Poor Mental Health can lead to burnout amongst employees, seriously affecting their ability to contribute meaningfully in both personal and professional lives.¹ Mental Health problems contribute to a large number of employee dropouts. In the Netherlands, 58% of disabilities are related to Mental health issues.  Thirty percent of sick days are in direct relation to some mental illness problems. The issues are just limited to more absences in the workplace. Mental Health problems impact productivity and profits, as well as an increase in cost to deal with the issues. It also affects employee morale.²

Work-related stress is a significant cause of poor mental health, causing productivity issues and more human error. It can result from increased sickness, absence, high turnover, poor performance, and possible increase in accidents. 

Work-related stress could also manifest as heart disease, back pain, headaches, and IBS, as well as psychological issues such as anxiety, depression, loss of concentration, and poor decision-making. Stress occurs when an excessive amount of pressure is put on others. Stress is the adverse reaction people have to extreme pressure.  Pressure isn’t always negative; it can be a motivator for employees.  An excessive amount is when it’s no longer effective and turns into stress. 

The most common reason for office stress is dealing with difficult bosses. Tasks that are not part of an employee's role or skillset. ³

Relationship problems with colleagues also cause issues.  Dealing with a difficult co-worker can be challenging as performance can directly relate to working together as a team.  

Unrealistic expectations put unhealthy and unreasonable pressure on the employee and can be a tremendous source of stress and suffering. Increased workloads, long hours, and constant intense pressure to perform at peak levels, all for the same pay, can leave an employee physically and emotionally drained. Job insecurity leaves employees distracted by the anxiety of losing their jobs and never works as a motivator.  

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_{1. World Health Organization. 2005. Mental health policies and programs in the workplace.}

_{2. http://www.enwhp.org/fileadmin/downloads/8th_Initiative/MentalHealth_Broschuere_businesscase.pdf}

_{3. Wilke HJ. The authority complex and the authoritarian personality. J Anal Psychol. 1977;22:243–9.}

Fear in the workplace:

Research shows that motivating employees using fear and intimidation as tools comes with a lot of risks and has primarily been discredited for some time as an effective management style. A tyrannical management style can lead to low self-esteem and low performance as it eats away at team cohesiveness and increases stress and feelings of helplessness. They are creating a sense of work alienation. ( Petty Tyranny in Organization, written by psychologist Black Ashworth.

The problem with fear is it can cause people to become rigid, less creative, and unhappy. If the message the workplace culture constantly sends employees is to be afraid, is that a company getting the most out of their employees?

Fear is a normal human emotion and, when held in check, can sometimes be a functional or even necessary way to ensure people don’t become complacent, said Wharton. 

But when fear becomes an entrenched marker of an organization's culture, it can have toxic effects over the long run. In addition to stifling creativity, it can inhibit collaboration and lead to burnout. 

“Fear leads people to panic and narrow their attention to such an extreme degree that they may overlook opportunities that unexpectedly present themselves.  Employees may become so consumed by the specter of a specific negative outcome that they suffer from cognitive paralysis and lose the imagination necessary to conjure novel paths to success.” Fear can inhibit learning.  “The problem is that negative emotion often breeds other negative emotions.”  Stephanie McCreary

“Fear can manifest into anxiety, depression, hopelessness, and an environment in which these negative emotions are prevalent can become very hard one to work in and be productive.”

On the other hand, hope can breed happiness, confidence, and all sorts of positive emotions that are much more tied to positive performance and well-being. ⁴
_{4. https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/fear-motivate-workers-make-things-worse/}

“Fear may appear at first to be a mechanism that helps people stay alert to free unacceptability of failure, but it can ironically be a source of failure instead.”  (Andrew Carton)