Forty percent. Chances are a good number of your employees are in that 40 percent, and you may well be also. The pandemic and the damage caused by the shutdowns have caused an incredible amount of stress. Plus, none of this took away any of our other problems–except maybe seeing the inlaws more often than you’d like. If your marriage was shaky pre-Covid, being quarantined together probably didn’t help. If your job was stressful before, it’s probably worse now.
In other words, Americans are just big balls of stress, and that’s spilling over into your work environment. As such, some of your employees may ask to take a stress-related leave of absence. You can always say yes to this, but depending on how the stress manifests, the Americans with Disabilities Act may not require you to grant the time off.
However, the best thing to do is prevent your employees from reaching the point where the need to take a stress-based leave of absence. Here’s how you can help.
To keep reading, click here: What to Do When Your Employees Want a Stress Leave
Granted times are stressful but more than half of the reasons things feel stressful has to do with self-induced anxiety, which is not helped by constant contact with social media which encourages anxiety reactions. As far as the employer role in reducing stress levels in the job place, part of the process should making clear concise knowledge to the employee prior to hiring as to job performance for the job position so there’s no misunderstanding. If the job offers a healthcare benefits, a mental health program should be part of it. Some big business have a full time person who is available on site for short counseling services and scheduled sessions as part of the benefits. But this issue of mental health has to have the employee ability to realize that they need to face their individual problems and find an effective solution. The employer can only refer the employee, the rest is up to the employee, just like a physical ailment. Remember not dealing with the situation is just creating a stressful situation for all employees.
MariaRose, sometimes that effective solution is taking time off… it also seems pretty victim blamey to be saying that people’s mental health issues are their own fault. We are living in an unprecedented time, still in a global pandemic amidst a civil uprising and employers do need to be more lenient right now and understand that what we are dealing with is not normal!
I did not mean to infer that this is anyone’s fault. I am presenting a view form both the employer’s view (that employees are there to work, especially if they are getting paid) and from the other employees who are able to deal with being at work despite stress. The employer has to maintain the continuation of the work in order to maintain bein able to pay their employees and the employees need to work together as a team.There’s also the fine point not mentioned about the required amount of time required to work to get benefits. (I believe it’s around 1500 hours/yearly about 28 hours/week). That’s really only a small part of the week. No hard to ask for any employment.
Pandemic has affected the lives of many people all over the world. There are more number of people dealing with mental stress nowadays than before. So, if the person is genuinely feeling low or stressed, then approving the leave as an HR is our priority. Because, if the mental health of an employee is good, he will be more focused on the work and growth of the company.