Is Macho Culture preventing good OH?

Occupational health (OH) can often be the corner stone of good employee wellbeing. But unfortunately, if no-one is aware of the issue, it cannot be fixed. Is Macho Culture preventing good OH?

It has recently come to light that suicide in the UK is the most common cause of death in men under the age of 50. At 16 suicides per day, it’s 3 times higher than the statistics for female suicide.

The recent culture of infamous sayings such as ‘man up’ and ‘YOLO’ (You Only Live Once) have embedded a culture aimed at dismissing worry as a weakness and thinking of consequences as boring. No one, especially men, want to be seen as weak or boring and it’s created the belief that men should ‘man up’ and stop complaining about that back pain you’ve had for weeks. Or to man up and forget about the nasty chesty cough you’ve developed recently. What’s more, if an illness isn’t physically noticeable (such as mental health issues), it’s even harder to describe and garner an understanding of, from others.

There have previously been reports carried out by the HSE (Health and Safety Executive) describing the effects that the Macho Culture has had on the implementation of health and safety regulations in predominately male companies. All in all, the impacts have been negative – the general consensus was that an interest in health and safety was seen as softness and a weakness in personality. It’s such a shame.

In 2012/13 stress was the no.1 reason for long term absence from work and 40% of all work place illnesses were for stress. There was an interesting gender split in the statistics that could only be explained by a lack of reporting by males.There was an estimated 86,000 cases of work related stress for men, but 135,000 for women.

For men specifically, the 16 – 35 year old and 55+ group had a lower incidence rate of stress than the average for all persons of all ages – this is staggering giving the high suicide rates amongst males. The conclusion must be this: Males simply aren’t reporting their mental health issues and not getting the help they need. If this is the case with mental health issues, there is a valid argument for the under reporting of all male illnesses (work place or otherwise).This lack of reporting is preventing OH doing the good it can do and taking the onus away from the workplace, despite the highest cause of stress being work related.

OH now have a much higher responsibility to entrench a new Macho Culture which outlines that making sure your health is your priority, is the macho thing to do. Rather than waiting for your male employees come to you, give them options to open up about their health issues to an impartial party, outside of work using an EAP (Employee Assistance Programme).

If you’d like to know more about EAPs and how to ensure your male employees report their health issues, Honeydew Health have plenty of experience and have had plenty of success in this field – just get in touch for tips!