Kiwi workers have suffered rising levels of anxiety and depression as the pandemic and attendant cycle of lockdowns have ground on, according to AUT research.
Dr Jarrod Haar, a professor with the university's School of Business, is overseeing a rolling survey of 1000 Kiwi workers called "Wellbeing@Work".
The mental wellbeingof the employees has been canvassed three times - and Haar has found levels of job anxiety steadily grew from May 2020 to December 2020 and to April 2021.
"The data clearly show a decline in the mental health of the NZ workforce," Haar says.
Stress is rising in a representative cross-section of the NZ workforce. Haar's survey has a 50/50 gender split, a mix of private sector and public organisation staff, and an average age of 39.
"The data clearly show a decline in the mental health of the NZ workforce," AUT's Professor Jarrod Haar says. Photo / Supplied
"The findings are sobering. Job anxiety rose significantly between May and December 2020 and again in April 2021," Haar says.
Depression from the job increased markedly between May and December 2020 but stabilised in April 2021.
Participants described the racing and "spinning" of their minds since the first Covid-19 lockdown, Haar says.
Haar says although anxiety and depression levels are not critically high, the failure for anxiety to drop over the better part of a year shows that Kiwis remain deeply worried and anxious about, and because of, their jobs.
"The biggest driver of this mental health concern is a persistent worry about job insecurity. This has remained relatively high and unchanged across the three time periods. Kiwis are worried about their job and future," Haar says.
Further, he contends, the study shows that organisations generally have struggled to aid worker wellbeing since the first lockdown in 2020.
"When employees feel that their organisation cares about their wellbeing, anxiety and depression levels among staff tend to drop," says Professor Haar. "To help keep staff anxiety levels at bay, companies must communicate clearly with employees about their concerns – especially job security."
Shared pain
Haar's research found that managers were under rising levels of pressure too, with similar results to staff.
And there was no element of either sex being more susceptible to anxiety and depression.
Overall, females had similar levels as males towards job anxiety and job depression across all three survey periods.
Remove doubt
Haar says there's nothing worse than a slow drip of bad news, and a series of piecemeal job cuts.
