How mental health influences employee silence at work

What happens when the loudest voice in the room suddenly goes silent?

Consider a woman named Isla, known in her office as the idea generator. Regularly participates in meetings, offers opinions on new directions and criticizes strategies that are not aligned with company values. By all indications, she is a star employee.

Lately, however, her coworkers have noticed a change in Isla’s behavior. She is noticeably quiet in meetings and only intervenes when asked. She doesn’t contribute as much and seems disconnected from work. His vitality and passion for sharing ideas have been replaced by a palpable silence. Her coworkers can’t help but wonder: what happened to Isla’s voice?

This scenario may be hypothetical, but it is not uncommon in the workplace. Even the most expressive employees experience silent phases—intentionally withholding ideas, information, or concerns that might otherwise benefit them and their organization.

Research shows that there are many benefits to employees who speak up at work. In another recent study, we found that employees who spoke up more frequently and effectively were rated as better employees and more deserving of a promotion.

Research also shows that talking can improve your organization and team. performance, innovation and learning. On the other hand, when employees don’t speak up in the workplace, it can have serious consequences. Several notable organizational disasters, including the Boeing 737 MAX crashes and Challenger space shuttle disasterhave been linked to employee silence.

It follows, then, that if we want to reduce the prevalence of silence at work, we need to better understand why some employees are silent and explore how organizations can better intervene. To answer this question, our research explored how fluctuations in mental health, specifically symptoms of depression and anxiety, relate to fluctuations in employee silence.

Linking mental health to silence

mental health encompasses two continuums: well-being (such as positive self-esteem and a sense of purpose) and mental illness (such as symptoms of depression and anxiety). Everyone experiences varying levels of both, and these experiences tend to flare and subside over time.

Depression It involves persistent feelings of sadness and loss of interest, often accompanied by cognitive and physiological impairments such as inability to concentrate and exhaustion. Anxiety is characterized by feelings of insecurity and persistent worries that something will go wrong. It often includes various cognitive and physiological impairments, such as muscle tension and obsessive thoughts.

Depression and anxiety have become increasingly frequent worldwide: more than 20% of employees report clinical diagnoses of depression and anxietyand up to 75% report experiencing at least one symptom while working.

Experiencing depression and anxiety tends to changing employees’ perceptions of their work experiences as more negative, threatening and meaningless. These symptoms are related to the silence of employees because they take advantage Two main reasons why people retain ideas.: fear of a negative reaction (also known as defensive motive) and belief that nothing will change (also known as ineffective motive).

Accordingly, we predicted that experiencing depression would make employees feel that speaking is pointless, and experiencing anxiety would make them feel that it is dangerous, resulting in more silence.

Voice backup as an antidote

As organizational researchers and mental health advocates, we also explored whether certain organizational behaviors can counteract this tendency and identified vocal support as a possible antidote.

voice backup It reflects the degree to which people accept and/or support an employee’s ideas and concerns. We theorized that receiving support would challenge the belief that speaking is dangerous and useless, indicate that using your voice is actually a safe thing to do and can make a difference.

We tested our predictions by conducting an experience sampling study, which involved surveying 136 employees about their work experiences over four weeks. The results It supported our predictions that depression and anxiety relate to silence through ineffective and defensive motives, respectively.

Voice support, however, offered a silver lining: The impact of depressive and anxious symptoms on silence was reduced during weeks in which employees experienced greater support.

Implications for work

Our research shows how symptoms of mental illness can affect work engagement by causing employees to obsess over the potential negative consequences of speaking out.

However, a simple, low-resource action, such as offering encouragement when someone speaks, can counteract this cycle. This underscores the importance of developing a culture where employee input is genuinely valued, which can be as simple as leaders acting on the feedback they request.

We also show that silence is a way mental health challenges manifest at work. This is important because employees who remain silent are often mislabeled as “unengaged” or “lazy,” terms that are also used for Stigmatize those who suffer from mental illness.. Silence related to mental health is not due to a lack of attention or commitment; rather, it arises from heightened fears and concerns about speaking up at work.

Along these same lines, organizations should be careful to avoid unintentionally punishing employees with mental health issues, who are less likely to speak up and stand out. Although most organizations recognize the benefits of upward communication and the dangers of silence, many are unsure how to intervene.

Invest in well-being

When an employee is frequently silent at work, it may indicate a deeper problem beyond workplace factors. By recognizing these signs and understanding their causes, organizations, colleagues and leaders can take meaningful action.

To address this, workplaces must prioritize mental health by providing resources, support systemsand training to counter silence while Promote mental health and accommodate employees experiencing mental health issues..

Colleagues also play a vital role in this process. Since people spend most of their waking hours at work, colleagues are in a unique position to recognize changes in their coworkers’ behavior and intervene to offer support before things get worse.

Colleagues can openly express the value and meaning that their coworkers bring to their teams to help create an atmosphere where speaking up feels safe and valued. They can also encourage open discussions about mental health to reduce stigma, point each other to resources, and support each other through the difficult times we all inevitably experience.

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