Maldivians have highly misunderstood the significance of mental issues and how they affect the young generation or millennials in the country. They do not realize the impact it has on the individual and proceed to blame them for laziness and other negative qualities.
When browsing through social media applications such as Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat or such, you notice one common issue. So many of your friends tend to share sad and depressing posts about wanting to end their lives or even just about not feeling like doing anything. When these individuals join a work place, their depression affects their work ethic and results in poor performance. However, there are reasons for the occurrence of this issue and it is critical to take a look at them in order to bring about the most effective solutions.
Reasons why millennials suffer from mental illnesses in the workplace
1. Social Media
One of the biggest and the main reason why millennials suffer from depression and other mental illnesses is social media. Ironic, as how it is made to connect people around the world that it disconnects them and makes them feel lonely. When people see the happy lives of others, they feel upset and they feel like they will not be able to experience that happiness. This leads to chronic sadness and emptiness finally developing into depression. When these individuals join a workplace, they lack the confidence and mettle and end up comparing themselves to their co-workers and continuously degrade their own skills and talents which leads to even more severe depression.
2. Not satisfied with their work
One of the biggest factors that could stir up mental illnesses in working millennials is being unhappy with their work. If they are doing a job they don’t enjoy or love, this could result in forced effort and hence, unhappiness. They will not look forward to working and hence, take more leaves than necessary and not attend office as much as they are required to. This eventually leads to problems in work such as under-performance, unhappy bosses and even getting sacked. When suddenly unemployed, this would further increase their depression as they find themselves with lack of responsibility and work to do.
What should we do?
Take mental issues more seriously
Depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses are nothing to be joked about. Just like viral fever, cancer, heart attack and other illnesses, they too are illnesses that require medication to be treated and are not any unreal just because they are not visible to see. People suffering from mental illnesses also show symptoms about what they are going through. Know what the general symptoms are, and if you believe your coworker is displaying such characteristics, make it your business to make them feel more worthy and loved. Do not exclude them and do not put them down.
Millennials are known to be going through more mental illnesses than any other generation in history. Consider the difficulties they go through and be nicer to them. Always be considerate and make sure to avoid trying to fix things, rather, just support them in getting through any hardships they may come across. This would allow in a more positive world and more healthy corporate environments.
