Letters: Flexible work isn’t just about the perks
I can’t help but think that the whole conversation around employees’ rights and mental health at work is missing the mark. This shouldn’t only be about perks. This is about balancing employers’ duty of care with employee accountability.
As with physical health, employers have a responsibility to help their people to be mentally healthy, but individuals also have to be accountable by proactively engaging with the tools provided. The unfortunate reality is that around 80 per cent of people don’t.
Research from Deloitte revealed that 52 per cent of people quote “business as usual” – everything from prioritising workload to meeting deadlines – as the main reason for mental health decline.
We should reframe the prevailing narrative around mental health, considering it a global mental fitness skills gap facing millions of people rather than an unavoidable and overwhelming crisis.
This is where the focus should be – do your leadership and frontline teams have the tools they need to build mental fitness and are they doing all they can to ensure staff engage with them? If not, I would recommend you start there. Flexible working policies won’t help if people don’t have the fundamental skills to withstand the everyday pressures of work.
Gareth Fryer