Workplace Mental Health Needs More Than Individual Support, Doctoral Study Finds

Mental health issues are now the most prevalent cause of sick leave in Finland, and it is common for an employee's declining occupational well-being to result in a sick-leave referral while nothing changes at the workplace itself, according to a new doctoral study from the University of Helsinki. "When this happens, the symptoms tend to reappear after a while," said doctoral researcher Pinja Ryky, who is calling for more collective methods of tackling coping problems in workplaces.

Ryky's doctoral study examined training given to managers to help them promote occupational well-being and solve related problems. She found that existing training approached the subject through managers' own well-being and mindfulness, which she said "disguise the organization's responsibilities in managing occupational well-being." The study trialed a new approach in which instructors and participants explored occupational well-being from the perspective of the management system over the long term, but participants' attention ultimately remained fixed on individual traits rather than extending to the organizational level.

The study recommends enhancing managers' ability to identify occupational health problems and determine when employees need individual support versus when organizational practices must change. It also recommends that managers regularly tackle issues collectively — for instance, considering both the causes and the necessary changes together when rising stress is observed within a workplace community. Resolving problems collectively, the study suggests, could ease managers' sense of isolation in the workplace.

"Framing occupational well-being as an individual's responsibility wears down managers as well, as it makes them personally responsible for both their own and their employees' well-being. In reality, managers also need the support of the community," Ryky said. She undertook the doctoral study as part of her role as a senior specialist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, saying her own past experience of job burnout led her to the topic.