A safe workplace can be the difference between chronic health problems and great well-being. It can also affect how fulfilling your career and personal life are. How do you find out if workplace safety is impacting your mental health?
The Link Between Workplace Safety and Mental Health
At first, unsafe working conditions often lead to heightened levels of stress and worry. Those feelings may evolve into distress and fear if they go unresolved for too long. Being afraid to go to work but having to spend most of your day there can impact your mental health over time.
Working in an unsafe workplace substantially increases your chances of experiencing an on-the-job injury. Eventually, one of those accidents may even be fatal. The negative emotions, physical tension and pessimistic thought patterns you feel in response to those dangers can alter your brain function over time, impacting your mental health.
The formation of synapses in your brain is shaped by your experiences. These connections develop pathways for various brain functions, meaning they regulate your physiological, emotional, physical, intellectual and psychological responses to your everyday interactions.
When you spend the majority of your day working in unsafe conditions and experiencing elevated stress levels, your brain forms pathways related mainly to negative experiences. As a result, you will begin to react to things with a distress or fear-based mentality and your mental health will likely decline.
How Do You Know if Your Workplace Is Unsafe?
An unsafe workplace takes many forms, depending on the industry and job site type. Here are common signs of an unsafe workplace:
- Visible hazards: Sparks, water spillage, broken sprinkler systems and broken equipment are common visible hazards. They can easily cause lacerations, trip-and-fall accidents or electrical burns.
- Inadequate PPE: Personal protective equipment (PPE) is critical for handling dangerous material or entering potentially hazardous settings. If nurses aren’t given adequate gear before visiting sick patients, their chance of becoming ill increases drastically.
- Unsanitary conditions: Clutter, spills and grime display a lack of attention or concern for basic workplace safety guidelines. Disorganized and unclean workstations can put you at risk of contamination, disease contraction and slip-and-fall accidents.
- Dress code violations: While a dress code violation may be insignificant in some industries, it is concerning in many. For instance, if a health care professional comes to work in sandals and isn’t told to go home, it signals an underlying disregard for safety.
- Lack of safety training: Do you receive routine safety training at work? Are you aware of what to do in emergencies? You should be concerned if your employer hasn’t taught you the basics or conducted refresher courses.
- Blocked exits: Emergency exits are a lifeline during fires, floods, shootings and gas leaks. Regardless of how they’re blocked, it’s an issue — those crucial few seconds you spend clearing the way could be the difference between life and death.
- Disregard for protocol: If you notice your colleagues aren’t following safety protocol — especially if they’re subject to regulatory compliance standards — and aren’t getting reprimanded, it’s a sign your workplace is unsafe.
While construction workers are more likely to work alongside malfunctioning equipment, business professionals are more prone to indoor air pollution. Only you can tell if your working conditions are potentially dangerous.
How Poor Workplace Safety Affects Your Mental Health
Spending most of your day in unsafe working conditions can lead to cognitive distortions. These unfounded negative thought patterns impact your life off the clock. Depending on the severity, they may worsen your quality of life. At the very least, they will erode your work-life balance since you won’t be able to leave your troubles behind when you clock out.
Over time, your worsening mental health might intensify your feelings of distress, irritability and fear. You may feel overwhelmed or fatigued as a result. Burnout isn’t just exhaustion — it’s a chronic state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion that can leave you feeling uncaring or unable to do basic job responsibilities.
Since people working in industries like health care and counseling are predisposed to burnout, their chance of developing it because of an unsafe workplace is magnified. This chronic stress can lead to further health problems down the line.
Unfortunately, the combination of poor workplace safety and declining mental health is a vicious cycle — these negatives reinforce and intensify each other, worsening over time. As you feel more distressed and tired, you’ll make more mistakes at work, causing increasingly unsafe conditions. The only way to break the cycle is to take action.
The Long-Term Impacts of Worsening Mental Health
As your mental health worsens, your physical health also declines. Prolonged stress can cause restlessness, high blood pressure, muscle tension and headaches. These combined effects may compromise your immune system or lead to the development of illnesses like chronic fatigue.
The thoughts and emotions brought on by unsafe working conditions can also lead to the development of mental illnesses. Manifesting symptoms of anxiety or depression are common among people who experience prolonged or acute stress. While they may dissipate after your situation improves, there’s a chance you’ll continue experiencing them.
