Staff Reporter –
Embracing Mental wellbeing discussions at the workplace has been gaining significance around. Living in a rapidly changing world filled with uncertainty takes a toll on all of us—especially when it comes to our mental health. In an effort to bring happiness and drive positive associations this World Happiness Day, ITC Fiama aims to bring to the forefront possible methods that young India can adopt to manage stress, stay happy and content.
The ITC Fiama and Nielsen IQ’s Mental Wellbeing Survey 2022* throws light on work place pressures affecting millennials and GenZ today, highlighting that mental wellbeing is the key to long term happiness and success. Mental wellbeing, over the last few years, has been gaining significance in everyday life with dialogues around it strengthening momentum. Young adults, globally, are looking to transform their lifestyle with mental wellness at its very core. While this proactive dialogue on handling everyday stress and anxiety is a positive shift, the pressures of managing work stress is a growing concern among the country’s youth.
The survey findings indicate that Work and career decisions are key stressors for Millennials and GenZ respectively:
Work & Career Decisions: Work and career related decisions take the undisputed top spot in factors that cause stress to Indians, work aspects being the single largest cause of stress in 81% millennials and 47% of GenZ. GenZ also seem to feel the pressure of career decisions more than millennials while for the latter, work pressure and trying to balance their work and other aspects of life, politics at the workplace are the top factors causing stress. 57% millennials say that a negative mental health impacts their performance at workplace.
The Fiama Mental Wellbeing survey reveals further that causes of stress for women are different from those for men – Women, tend to feel more stressed due to work than men with 71% saying that they suffer a burnout to live up to the societal standards of success and 72% feeling that Monday blues are real.
Unlocking the key to happiness – ITC Fiama and Nielsen IQ’s survey on Mental Well-being reveals top De-stressors across key cities for GenZ and Millennials:
It is interesting to note that only 33% of GenZ are willing to seek immediate professional help if they have mental health issues. Young adults are exploring alternatives to de-stress – 43% turn to music to calm their nerves. For millennials, yoga, meditation as well as spending time with loved ones make it to the leading options to calm themselves, while social media has turned out to be a leading de-stressor for housewives who seek content that helps them destress.
Speaking around the importance of the mental wellbeing, Dr. Raghu Appasani, a Psychiatrist and Founder/CEO of the MINDS Foundation states, “We all have mental health issues and at any point in time, we are somewhere on that spectrum.” He explains that the rise in mental illness has exponentially grown in the past decade and observes, “We all are impacted by mental health distress at some point, whether we are rich, poor, young, or old; therefore, we must all become literate in the language of mental health to create an empathetic and compassionate approach to allow those suffering to no longer feel left in the dark.”
*The ITC Fiama Mental Wellbeing Survey was conducted with 870 men and women between the ages of 16-45 years across Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, in 2022.
