There is a lot of talk in the press lately about whether the campaigns for awareness of mental health have overdone their job. Tony Blair warned against over-medicalising the “ups and downs of life” while Clare Gerada, president of the Royal College of General Practitioners, recently said Britain has a “problem with people of all ages wishing for a diagnosis or a label”.
Online daily The Independent commissioned Welldoing founder Louise Chunn to look at why younger generations in particular were struggling with stress at work. As she wrote "More and more young people are feeling overwhelmed and stressed about work, while the number of people seeking treatment for their mental health is soaring. Some believe these are signs we are facing a true epidemic of despair and breakdown, but others wonder if the younger generation is simply failing to understand that dealing with the curveballs life throws is part of the deal and helps us build resilience.”
The Burnout Report, which was commissioned by the charity Mental Health UK asserted that more than one-third of workers under 25 needed time off last year because of their mental health, compared with one-tenth of workers aged 55 and above. Under 35, 29% of those questioned requested time off work last year due to burnout; all the age ranges showed an increase in time off over the past couple of years.
In her feature, Chunn, who previously edited Psychologies magazine, cited changes in parenting. For example, parents commonly try to remove any chance of their child failing, even up to late adolescence. As Alan Percy from Welldoing’s advisory panel told her, “Young people are being done a disservice if we say all their problems are due to mental health. It gives them false hope that they’ll find a medicalised answer to all life problems. Life is about realising that we have to cope with uncertainty .. we have to develop the internal skills to cope with difficulties. Snow-plough parents who solve all the problems in their children’s lives mean they’ll always expect to turn to a parental figure to solve their problems for them.” He states bosses are not office parents, and while having a duty of care, they shouldn’t be expected to “make everything better” for their younger staff. However, Chunn also reported on the very real stresses that some young people are experiencing in the workplace.
Cora Hilton is a Welldoing therapist who has written about her clients, both millennials and Gen Z, and their relationship to stress. For many, career dreams and plans have been tarnished by everything from the global economy to the inexorable reach of technology. “Millennials are the first generation to be less economically secure than the generation preceding them. Millennials are left with the vestigial beliefs about work they grew up with, but are navigating a very different reality. The connection [they have made] between work and identity can contribute to Millennials' burnout: it can be challenging to hold boundaries at work and push back on its demands while still harbouring a desire to be seen as successful. Perfectionism, fear of failure, and feeling lost can become rife.”
Gen Z, she says, are even more sceptical about work, but they appreciate they must do it. “There may be a lot of anger at having to play along, especially when older generations expect you to be enthusiastically looking to 'prove yourself' at work.” The feelings of insecurity around work are strongly evident in both groups. Chunn finished the Independent feature with a plea for good working conditions and a bit of understanding: “Young people are not the only age group wanting help with their mental health, but they are perhaps among the most important. If they can be kept in good psychological shape, treated and paid fairly, with good job prospects and social connections, then they may find that work is one of the best things for them. It is up to us to show them how work can help solve problems and not just be the source of them.”
