Mental health issues are now the most prevalent cause of sick leave in Finland. It is common for an employee’s declining occupational wellbeing to result in a sick leave referral, while nothing changes at the workplace itself.
“When this happens, the symptoms tend to reappear after a while,” says Doctoral Researcher Pinja Ryky of the University of Helsinki.
Ryky is calling for more collective methods of tackling coping problems in workplaces.
Ryky’s doctoral study looked at the training given to managers to help them promote occupational wellbeing and solve related problems.
“The training approached the subject via the managers’ own wellbeing, as well as mindfulness, or conscious presence. Such approaches disguise the organisation’s responsibilities in managing occupational wellbeing,” says Ryky.
The study trialled a new approach in which both instructors and participants in management training explored occupational wellbeing development in the long term and from the perspective of the management system. Ultimately, however, the participants’ attention remained fixed on individual traits rather than extending to the organisational level.
The study recommends enhancing managers’ ability to identify occupational health problems. They should be able to determine when employees require individual support and when organisational practices must change.
Managers should also regularly tackle issues communally. For instance, where increasing stress is observed within a workplace community, both the causes and the necessary changes should be considered collectively.
Resolving problems together could ease managers’ sense of being isolated in the workplace.
“Framing occupational wellbeing as an individual’s responsibility wears down managers as well, as it makes them personally responsible for both their own and their employees’ wellbeing. In reality, managers too need the support of the community,” says Ryky.
Ryky undertook her doctoral study as part of her role as Senior Specialist at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health.
“My own past experience of job burnout is what led me to take on the topic. The research has also shifted my thinking, and I now understand more clearly how work life structures affect mental health.”
Pinja Ryky will defend her doctoral thesis on 28 August 2026 at the Faculty of Educational Sciences, University of Helsinki. Details are available in the University’s
Pinja Ryky
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