federal government established the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in 1970, the rate of serious injuries and illnesses in American workplaces has declined sharply. The frequency of such incidents has dropped from 10.9 per 100 workers in 1972 to 2.9 per 100 in 2016, according to OSHA. Employers’ compliance with OSHA’s safety rules has played a valuable role in this improvement, but this is only part of the equation.

Performing risk analysis

“Moving beyond compliance and into ‘risk analysis’ is something the safety profession has been working on for many years,” Wendel said. “The first step is giving careful consideration to any risks that could be jeopardizing the safety and health of your employees.”

Traditionally, employers and regulators have concentrated on the risks that are rated high in both probability and impact. An example of this would be working on a sloped roof without fall protection. In this scenario, there is a good chance that over time, workers will lose their balance and fall off the roof. Without fall protection, the impact of falling of a roof is high because it will almost always result in severe injury or death.

This particular hazard would be covered by OSHA regulations and injury prevention procedures, but the same can’t be said for every risk that falls into the high-high category (e.g., tripping hazards that could result in a serious slip and fall injury). Identifying risks in this category that have not been addressed at your company is definitely the place to start, but it shouldn’t end there.

Moving safety performance to the next level means looking for less obvious risks that could result in high-impact injuries. These are difficult to predict when one depends on “lagging” indicators such as injury reports, OSHA Logs or loss runs. Identifying these risks requires a shift to looking for a “leading” indicator – a condition, behavior or situation that you can envision leading to a significant injury.

Examples of using leading indicators to prevent injury:

Eliminating unsafe driving behavior before it results in a crash
Responding to a forecast of snow by pre-treating walkways with brine or other chemicals
Observing employees using ladders and educating those using them incorrectly
Auditing the cleanliness in work areas and ensuring clean, dry floors
Recording which employees use their PPE (personal protective equipment) and having a drawing for a prize on a regular basis
Training employees on safe lifting techniques, even if they’re not lifting heavy objects frequently
Asking employees about hazardous conditions – and then working together to solve the problem before an incident occurs

It starts with leadership

The most effective safety strategies engage the employees – they are closest to the details of their jobs and are most likely to know where the risks are. Effective leaders interact with their employees regularly and treat them as partners in developing processes and communication that support safety throughout the operation.

By cultivating an open dialogue about spotting risks, leaders have the opportunity to eliminate situations in which the principles of efficiency and safety appear to be at odds. For example, an employee working on a tight deadline may believe that there isn’t time to follow all the safety procedures. The safest workplaces are the ones in which nobody perceives an advantage in working unsafely.

“We encourage leaders to build an expectation of safety into the process of running the business,” said Wendel. “Leaders need to express the requirement that workers get the job done without getting anybody hurt while doing it – even if that means coming up with a different way of doing it.

Why chasing shoplifters is an unsafe choice for retail employees

Posted on October 2, 2019April 20, 2021 by Patty Busse

In the movies, when you see a shady character slip into a corner store, stick an item under his jacket, and make a beeline for the exit, you expect to see the shopkeeper chase him at full speed down the street.

But in the real world, a scene like this could cause an employee to fall, get hit by a car, or worse. The shoplifter could have a weapon or accomplices waiting.

At Kowalski’s Markets, a local chain of grocery stores in the Minneapolis area, Security Manager Scott Nelson advises employees never to chase a shoplifter.

“I always start by telling employees that there’s nothing in any of these stores that’s worth anybody getting hurt or risking injury,” he said. “I want to stress safety because obviously, our customers’ safety and our employees’ safety is our first concern.”

Instead, Nelson advises employees just give exceptional customer service to everyone, even to those they suspect might be stealing.

“If you greet them with customer service, they know you’re onto them and they typically drop the stuff and leave,” he said.

I want to stress safety because obviously, our customers’ safety and our employees’ safety is our first concern.

~ Kowalski’s Security Manager Scott Nelson

At times when there aren’t as many employees and customers around, Nelson advises staff not to overstock shelves with the pricier items that typically attract thieves and to put those items in visible places.

Even if these tactics don’t work, with video cameras, other security measures and good relationships with local police, Nelson can usually catch thieves after the fact, so chasing a suspect is never necessary, he said.

“I appreciate that employees sometimes just want to help, but I always say, ‘We care about you more than that thing he was stealing,'” he said. “My first concern for all our stores is that safety comes first.”

For other safety tips related to retail stores, see these resources: