Haylie Page, External Affairs Intern, Money and Mental Health.
It’s been almost a year since the start of the first lockdown, and many of us are still working from home. Staying inside for extended periods of time and having less social contact with colleagues has been difficult for some. But for many people, lockdown restrictions have offered the opportunity for more flexibility around working hours, our priorities and greater autonomy over our work — which weren’t always on offer in the office.
But not everyone has reaped these benefits. Many people are still working in person — in industries like retail, health or social care — and haven’t been given the same flexibility many of us working from home have experienced.
One of the potential benefits of working from home is flexibility around working hours, removing the constraints of the office nine-to-five. Flexible working hours allows the working day and week to be adapted to better suit individual circumstances. Our report ‘Mind the income gap’, showed that people with mental health problems often need flexible working hours to help them manage fluctuations in their mental health.
But this newly available flexibility is limited or non-existent for many who are expected to be working in ‘in-person’ situations — from shops to care homes and building sites. And we know that people experiencing mental health problems are overrepresented in lower-paying sectors like retail, hospitality and social care, where employees often don’t have the ability to work from home.
As the pandemic continues to negatively affect all our mental health, it is more important than ever that flexible working options are available and made clear for all types of work. Though the pandemic has drawn more attention to the ways that remote working can be flexible to benefit our mental health, less attention has been directed towards in-person work. And without this, many with mental health problems may struggle to perform their best or stay in jobs which are in-person, without adequate support.
For in-person work, there are multiple ways employers can increase flexibility around working hours, and these options should be made more available to all employees during and post-pandemic. This could include:
- Condensing working hours in the working week to four days instead of five
- Giving employees the option to break up the working day into smaller chunks with breaks in between, as opposed to one extended lunch break
- Having phased returns to work with reduced hours following a period of poor mental health.
Flexible working also benefits employers. As we’ve seen throughout the course of the pandemic, employees working from home have shown increased productivity, as well as having an improved work-life balance. Though these benefits may not always be translated to in-person work, if employers were more flexible, employers and companies would certainly benefit from a happier and healthier workforce.
Our research has shown that people with mental health problems often find their employers to be ill informed about mental health problems — and unfortunately in some cases, discriminate against them.
To prevent this, employers can adopt the Mental Health at Work Commitment Standards and be open and supportive of reasonable adjustments at work. These include making sure that options like flexible working times are available to all individuals experiencing mental health problems, and ensuring there is no stigma associated with requesting these.
Standardising flexible working practices will better support people with mental health problems and protect their income. This will not only benefit people experiencing mental health problems, it will also reduce employee absences, increase employee confidence in their employers and improve working culture.
The recovery from the pandemic offers the opportunity to permanently change how we work for the better. This situation must spark change, so that those working in person can obtain some of the benefits of flexible working — which will particularly benefit people experiencing mental health problems.
Learn more about our Mental Health and Income Commission here.
