Managing Mental Health | Personal and Agency Workplace Solutions

Many Americans have experienced ups and downs since March 2020. Fear and stress from the pandemic, job loss, financial concerns, and homeschooling, gave way to positives, like spending more time with family and re-evaluating what’s important.

4A’s Research partnered with Researchscape, an agile market research consultancy, to survey 1,000 people about their current mental health. Overall, the mental health of all respondents is positive; 69% rated their mental health as excellent or good.

Two interesting differences are seen in the results. First, women rated their mental health as
lower than men.

The National Bureau of Economic Research released a working paper in April 2020 titled The Impact on COVID-19 on Gender Equality outlining the following two reasons women are facing tougher times during the pandemic and resulting recession:

• Women’s employment is more concentrated in the industries hit hardest by the pandemic; restaurants, retail, hospitality, and health care.
• Shutdown of schools and daycares. This impacts both men and women, but women tend to take on more child-care responsibilities in a heterosexual household.

To manage their mental health, women are spending more time on hobbies (42%) and spending more time with family & friends (40%). Video chatting with friends and family (28%) is another way women are taking care of their mental health, according to our survey.

Men seek out exercise to help them manage their mental health; 38% compared to 31% of women. Men are also spending more time on hobbies (34%) and with family (33%), but at a lower rate than women.

Mental health by generation
The second result that stood out is Gen Z rates their mental health much lower than other generations. 29% of Gen Z respondents rate their mental health poor and terrible compared to 10% of Millennials, 9% of Gen X, and 4% of Baby Boomers.

The results also show that younger generations are taking more steps to manage their mental health over older generations. Gen Z is the leader in each available multiple choice option, except for exercising regularly — Baby Boomers beat them out by 2% points.

Exercising regularly is the one activity that the generations answered the most similarly.

Children 18 and under at home
The results don’t show a big difference in mental health between respondents with kids under 18 and those without. It is interesting to see that those with three or more children rank their mental health as excellent (34%) compared to those with 1 (28%), 2 (25%), and no kids (28%).

Please note, 34% of the survey respondents reported they have kids under 18, while 66% do not.

Solutions for addressing mental health in ad agencies
Mental health in ad agencies became a more urgent issue during the coronavirus pandemic. Stress, anxiety, and burnout were already top concerns, but as recent articles from a variety of ad industry publications point out, all mental health concerns have been amplified due to the pandemic.

Here are some examples of how agencies are supporting the mental health of their employees:

• Establish clear boundaries
• Champion parents
• Encourage breaks during the work day
• Flexible work policies
• Summer Friday or DIY long weekend policies.

The 4A’s offers I Am Here, an evidence-based solution that measurably improves the utilization of Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), and other workplace and non-workplace support. This program is free to 4A’s members.

Additional Resources:

• Adweek, What Agencies are Doing to Support the Mental Health of Their Employees, May 2020
• Digiday, ‘My mental abilities are impaired by work’: Disparity between bosses and staffers on mental wellness intensify, June 2021
• Digiday, Some agencies are giving summer Fridays a second look so employees can ‘enjoy their life again’, May 2021
• Digiday, ‘There’s no stopping work’: Confessions of an agency exec on lack of boundaries, time off amid the pandemic, April 2021
• The Drum, A third of Black talent say they’ll leave industry over lack of inclusion, finds AA census, June 2021
• The Drum, What to know when putting together your firm’s flexible working policy, May 2021
• Harvard Business Review, Don’t Underestimate the Power of Kindness at Work, May 2021

 

Researchscape is a member of AAP, which provides exclusive discounts for 4A’s members. Learn more about Researchscape and its custom survey service here.