Mental health problems are becoming increasingly normalised and are affecting more and more employees, according to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which focuses on its current 34 member countries.

A report that is noteworthy for several reasons, not least because it shines a light on a taboo issue in society: the coexistence of mental illness and work. These conditions appear to affect a large number of workers — 20% of them in OECD countries — while remaining difficult to pin down. The main challenge lies in understanding these disorders and classifying them. The links between mental illness and work are therefore fragmentary or incomplete, the report acknowledges.

What does this report show?

First of all, severe mental illnesses are relatively rare. The most common cases encountered are depression and anxiety, although their seriousness should not be underestimated. Disorders that may already exist in an individual during adolescence can worsen over the years, with disabling symptoms not appearing until later, when the person is already in employment.

The report therefore calls for public policies designed to prevent these symptoms, so that they do not become too harmful for the worker and, to a lesser extent, for the employer, who does not necessarily know how to respond and whose first instinct could be to dismiss the employee. The OECD laments the fact that such disorders cannot be detected as early as adolescence. Mental illnesses can indeed make it impossible to sustain employment over time, leading to a partial withdrawal from work and, consequently, absenteeism.

Nevertheless, in most cases, the worker manages to continue working, but at what personal cost, since they do not feel fulfilled and dare not admit their difficulties. They often do not want to distance themselves from their professional environment, which is understandable, and prefer not to use their entitlement to leave, even as their efficiency and output decline.

Costs for society

For a consultative body such as the OECD, which is tasked with overseeing and advising states on economic strategies and plans, the issue is not mental illness as such — the OECD is not yet a public health body — but the pressure mental illness exerts on economic productivity. The report deplores the consequences of mental disorders on the productivity efforts of the wealthiest states. These illnesses are equivalent to 3 to 4% of the average GDP of a state within the European Union.

What role does mobbing play?

The only issue the OECD seems to address only superficially, or perhaps does not exploit sufficiently, is the intensification of mental health problems in the workplace due to pressure exerted by employers and, from a much broader perspective, by a strained labour market.

In a European market in crisis, plagued by inertia, there is no longer any margin for error. One must find a job at all costs, and it is becoming unacceptable to give up a job that, in other circumstances, would have displeased us. Many workers take on small jobs reluctantly, simply because they cannot find the job of their dreams. Other, more rewarding jobs, which are supposed to reflect a certain degree of professional success, become sources of stress and depression. The many suicides in multinationals in recent years — Renault and France Télécom, to name just two — alert us to the rise in workplace distress as a striking feature of our time. Mobbing practices are partly to blame.

A long period of inactivity can significantly damage an individual’s bond with society. Isolated, excluded from an economic process that seems to unfold without them and from which they feel they no longer belong, work becomes a factor of exclusion rather than, as the OECD nevertheless advocates, a factor of fulfilment.