When Dak Prescott made public his struggles with psychological well being, the star quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys was met with public statements of help—and a few derision as nicely. To some individuals, it was a risible admission of weak spot.
Prescott wouldn’t have confronted detrimental reactions if he had been discussing a torn ligament or different bodily ailment. All the extra cause why, for somebody occupying one of the vital stereotypical macho positions in America, his revelation was as brave because it was surprising.
We nonetheless dwell in a time when psychological well being is misunderstood and too little mentioned. No marvel that so many people both ignore our personal psychological well being or push it into the background, anticipating it to kind itself out.
COVID-19 is beginning to push this dialogue to the forefront, because the pandemic has created probably the most demanding yr in latest historical past and negatively affected the psychological well being of 78% of the worldwide workforce, in keeping with a new survey by Oracle and Workplace Intelligence, an HR analysis and advisory agency.
“With new remote work expectations and blurred lines between personal and professional lives, the toll of COVID-19 on our mental health is significant, and it’s something that workers across every industry and country are dealing with,” mentioned Dan Schawbel, a managing accomplice with Workplace Intelligence. “The pandemic … is the biggest workforce issue of our time and will be for the next decade.”
The robotic answer
What the survey additionally discovered is that, throughout the board, 68% of respondents would like to speak to a robotic than their supervisor about office stress and nervousness. This survey was taken by greater than 12,000 staff, managers, HR leaders and C-level executives throughout 11 nations, so we’re not speaking a couple of geographically or demographically restricted pattern right here.
That discovering is sensible when you consider it: Employees may not wish to confide of their bosses, whereas their bosses most likely dwell with the expression that “life is lonely at the top.” In truth, in keeping with the examine, C-suite executives are extra seemingly (72%) to say they’d favor to speak to a robotic about psychological well being than staff are (62%). (For the needs of this report, we outlined “robot” as a “machine resembling a human being and able to replicate certain human movements and functions automatically.”)
“It just proves that the higher up you go, even though you make more money, you can suffer a lot more because your responsibilities are just that much greater,” Schawbel says.
And these issues don’t go away when individuals get dwelling—particularly not this yr, when work and residential are for many individuals in the identical location. Plus, who’re you going to name at 11 p.m. if you as soon as once more can’t get to sleep?
The shock right here is that not solely are individuals open to utilizing robots as therapists, however in addition they particularly reject their managers and different individuals as helpful sounding boards for his or her issues.
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