THE WORKPLACE MENTAL-HEALTH CRISIS: Compassion Cannot Mean Former or Current Coworkers Become Punching Bags

That headline means to say: Women are under enormous pressure in the modern workplace. Employers should recognize it, but mental-health struggles cannot become a license to mistreat current or former bosses, or coworkers.

INDIANAPOLIS — Something is happening in the American workplace that employers, HR departments and coworkers cannot afford to ignore, based on current research and studies.

Workers are stressed. Burnout is widespread. Anxiety and depression are affecting professionals who may outwardly appear successful. And research suggests that working women can face particularly significant pressures as they attempt to balance careers, families, caregiving, finances and expectations at home and work.

A recent study of lawyers provides a striking example. But we only need to listen to the Indiana Fever's Caitlin Clark say, "I am just trying to play good basketball." She's 24 and the pressure is greater, as recently reported even than what President Obama admitted feeling in his 40s.

Reuters reported in August on an American Bar Association survey of 2,915 attorneys that found anxiety symptoms among 37% of women lawyers compared with 23% of men. More than 19% of women reported depressive symptoms warranting clinical evaluation, compared with approximately 15% of men.

Women identified pressures including billable-hour requirements, workplace structure, gender bias, work-life conflict, caregiving responsibilities and financial concerns.

Those numbers deserve attention.

But they also raise a question employers sometimes seem afraid to ask:

What happens when someone's personal stress or mental-health crisis spills over onto everybody else?

The modern woman may be carrying two jobs

For generations, American society has debated women's changing roles.

Today women occupy virtually every level of the workforce — doctors, lawyers, executives, teachers, judges, police officers, elected officials, business owners and corporate leaders.

That has produced extraordinary economic opportunities and independence.

But entering the workforce didn't necessarily eliminate responsibilities at home.

For many women, professional responsibilities were simply added to parenting, caregiving, household management and maintaining family relationships.

The World Health Organization recognizes that employment itself can benefit mental health. Good jobs provide income, independence, relationships and a sense of purpose.

But WHO also identifies excessive workloads, long or inflexible hours, inadequate staffing, discrimination, bullying, limited control over work and conflicting home-and-work demands as risks to mental health.

So romanticizing either the modern workplace or historical gender roles misses the point.

Modern professional life can provide opportunities previous generations of women never possessed while simultaneously creating pressures earlier generations experienced differently.

And eventually some people — women and men alike — reach their breaking point, even going nuts on others for no clear reason. Harassing them, often threatening them and simply being far less than well, crying out for help. But what can you do?

When a coworker melts down

Almost everyone who has spent decades working has witnessed some version of it.

Someone who was ordinarily professional suddenly starts screaming.

A coworker launches into a personal tirade.

An employee sends bizarre or accusatory emails.

Someone begins crying uncontrollably, makes irrational accusations or becomes so agitated that colleagues genuinely wonder whether the person is experiencing a mental-health crisis.

Here's where workplaces frequently make a mistake.

Coworkers shouldn't become amateur psychiatrists. Don't diagnose the person. Per Forest Gump "crazy is what crazy does."

Don't speculate about medications or medical conditions.

And don't turn a workplace disagreement into a political diagnosis. Calling somebody mentally ill because he or she hates Donald Trump, Joe Biden, a governor, a Supreme Court justice or any other politician accomplishes nothing.

Political obsession, such as Trump Derangement Syndrome, may make someone unpleasant company. It isn't, by itself, a psychiatric diagnosis but could and should be one. Often it someone being fired or failing to perform and it spirals. They seek to blame others who they see succeeding. When a person nears retirement the pressure should be less but the younger management is not as mature as they think.

Public jobs and high profile people who have failed seem the most stressed and unhinged.

Instead, though as a nice person just concentrate on behavior.

But Compassion doesn't require becoming someone's punching bag :(

An employee experiencing anxiety, depression or another mental-health condition deserves dignity.

That doesn't mean everyone else in the office must accept abusive behavior.

This distinction has become increasingly important.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission advises employers dealing with possible disabilities to focus on workplace conduct and performance rather than speculating about someone's diagnosis or medical treatment.

That means an employer can say:

"Yesterday you screamed at two coworkers, called one an insulting name and threw documents across the conference room. That behavior violates our workplace-conduct policy."

