Workplace Wellbeing: How your manager has a central role in your mental health at work

Work can have a huge effect on your mental health,  so it's vital to take steps to control your stress levels and for companies to prioritise employee wellbeing 

Richie Butler, head of occupational health and wellbeing at the Sisk construction company. Pic: Moya Nolan

TO WHAT extent does work impact our mental health? In a recent report, US tech company UKG set out to answer this question. Having interviewed 3,400 employees in ten countries, it found that 60% believed their job to be the single biggest factor affecting their mental health.

Dr Na Fu, a professor of human resource management at Trinity College Dublin, isn’t surprised. “Work takes up eight hours out of 24,” she says. “And as the boundaries between work and life have blurred and more of us check emails outside of working hours, many spend much longer than eight hours thinking about work. It’s no wonder it plays such a part in our mental health.”