This year’s theme for World Mental Health Day, ‘Mental Health in the Workplace’, highlights the importance of promoting and protecting mental health and well-being across all types of working environments.
Greek Workers Face Challenging Mental Health Landscape
In Greece, research indicates that the mental health landscape remains challenging for employees and emphasizes the need for greater attention to be paid to the issue and for proactive interventions. Greeks ranked last among Europe’s workers in a survey regarding the mental health burden on workers across all ages and sectors carried out for the Adecco Group’s Global Workforce of the Future project.
Separate research conducted by the Experimental Psychology Lab of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens found high rates of symptoms related to depression. In 2024, four out of 10 workers feel melancholy, with 41% feeling that their future looks bleak.
By Nikoletta Karydi
Symptoms of anxiety are also alarmingly common, with three out of four workers experiencing nervousness or unrest, 44% feeling overwhelmed by stress, 16% suffering from persistent worry, and 10% experiencing panic attacks.
Factors Affecting Mental Health
Mental health is impacted by an array of biological, psychological, and social factors including genetic predisposition, life experiences, exposure to adverse environmental factors, and both workplace and socioeconomic conditions.
Over the past fifteen years, Greeks have experienced a flood of stress-inducing events, which have included the pandemic and economic, geopolitical and climate crises.
Psychiatry Professor Antonios Dakanalis, an internationally prominent figure in the field of mental health, told To Vima International Edition that “Uncertainty has become our new reality! Constant change and constant threats are draining our energy.” He stressed that cumulative stress of this sort impairs people’s ability to function, sleep, work and ultimately to perform well, with one in five workers currently struggling with a mental health issue, which affects both their work and family life.
Antonios Dakanalis, Professor and Principal Investigator in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy at the University of Milan (Unimib), was ranked among the 50 best scientists worldwide in the mental health field in 2022.
Mental Health Issues and Productivity Loss
Employees, businesses and entire economies are experiencing the repercussions of mental health issues. The effects of adverse working conditions—including harassment, undefined roles, strained co-worker relationships, excessive workloads, exhausting hours and insufficient rest—can exacerbate mental health issues.
Dakanalis points out that, when left untreated, mental health issues such as depression and anxiety result in lower productivity and reduced job engagement and satisfaction. Ultimately, this can foster negative work environments, leading to increased absenteeism.
In fact, mental health problems were the fourth most commonly cited reason for taking sick leave in 2023.
Cultivating a Mentally Healthy Workplace
Addressing these challenges and creating a workplace culture that prioritizes mental health should therefore be a key goal for every organization.
“Building a culture of change that promotes psychological safety and inclusion and is concerned with empowering and developing employees, as well as enhancing their overall well-being, should be driven from the top down,” the professor notes.
This can be achieved through proper training, senior management leading by example, and organizational interventions to mitigate work-related stressors such as exhausting hours, authoritarian supervision, discrimination, bullying, and vague job descriptions and organizational goals.
Providing employee assistance programs, such as psychiatric interventions and 24-hour support hotlines, are critical for addressing mental health concerns, but evolving workplace environments also call for new wellness strategies that take a holistic and preventative approach. In short, employees need support before they reach a crisis point.
Dakanalis stresses that tailored actions are essential not only for improving employees’ knowledge and attitudes regarding mental health but also to encourage workers to take care of themselves and adopt both a good work-life balance and a healthier lifestyle.
Research suggests that companies that invest in initiatives to promote mental health can reap significant benefits. In fact, the professor notes that every dollar invested in supporting employees with depression or anxiety boosts productivity to the tune of $5.50.
“Investing in mental health is a necessity in this day and age, as well as a strategic business decision that benefits everyone,” he notes.
Evolving Employee Expectations
Dakanalis claims that the pandemic altered people’s perceptions of well-being and mental health in all areas of life, but especially in the workplace.
Recent pan-European studies have revealed that around 90% of Millennial and Gen Z employees consider mental health to be as—if not more—important than physical health. Indeed, many say they would leave a job if it negatively impacted their mental health.
A good work-life balance and strong policies in support of their well-being at work is clearly of paramount importance.
Greek Company’s Innovative Mental Health Support
According to the professor, employees are keen to participate when their organization’s mental health strategy is designed around their own unique profile.
Prof. Dakanalis and his team have launched an innovative program which provides personalized care administered by an experienced psychiatrist-psychotherapist at a Greek company. The sessions provided, which are held online or in person, address work-related issues as well as personal or family concerns, since these challenges are usually interlinked.
The results are striking, with employee participation reaching 45%, which is significantly higher than the less than 5% participation rate in traditional telephone support programs. Dakanalis emphasizes the importance of building trust through personal interaction with mental health professionals, which has proven more effective than anonymous phone consultations.