How Your Mental Health Affects Your Work Performance
Mental health issues brought on by unsafe working conditions can affect your performance at work. You may see your productivity slipping, realize you don’t have the energy to engage with others or spend your workday nearly falling asleep.
As your mental health declines, socialization may become challenging or unfulfilling. Your communication with your colleagues may stagnate, potentially damaging your professional relationships. Even if you remain sociable, your team members may be less willing to engage — which can complicate projects and increase miscommunications.
While learning of these impacts may make you worried or anxious, it’s beneficial to stay informed and prepared. Having concrete knowledge of how poor workplace safety affects your mental state and work performance can help you navigate obstacles and leverage early intervention strategies. This way, you can better protect yourself and your career.
If you, your colleagues and your employer promptly address unsafe working conditions, you can improve workplace-wide mental health. Plus, a focus on improving safety can increase on-the-job productivity and efficiency. Intervention may help you further your career.
What to Do When You Begin Feeling Unsafe at Work
Early intervention is critical when you begin feeling unsafe at work.
1. Identify Potential Safety Violations
Pay close attention to safety violations and unsafe practices taking place during your workday to better understand the bigger picture. Ask your colleagues if they’ve experienced or seen anything concerning. Their insight can be helpful if they work in different shifts or departments.
2. Document Issues and Collect Evidence
Documenting safety problems helps you hold your employer accountable and protect yourself in case of retaliatory termination. Record every violation you see, dating and timestamping each log. If possible, take pictures, videos or audio recordings. The more identifying and specific data you gather, the easier it will be to address each issue. When an unsafe workplace results in serious mental health consequences, potential legal actions can arise, including cases where employers may be held financially accountable. In severe instances, courts might find the behaviour of an employer so egregious that it necessitates awarding punitive damages. This serves to further deter such negligence and reinforce workplace safety.
3. Attempt to Resolve the Issue
If you can resolve unsafe working conditions safely and independently, consider trying. Taking accountability and leading by example helps establish a safety-first workplace culture, lessening the chances of future issues occurring.
While your colleagues are likely just as concerned as you, it may be challenging for them to act if they’re experiencing burnout. If you’re unable to get them on board, you may need to change your approach. If the safety issues persist despite your best efforts, speak to management.
4. Make a Case to Your Employer
Your employer has the power to enact long-lasting change in your workplace. If you can’t resolve issues independently and your colleagues aren’t making an effort, speak to upper management to get them to act. Your records of safety violations should prompt action.
5. Report Unresolved Issues
Time is of the essence when every workday puts your well-being in jeopardy. If your employer refuses to act — or promises to but never follows through — it might be time to send a report to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
How to Approach Your Employer About Safety Issues
Speaking to your employer about safety issues can feel daunting, especially if you don’t feel like you’ll have their support. However, gathering the courage is the first step toward positive change. The sooner you act, the earlier you and your colleagues can feel better at work.
You should set up a time to speak privately with a trusted supervisor. If you’re nervous about bringing the issue to someone’s attention, consider anonymously sending copies of your documents to human resources and various members of upper management.
Hard evidence and statistics may convince management to take action. For example, discussing how 60% of chief financial officers reported a 100% return on investment after funding injury prevention could make them see the benefits of taking workplace safety seriously.
Remember, your employer can’t legally retaliate against you for bringing up or reporting workplace safety concerns. Even if they’re dismissive or irritated about you shedding light on their shortcomings, they can’t actively make your professional life worse without facing serious regulatory repercussions. Have confidence when bringing those issues to their attention.
How You Benefit from Speaking Up and Taking Action
While you could simply quit to escape unsafe working conditions, you’d be leaving behind your colleagues. Plus, some workplace safety issues are systematic and may follow you to another job. Strategic action is the most beneficial approach.
If no one else has taken action to eliminate unsafe working conditions, consider being the first. Sound workplace safety positively affects your mental health, making you feel more supported, relaxed and social at work. You may experience less physical pain and a better social life as well since you won’t have to carry the stress of your job into your personal life.
Early intervention helps you maintain your mental health and keep a positive work-life balance. Remember, while learning about the effects unsafe working conditions can have on your mental health may feel worrying at first, educating yourself will ultimately benefit you and your career.
A Safe Workplace Is a Better Workplace
When people feel safe and supported at work, they make fewer mistakes, feel less tired and can concentrate on their responsibilities better. Employees and employers should work together to maintain equipment, ensure their workplace is free of hazards and fix any potential safety issues as soon as they appear.
