Industry's $3 Billion Problem

MENTAL HEALTH ON THE JOB

HAVING learned the wisdom of caring for its workers' physical welfare, U.S. industry is now debating a new question: Should it also concern itself with their mental health? Once, a worker's emotional state was considered strictly his own business, like the sort of food he ate. But in recent years, many a corporation has recognized a close relationship between the worker's mental state and his performance on the job. Many businessmen are coming to believe that it is only "practical humanitarianism" to try to increase efficiency by improving employees' mental health.

Charles J. Zimmerman, president of the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co., estimates that each year mental illness on the job costs business $3 billion directly--enough to buy 150 million hours of psychiatric time at $20 an hour--and another $9 billion in indirect costs. Psychiatrists believe that about one in four U.S. workers has a personality disturbance, ranging from anxiety and psychosomatic illnesses to the severe mental disorders, e.g., schizophrenia, that afflict an estimated 1% of the working force. Such disturbances, they contend, are the real causes of many of industry's most common employee difficulties: alcoholism, accidents, resistance to authority, high job turnover, shirking, chronic complaints. Emotional illness causes more absenteeism than any other illness except the common cold, and psychiatrists believe that 70% of all those fired for other reasons (fighting with the boss, sloppy work) are actually suffering from emotional disorders.

To find ways to eliminate such troubles, mental health programs headed by full-or part-time psychiatrists are operated by such companies as Eastman Kodak, Metropolitan Life Insurance, International Business Machines, Du Pont, New York Telephone Co. and American Cyanamid. Hundreds of other companies hire consulting psychologists to plumb their workers' difficulties. The number is still small compared with the total of corporations--partly because highly paid psychiatrists are difficult to attract to industry--but it is growing. U.S. Steel is about to set up a fulltime program, "as a natural step in the development of a medical program," and Bell Telephone Co. of Canada is considering one. Says Dr. Graham Taylor, consulting psychiatrist for two Montreal firms: "Industrial psychiatry is at the threshold of a stage of expansion and development."

Most of the mental health programs are aimed at prevention, spotting the emotionally disturbed person before he gets into serious trouble. The New York Telephone Co. starts right at the door of its personnel office, puts great reliance on careful employee interviewing and aptitude tests to put workers in suitable jobs that will not cause or aggravate an emotional upset. Many company psychiatrists, unable to keep tab on all workers, train managers and supervisors to watch for signs of mental disturbance. Dr. Alan McLean, fulltime psychiatrist for IBM, spends half his time coaching executives in this art. He warns them against trying to play psychiatrist, insists that workers be immediately referred to a psychiatrist or plant doctor for "emotional first aid." Plant psychiatrists usually handle only fairly simple cases, such as unwarranted health anxieties or constant fatigue, send workers to outsiders for prolonged treatment.

Emotional disturbance is no respecter of rank. Du Pont discovered in a study that management, supervisory and hourly paid employees had mental difficulties in the "exact" proportion to their numbers in the company. Contrary to the common belief that executives often break down because of the stress of work, psychiatrists have found that the great majority of mental difficulties have their source outside work, are usually only aggravated or brought to the breaking point by a tense on-the-job situation. That rule applies to the $4,000-a-year janitor as well as the $25,000 executive. Though the janitor may be under less pressure at work, he may also be trying to buy a $10,000 home, send five kids through school, deal with a nagging wife.

Some psychiatrists nonetheless believe that the impersonality of modern mass production at least contributes to the problem of mental health. Others, like Du Font's psychiatric chief, Dr. Gerald Gordon, feel that the job actually provides a needed center of reality. Says Dr. Gordon: "Industry is one of the few realistic situations in our present culture, because its success depends on the hard, cold profit-loss statistics. What is really good, sound business is also good mental health."

Some difficulties on the job can be solved almost as soon as they are discovered. At Jones & Laughlin Steel, an alert foreman noticed that a worker constantly complained of back pains when he was under direct supervision, worked well when he was alone. The company's consulting psychiatrist confirmed that the man was "allergic to supervision"; he was put to work in a position of responsibility--by himself--and the pains disappeared. The boss may often appear as a maniacal tyrant to the worker who is grappling with his own problems. When a pretty Du Pont receptionist complained bitterly to Dr. Gordon about her boss, he discovered that she had a personal problem, suggested a way to solve it. Later, with her problem solved, she called Dr. Gordon to ask if he had talked to her boss (he had not), because "he's suddenly a changed man."

Even in fairly serious cases, some psychiatrists feel that it is better to keep a man or woman on the job during treatment. Says Dr. Raymond J. Murray, medical director of Sperry Gyroscope Co.: "It is surprising how disturbed a person can be and stay on the job." A tougher on-the-firing-line approach is the basis of Du Font's program. Psychiatrist Gordon does not believe in coddling, thinks that a disturbed worker can be taught to face reality by being required to do his work the same as other workers. Dr. Gordon's theory is that expecting him to do as well as others inspires a certain confidence, gives him the feeling that his world is being held together while he recuperates. Du Pont tried this system on one worker who was losing 60 working days a year through nausea. When efforts to find the trouble failed, psychiatrists and his supervisor set up a realistic performance standard, insisted that he keep to it. The worker warned his boss that the strain would bring on the usual nausea. Said the boss: "Go to the window and throw up, then get back to work." The worker improved so much that he was later made a foreman.

Other psychiatrists do not agree with Du Font's hard-headed approach, insist on traditional psychiatric methods that take longer and treat a worker's psyche more carefully. In fact, the whole young field of industrial psychiatry is as rife with conflict as are the minds of its patients. One big problem, points out IBM Medical Director Dr. John Duffy, is that "there is no statistical yardstick" to measure the results of mental health programs, "since we aren't buying merchandise." Some businessmen still cling to the old idea that the worker's personal problems are his own business. But, as Dr. John Maclver, fulltime psychiatrist for America Fore Loyalty Group, says, "We have already established in fact that a psychiatric program in industry is not only feasible but high priority."

The important point, to both doctors and executives, is that the problem of mental health is finally out in the open, where it can be defined, understood and debated. Out of the debate over how to handle that problem, industry is sure to gain a new awareness of the need for mens sana in corpore sano among its workers--and, gradually, to do more and more about it.

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