Survey on the Current Situation of Mental Health in the Workplace

According to the 2023 Chinese Employee Mental Health Survey data from the Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 27.8% of working people nationwide have moderate or above mental health problems, among which occupational burnout, anxiety disorders, and depressive tendencies account for the highest proportions.； There is no single solution to this problem. The intervention ideas of academic circles, enterprises, and labor groups vary significantly, and there is currently no universal implementation path.

Last month, I helped a leading e-commerce company conduct baseline research before accessing the EAP (Employee Assistance Program). I met a girl who worked in operations in 1998. Last week, she posted in the department group the company's downstairs takeaway counter at 2 a.m. This week, she handed in a sick leave note for half a month. The diagnosis certificate said "generalized anxiety disorder, it is recommended to stop high-intensity work." When she was chatting with me, her knuckles turned white while she was clutching the milk tea cup. She said that last week she was working on the 618 plan and she slept for less than 30 hours for seven consecutive days. One night when she changed to version 17 in the middle of the night, she suddenly stared at the screen and cried, unable to stop.

This case is really not unique. I have participated in employee psychological surveys of 12 companies in different industries in the past three years, and I have seen similar situations that can fill a notebook. The problems in different industries are really different: most people in the Internet and financial industries are anxious, afraid of being optimized, afraid of not completing KPIs, and afraid of having nowhere to go when they reach the age of 35. ； Blue-collar workers in the manufacturing industry and grassroots employees in the service industry are more likely to suffer from long-term emotional depression. Many people don’t even have the concept of “psychological discomfort” and only say, “I’ve been feeling unmotivated recently and don’t want to do anything.”” ； There are also emerging flexible employment groups such as food delivery riders and live-streaming bloggers. Most of their problems come from uncertainty. Today, they don’t know where the order volume/traffic will be tomorrow. Even social security is not accurate. The floating insecurity is engraved in their bones.

Regarding this issue, people with different positions almost all have their own opinions, and they have been arguing for several years without reaching a consensus. Researchers in the academic field who prefer a labor perspective believe that the root cause lies in the employment system: 996 has become a "struggle culture" by default, KPIs are getting higher year by year, layoffs are being made at any time, and even basic labor rights and interests cannot be guaranteed. Talking about mental health is just a castle in the air. To solve the problem, we must first implement labor laws and control matters such as excessive overtime and unreasonable layoffs. The commonly used logic on the corporate side is reversed, and it is believed that the general environment is like this. To adapt to the workplace, you need to improve your "mental toughness", so you must either find a teacher to teach mindfulness classes and emotional management, or buy an EAP service and put it as a decoration in OA. In the past, some companies issued a "Stress Resistance Improvement Manual" to employees and then asked them to change the plan all night. Netizens criticized it as a "mental PUA package". To put it bluntly, this kind of operation only makes employees more disgusted, and it is useless.

However, not everyone is just making empty efforts. I saw an interesting attempt at a home appliance manufacturing factory in the Pearl River Delta last year. They did not find outside experts to give lectures. Instead, they selected 12 veteran employees from the factory who had been working for more than 5 years. They found a professional organization to receive basic psychological counseling training for three months. They set up a 24-hour "chatting point" downstairs in the dormitory and an anonymous complaint mailbox to let employees complain about anything. The quickest way is to either stuff a note in the mailbox, or go directly to chat with these old employees. They have all worked in the same factory for several years. They know how tiring it is to work at the online assembly station for 12 hours, and they also know how annoying the squad leader is when he deliberately finds trouble. He will not say such nonsense as "you need to adjust your mentality." A survey was conducted six months later, and it was found that the proportion of their employees actively seeking psychological services had tripled, and the turnover rate of front-line workers had dropped by 8 percentage points, which was much more effective than hiring an external team at a high price.

It's interesting to say that the core of psychological problems is never "tired or not", but "whether it's worth it". I came into contact with the planning of a game company in the first half of the year. 996 was the norm. I slept in the company for two consecutive months before the project was launched. The results of the psychological evaluation were better than many administrative positions that work 9 to 5. He said that he used to work on reskinned mobile games in another company, and he would change the weird requirements that his boss thought of every day. At that time, he really wanted to quit every day. Now he is working on an open world project that he had conceived for 5 years. He is exhausted. After get off work, he goes to a roadside stall to eat skewers and drink a glass of cold beer. After a night of relaxation, he feels energetic again.

In fact, after doing so much research, my biggest feeling is that there is really no cure-all for mental health in the workplace. Don't call employees "glass-hearted" when problems are raised, and don't try to kill all companies at once. In the final analysis, it's just more about putting yourself in the other party's perspective: the boss will be less involved in meaningless overtime and engage in less "wolf culture" ； Employees should not hold on to their discomfort. If you really feel that your mood is not right, go see a professional. Don't think that seeing a psychiatrist is something to be ashamed of. After all, part-time work, in the final analysis, is just exchanging labor force for money and ruining yourself. It is really not worth it.