As per statistics shown in Britain, anxiety, work-related stress and depression account for most of the absences in workplaces. In fact, overall 18 million working days were lost in the year 2017-2018 due to this condition and this shows a hike from 13 million in the year 2016. This is almost equivalent to 58.3% of the 27 million work days that were lost to poor health, both physical and mental as per figures recorded by HSE or Health and Safety Executive. This increase has been driven by a few new long-standing cases where workers reported excessive job pressure, stress and anxiety of meeting deadlines to be the few reasons behind such increased absences.

There was another study done, which included thousands of employee’s general physician’s sick notes. It was seen that 40% of all of who were surveyed wrote about mild to moderate mental health illnesses like stress, anxiety and depression.

Workers in social work and education are at the highest risky positions

In the US, it’s just as bad, if not worse. There have been a number of studies conducted on people who work in social work and education, and their cases of stress, anxiety and depression in the work place. Employees who are working in the education industry are especially susceptible and pose the highest risk, as there are around thousands of long-standing cases of workers who suffer from one of these mental illnesses. This can be seen in the data lone. It was reported that 41% of teachers left the profession within the first 5 years of their career. While it’s true that the job is extremely demanding, it’s no secret that depression, stress and anxiety play a role in the mass exodus here. Though they can search for a therapist here who can help them deal with their stress, anxiety and depression issues, unfortunately there are very few educators who have done this.

Back to Britain

Someone from HSE also commented after he saw these figures. He said that stress, anxiety and depression are the 3 main causes of so many absentees from offices, which is proof of the fact that the employees need to take immediate action. We need to take a more proactive approach in initiating a conversation with educators and educational employees on a whole regarding their mental health issues and stress. We need to speak about the issues which lead to so much pressure among these employees and how we can develop solutions to prevent them from getting mentally ill. At the very least, we need to at least start with identifying those who need help.

The problem is that the education system isn’t currently doing anything right now to help reverse this course. So, if you fall within this categorization of educators who’s having issues keeping their mental health in check, you should firstly speak with a counselor or a therapist who can give you the best possible advice regarding the ways in which you can resolve such issues and get back to work. There are a number of things you can try to reduce your stress levels, ranging from cbd gummies to therapy. The problem is now known. It’s only a matter of time until the education system puts in a plan of action to keep educators at their place of work through the elimination of their mental health issues.