Mental Health Awareness Week 2018

Mental Health Awareness Week puts mental health in the spotlight, encouraging conversations about how individuals and organisations can promote good mental health and better support our own mental health and that of others.

This year, Mental Health Awareness Week runs from 14-20 May and focuses on the theme of stress. For many, working in the accountancy industry involves daily challenges and pressures often conducive to stress. Research from CABA, the charity supporting chartered accountants’ wellbeing, has found that 1 in 3 employees think about quitting their position on a regular basis, while 13% feel stressed at least once a day.

So how can you look after your own mental health and that of colleagues? And what can organisations do to foster an inclusive environment in the workplace where mental health can be fully and openly discussed?

We’ll be discussing all of these questions as part of Mental Health Awareness Week. Take a look at our key content below, which will be updated throughout the week.

Eight ways to deal with stress in the workplace

Research from the charity CABA has shown that one in three employees consider quitting their job frequently. Feeling stressed can be a large contributor to this, and data collected from the Accountancy Age mental health in the workplace survey revealed that over three quarters of people (77%) regularly feel stressed at work. So how can you cope effectively with the potential stress of demanding clients and long office hours?

How organisations can help ensure good employee wellbeing

BDO trainee accountant Reafad Rahman discusses his experience of supporting mental health in the workplace. Reafad has suffered with anxiety disorder since he was in school and found the high-pressured environment in accountancy and the expectations placed on him starting to take their toll, leading to his performance at work beginning to suffer.

In this article, he speaks about how talking to his managers helped him to manage the situation and provides his advice for what measures firms should consider introducing to support employees.

How to find a work-life balance as an accountant

Getting the right work-life balance can be difficult, especially as advancements in technology have resulted in an increasingly “always on” culture. But in competitive environments such as accountancy, it’s imperative to look after yourself so you can set yourself up for success.

So, how can accountants take care of their work-life balance, in an ever-demanding world from which they can rarely switch off? Laura Little, learning and development manage at CABA, discusses how integrating work and personal life is crucial to staying productive.

How to avoid career burnout at partner level

Accountancy is a particularly competitive industry. With excellent progression opportunities, desirable salaries, and the chance to get involved in fascinating work, many people want to follow an accountancy career but this means that making it to partner roles or equivalent is hard work.

Career burnout is not just feeling a bit tired. It is pushing yourself to the limit for such a long time that eventually you find yourself constantly unable to think straight. Perhaps you even come to the decision that you cannot carry on like this, or someone else points this out to you.

It’s important to be aware of burnout and try to catch it before it sets in. Here are some of the signs to recognise and steps you can take to prevent a burnout.