Stress over Covid-19 sees increase in requests for sick leave

The destabilisation of South Africa’s workforce by the Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted a mental health crisis in work environments across the country.

This according to experts who have urged that October, which is mental health awareness month should be used to destigmatise mental illnesses in the workplace and end the ill-treatment of mental illness sufferers.

High volumes of requests for sick leave and cases of incapacitation as a result of mental illness have been seen in various industries, according to Dr Christoffel Grobler, extraordinary professor at the School of Health Systems and Public Health at the University of Pretoria.

A 47-year-old woman reached out to Saturday Citizen after her mental illness led to sour relations between herself and her employer which, she claims, was as a result of discrimination which led to major depression. After working for over a decade at the leading medical equipment firm, vast changes and harsher conditions brought on by the economic devastation of Covid-19 led to heightened stress levels at her workplace.

Things took a turn for the worse when the company began losing major clients and she, a debtors clerk, was expected to sign off on financial records with missing information. Attempting to become a whistleblower landed her in hot water, leading to a spiralling of events which led to a major and very public mental breakdown. She is embroiled in a legal battle after being “unfairly dismissed” over her mental illness.

“They tried to use my mental illness against me when I tried to alert them of the things that I was seeing,” she said.

“I remember [the chief executive] telling me during a meeting that my medication wasn’t working and that I was out of control. She used this as a reason to give me a written warning for gross insubordination.”

Grobbler said: “Covid-19 has put this problem in the face of the employer. They cannot run away from the conversation of mental health in the workplace any more. They have to address it.”

A major financial company he consulted with recently appointed two psychologists for its 2,000 employees, which was a step in the right direction.

“We need to teach employers that there is a good return on investment by investing in mental health programmes with their employees. We spend 4.2% (R20 billion) of our gross GDP on presenteeism at work as a result of depression.”

Presenteeism refers to being at work while being grossly unproductive as a result of mental illness such as depression. A London School of Economics study recently found that 80% of SA employees did not disclose their reasons for taking sick leave while 49% continued to work despite experiencing depression.

“What happens is that people are depressed, but they don’t disclose it to the employer. They get booked off for short periods, but when they’re at work they’re not fully present.”

– simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

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