Stuck in the middle: What is lost with a workforce that isn’t ill, but isn’t well

The broad statistics of stress, loneliness, and crisis lately are heartbreaking. In mid-July, over 40% of adults reported symptoms of anxiety or depression according to the US Census Bureau, and 51% of adults in a recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey said the pandemic has had a negative impact on their mental health. Among young adults 18-29 it is 63%. 

The devastating impact of COVID-19 — isolation, and physical and financial insecurity — makes improving access to mental health care and creating practical support for people through this time both critical and laudable. 

Unseen risk and lost potential

I feel depleted. I can’t come up for air. I’m just going through the motions. I don’t know how long I can keep this up.

There’s also another important conversation that companies need to have about mental health. It’s been building since well before the pandemic. It will still be here when the virus isn’t. How does employee mental health and well-being affect the business, not just the bottom line? 

Companies risk being blind-sided by the 90% of employees who are neither in crisis nor at their best. They don’t need clinical care. Yet they’re struggling — at just the moment when companies need to be firing on all cylinders. The trends in people’s well-being are on a collision course with the demands of the new world of work. 

In this 3-part series, we’ll explore the state of employee mental health and how that translates into the day-to-day work life. We’ll also dive deeper into the strategic importance of mental fitness, and the opportunity to unleash human potential by supporting mental fitness across the organization.  

• Part 1: Not ill, but not well. The languishing of the "massive middle"
• Part 2: Why mental fitness is of strategic importance
• Part 3: From mental health to mental fitness: raising the level of employee well-being across the board