Many modern work practices are causing mental harm, but a good leader can turn around a toxic work culture, says Dr Hillary Bennett, a registered psychologist specialising in the leadership of safety and wellbeing.
Bennett recently wrote a guide for the Business Leaders' Health and Safety Forum on protecting mental wellbeing at work.
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Toxic culture in the workplace doesn’t just mean a toxic individual, although they may be the root cause, Bennett says
“It’s very seldom one harmful factor, it’s invariably a collection of harmful factors that are at play,” she says.
A toxic workplace becomes unproductive and stops people sharing information, it squashes creativity, Bennett says.
“At the end of the day, the culture of an organisation is created by your senior leaders and so if we are going to address a toxic workplace, we do need senior leaders to own [it], they need to acknowledge it and they need to take accountability.”
That means they need to unearth some of the harmful factors, she says, but it’s not easily done when there are already feelings of mistrust among employees.
If the workplace is extremely toxic, Bennett advises bringing in a third party to facilitate these conversations.
Senior leaders have to understand the implications of what they’re doing, she says. “We’re not just going to toughen up people and if we are going to take a serious look at those harmful factors, we have to be prepared to actually make some changes.”
Bennett says it’s fundamentally important to look within the organisation for the skills and knowledge needed to work on the issues. If the work is reliant on consultants, change won’t happen long term, she says.
“The facilitator, it has to be someone who has mana, credibility, respect, it doesn’t have to be a supervisor, it doesn’t have to be a health and safety rep, it has to be someone who can facilitate a good robust conversation about how the work is impacting on that group of people,” she says.
“I often say to people, don’t talk about mental health, talking about a thriving culture, that’s what you want.”
If you’re wanting to start the conversation in the workplace, Bennett says “collect your data, get the evidence”.
It’s difficult for someone to counteract solid evidence, she says.