Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being
Frameworks and risk factors
Candidates should know psychosocial hazard frameworks (workload, control, reward, community, fairness, values-the classic effort–reward and demand–control models), burnout dimensions (exhaustion, cynicism/depersonalization, reduced efficacy), and the distinction between burnout and clinical depression. Burnout is an occupational phenomenon, not a medical diagnosis. Know the difference between prevention (primary: redesign work), early intervention (secondary: support, EAP), and treatment/rehabilitation (tertiary).
Program design traps
A frequent trap is treating well-being as an individual responsibility-offering mindfulness apps while ignoring workload. Another is measuring program success by attendance rather than by outcomes such as sick leave, turnover, or validated well-being scores. Also watch for confidentiality breaches when EAP utilization data are reported to leaders at too granular a level.
Stigma and disclosure
Understand stigma, disclosure risk, and accommodations. Leaders' behavior (modeling boundaries, normalizing help-seeking) influences culture more than posters do.
Rule of thumb
Apply the hierarchy of controls to psychosocial risk: eliminate or redesign the hazard (workload, scheduling) before offering individual coping resources. Individual-level programs alone rarely move organizational outcomes.
Worked example
A firm reports high burnout. Instead of a resilience workshop, the consultant recommends workload audit, schedule flexibility, and supervisory training, with a support pathway for affected staff-primary, secondary, and tertiary layers aligned.