Our young people face a mental health crisis: the solution is in our hands
A new report into the mental health of 18 to 24-year-olds should make business leaders sit up and pay attention. Without action now, the evidence suggests that we will all pay a hefty price.
Several recent studies show that we are failing our young people when it comes to providing them with the three basic requirements for good mental health: social relationships; meaningful work; and the opportunities for personal growth.
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59% are ‘Languishing or struggling’
The latest report by AXA indicates that 59% of young adults are considered to be ‘Languishing or struggling.’ Behind the headlines, the struggles of individual young people paint a fuller picture.
Anand has already met the digital colleague who he believes will replace him. Working on the helpdesk for one of the world’s largest corporations, he’s expecting his role to be replaced by the bot. “My customers will hate them, but it’s about saving money and ticking a box.”
Zoe has had over 50 interviews so far – all online all carried out by AI agents. She’s assumed that they are not going any further purely because she has not heard anything back. She strongly suspects that nobody has even looked at her recordings.
Theo was thrilled to join as a graduate recruit for one of the large professional services firms, being selected out of several thousand candidates. He is living at home with his parents. Instead of going into the office every morning, he gets out of bed and walks across his bedroom, puts his headset on and logs on.
Hybrid and working from home
We’ve changed the names to preserve anonymity, but Anand, Zoe and Theo’s stories mirror those of multiple young people to whom we’ve talked over recent months.
A study by Lambert and Schindler from LSE suggests that, while much has been written about the potential ‘Jobpocalypse’ threatened by AI, hybrid and working from home may also help to explain the slump in mental health.
In the past young people learnt by observing and working closely with senior colleagues. This is the process by which they absorb both tacit knowledge and social skills, building an organisation’s all-important social capital.
Gen Z are least likely to prefer remote work
But it seems that the stereotype of recalcitrant youngsters being pressured by their seniors to return to the office, has it precisely backwards. Gallup’s research indicates that Gen Z are the least likely of all generations to prefer remote work. The JLL Global Workers’ Survey similarly highlights Gen Z as the generation who most values in-person contact.
This is hardly surprising. According to the AXA survey our young people are lonely and stressed out by pressure to spend too much time on screens. They reach for screens as an antidote for loneliness, but they understand the paradox at work here – screen time makes the problem worse. 75% tell us that too much screen time negatively effects their daily lives.
Hyper-connectivity has not cured loneliness — it has deepened it… We know that real human contact is irreplaceable, yet we surrender five hours daily to screens.
The bond with the line-manager
Lack of in-person contact means a lack of pastoral care. One Chief People Officer, whom we interviewed for our 2024 survey, shared the example of the “early careers” colleague who might be taking an important Teams meeting sitting in their bedroom. This meeting might be contentious with harsh comments being made.
Where people are physically present with one another, the line manager might pick up on the atmosphere in the room, allowing them to anticipate tensions or conflicts and manage them. In a virtual world those concerned might be left to ruminate on the conflict, possibly for days. In her words, “The bond between the line manager and the report has been broken.”
Gallup’s latest survey shows recent falls in employee engagement following two decades of steady improvements. The decline is sharpest among early careers colleagues.
Social connection
Gallup explicitly recommends in-person office time for younger employees because they need: Development; mentoring; social connection; exposure to workplace norms. Gallup notes that many young workers themselves want these benefits.
The opportunity for personal growth or self-enhancement is a primary driver of mental health. We owe it to our young people to take Gallup’s recommendations seriously. This means committing to in-person development. Large-scale online platforms like Udemy and similar are unlikely to help, given that excessive screen time and feelings of isolation are part of the problem. Learning is above all a social activity. The only way to strengthen interpersonal skills is by being with actual people.
75% of jobs are AI exposed
According to a recent PwC report, 75% of jobs in the economy are considered AI-exposed. While a mere 25% of jobs – surgeons, hairdressers, chefs, etc. – are not AI exposed.
The most alarming statistic is that since the introduction of ChatGPT, entry-level jobs for the 75% of industries that are AI-exposed has flatlined. That’s the finding of the study which analysed a vast dataset of job advertisements globally.
PwC argues that of the jobs advertised by AI-exposed industries, the nature of the work is polarizing. For some roles as AI delivers the more mundane task, the requirement is for a skill set more typically associated with senior leaders; one that is characterised by the need for communication, collaboration co-ordination problem solving and motivating others. PwC labels these roles as “professionalised.”
However, there’s another set of roles for which the reverse dynamic is at play. With AI more likely to be doing the more stimulating and mentally creative aspects of the work, the human is relegated to what is increasingly known as “bot-sitting”. Or “bot s*itting” (Excuse our coyness but you take the point.) In laughably euphemistic terms, PwC dubs these roles, “democratized”.
The study shows that new roles in the 75% of industries that are exposed to AI, 70% will be democratized (mentally downgraded.)
Think of the recent Hollywood screenwriters’ strike. The advent of AI meant that studio bosses wanted to alter the role of the writers they employ. Rather than generating original creative content, scripts would be generated by AI with human writers deployed to assess, perfect, fine-tune and generally shape them up. It won’t surprise you that the hourly rate for the latter is considerably less than the former.
Our young people are unlikely to be screenwriting, but it’s illustrative of the downgrading of more intellectually stimulating work.
Create opportunities for worthwhile and rewarding work
This matters because the third pillar of mental health is the opportunity to do worthwhile and rewarding work. If this pillar continues to erode along with the other two – social relationships and personal growth – it’s not difficult to see dark clouds on the horizon.
The solutions are hardly difficult to spot. They will require some investment, but the cost is modest compared to the price we will all pay should the current situation be left to slide further.
- Retain intellectually stimulating elements: As organizations seek cost savings through automation, they must also prioritise retaining elements of work that are intellectually stimulating, challenging and rewarding. The most far-sighted organisations are already doing this – building in intentional activities for job enrichment.
- Increase social connectedness: We need to invest actively in social time. This means in-person events, both fun and work focused, combining learning events with off-sites, away days, all-hands, and social activities.
- Focus on line-managers: We need to reinvest in the role of the line manager. Every shred of evidence tells us that the relationship with the line manager is pivotal. It is the primary driver of engagement and commitment. The Gallup survey shows that the only organizations that are showing improving employee engagement invest in the capabilities of their line managers.
- Invest in soft skills: We need to invest in the soft skills of early talent, through in-depth and in-person experiences that challenge, stimulate and connect people socially.
If it takes a village… then we – middle and senior managers – are the village. Any CEO unmoved by the arguments about building a better society should look at the straight business case. The choice is between a future organization that is brittle, energy sapping and bereft of talent and one that is committed, adaptable and socially cohesive.
To find out how we can help leaders in your organisation to be more impactful, influential and persuasive visit www.threshold.co.uk
