“KEEP BRITAIN WORKING”: THE PRESSURE TO KEEP ON GOING?

Following our recent post on early intervention in the workplace, I wanted to explore another aspect of the government’s Keep Britain Working initiative.

The ambition to help people remain healthy and in employment is important. Work can provide much more than an income. For many of us, it offers purpose, identity, structure, belonging and valuable relationships but with around 2.8 million working-age people economically inactive because of long-term sickness, the scale of the challenge is significant.

The other side of the conversation.

What does ‘keep working’ actually man for the person who is struggling?

For some, remaining at work can be reassuring. It offers continuity, connection and a sense of being useful.

For others, the experience may be considerably more complicated. It could be financial, relational – keeping things going at home, as an external pressure, or/and something more personal. That their job has become woven into their identity.

Such life pressures can feel exhausted, but it may also feel they should be coping or have no choice to just keep going. At the same time, perhaps they worry admitting a difficulty might change how colleagues or managers see them.

And sometimes the very environment in which we are trying to keep someone working may be contributing to their difficulties.

So, they continue.

Not necessarily because they are well enough, but perhaps because stopping feels even more difficult.

This is where I think the psychological dimension of Keep Britain Working deserves particular attention.

There is a difference between helping someone remain in employment and helping them remain psychologically well as part of the job.

Early intervention, workplace adjustments and professional support all have important roles. But we also need to understand the person experiencing such difficulties, may need some help – quickly – to prevent them from being the next worker to call in sick through stress, anxiety, depression or burnout etc.

Otherwise, we risk measuring success through continued attendance while overlooking the emotional cost of maintaining it.

Perhaps the question for organisations shouldn’t simply be:

“How do we keep people working?”

But also:

“What changes can we make so that those at work can remains psychologically healthy?”

Here at MIP, we believe that ‘keeping Britain working‘, should also involve understanding the needs of people doing the working.