55% of CEOs Have Experienced a Mental Health Issue, Up 24 Points
Our ninth State of Workplace Empathy study, featured in Business Insider, MSNBC, and Forbes, reveals a strong association between workplace toxicity and mental health: Employees who view their workplace as toxic are 47% more likely to experience a mental health issue. Mental health stigmas, barriers to empathy, and misaligned expectations and behaviors all play a role in toxicity at work. While all audiences surveyed value empathy and view it as a key driver of business performance, real barriers persist to putting empathy into action—especially for 63% of CEOs who say it's hard to demonstrate empathy in their day to day.
It’s time to join the conversation about the impact of empathy in the workplace.
Just Released
The State of DEIB
The State of DEIB
Our 2024 State of Workplace Empathy findings show feelings of belonging and connectedness have plummeted year-over-year among employees, HR, and CEOs—despite reporting that corporate DEIB initiatives have largely become more visible. We partnered with Holistic, a DEI consulting firm, to look at what today’s workplaces can do to nurture diversity initiatives—even without a budget.
The Barriers to Mental Wellbeing at Work
Explore how barriers to empathy and deep-seated stigmas are feeding workplace toxicity and perpetuating the ongoing mental health struggles in today’s workplaces. Read the report to learn about our 10 strategies you can adopt today to support mental wellbeing in your organization.
Empathy Under Pressure:
What’s Getting in the Way of Putting Empathy Into Action?
On paper, empathy is defined as “the ability to understand an experience the feelings of another.” But in reality, empathy is a complex, multi-faceted term that holds different value for different people. This year, our data revealed that despite the high value everyone places on empathy, overall execution is low.
Here’s a Look at Some of Our Top Findings
How Empathy Impacts our Mental Health
The mental health stigma is still running rampant in today’s workplaces. Stigma, a lack of support from leadership, and misaligned mental health benefits play large roles in how the workplace impacts our mental health.
from 2023
The C-suite is Struggling
While CEOs say they themselves are more empathetic than they were four years ago, barriers to being empathetic in the workplace are driving a wedge between how CEOs want to show up and how employees perceive them.
Employees Crave Flexibility
I took a $10,000 pay cut to take this job because of work from home.”
– Government employee interview, 2024 State of Workplace EmpathyAmong employees’ top-ranked empathetic benefits they say support empathy and work-life balance, flexibility makes up half the list. Employees increasingly seek autonomy over their schedules, favoring flexible work hours (94%) and flexible locations (90%) as key empathetic benefits—even over annual compensation increases (88%).
Is Workplace Toxicity Perpetuating the Mental Health Stigma?
CEOs (81%), HR (72%), and employees (67%) agree or strongly agree that companies view someone with mental health issues as weak or a burden. This year’s findings suggest a strong correlation between workplace toxicity and mental health issues.
from 2023
from 2023
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