That's very different from saying:

"You're mentally ill and don't belong here."

One addresses observable conduct. The other attempts to make a medical diagnosis.

Employers should understand the difference.

What HR should actually do

When somebody appears to be having a serious workplace breakdown, the first priority should be safety.

If there is an immediate threat of violence or self-harm, follow emergency procedures.

Otherwise, coworkers should avoid escalating the confrontation. Give the person some space. Don't gather around with cellphones recording the spectacle. Don't argue with someone who is becoming increasingly agitated.

Then document what actually happened.

Not:

"Meg went nuts."

Instead:

"She raised her voice, called John a liar three times, slammed the conference-room door and sent six accusatory emails during the following hour."

Facts matter.

HR can then investigate what occurred, determine whether workplace policies were violated and, where appropriate, discuss whether an employee needs assistance or a reasonable workplace accommodation.

The EEOC makes another point employers shouldn't overlook: disability protections don't necessarily immunize employees from legitimate conduct standards.

A disability can require accommodation. It doesn't automatically create permission to threaten, intimidate or abuse coworkers. Disablitity can't be created by acting like nutjob at work in hopes of creating evidence, besides the SSDI funding is not living wage and is intended for serious situations, not those manufacture by the normal stress of working for living.

Protect the person having the crisis — and everyone around them

America has appropriately become more sensitive about mental health.

That's progress.

But workplace mental-health policy sometimes becomes so focused on the struggling employee that everyone else disappears from the equation.

What about the administrative assistant who gets screamed at?

What about the employee receiving abusive messages at midnight?

What about the manager falsely accused of misconduct during somebody else's emotional eruption?

Their mental health matters too.

The U.S. Surgeon General's framework for workplace mental health places protection from harm among the essential foundations of workplace well-being, including psychological as well as physical safety.

That's the balance employers need. So, compassion without accountability isn't compassion.

It's transferring the consequences of one person's problems onto someone else.

Women deserve something better than stereotypes

There is another reason this discussion requires care.

Calling difficult co-worker of fired former staff member "crazy" may produce a good laugh around the water cooler ingroup, but it prevents employers from confronting what's actually happening. Is that person dangerous and need of help.

If women are experiencing substantially higher anxiety in particular professions, ask why.

Is it workload? Childcare? Caregiving for aging parents or sick brother-in-law? Financial pressure? Workplace culture? Constant electronic connectivity? Political polarization?Social media? Lack of sleep? Or being stoned on drugs or from alcohol abuse. For some, it maybe trying to be a perfect professional, the first female in a prestigious role, the perfect spouse, or perfect mother and perfect caregiver simultaneously? The higher the profile studies show the higher the risk of mental illness or breakdowns.

As Andrew Straw who was once an associate Dean at IU Maurer Law School and former employee of Indiana Supreme Court who was suspended from the practice of law about his saga and failings of Loretta Rush the first female Chief Justice who he calls nuts. Read: https://www.hoosierenquirer.com/post/when-oh-when-will-indiana-end-andrew-straw-s-bizarre-law-license-suspension-a-midwest-mystery

Probably some combination of both. Employers should want to know and address if not fix all problems. They should also recognize that individual responsibility doesn't disappear because somebody is struggling, facing a career or personal crisis.

A workplace needs both compassion and boundaries :)

The solution isn't pushing women out of the workforce or pretending America can simply return to 1955.

Nor is the solution an HR culture in which every outburst is excused as somebody's "mental-health journey."

Adults remain responsible for how they treat other adults.

Companies can provide employee-assistance programs, mental-health resources, flexible scheduling, reasonable accommodations and supportive management.

They can encourage someone who is obviously struggling to get assistance.

But they must also establish a bright line: You may be struggling. You may need help. We will try to help you. But you may not terrorize your coworkers.

That standard should apply equally to men and women, conservatives and liberals, executives and entry-level employees.

America's mental-health crisis is real.

So is workplace stress.

And evidence suggests many professional women are carrying extraordinary burdens.

We should have enough compassion to recognize that.

But we should also have enough compassion for the person sitting in the next cubicle to recognize something equally important: Mental health can explain someone's behavior. It doesn't automatically excuse it.

Hoosier Enquirer Editorial