Letter of the Day | Broken by the nine to five
Published:Friday | October 17, 2025 | 12:05 AM
THE EDITOR, Madam:
For too many employees, the workplace is reduced to a purely transactional entity focused on making ends meet and satisfying the superficial status of being a productive citizen. The workplace now feels like a perfectly calibrated petri dish for breeding stress, anxiety, and burnout, they are places of fragile survival.
Across the board, workplaces are quietly becoming the weapons formed against their employees. From the public sector, where workers are drowning in inequity, bureaucracy, and political victimisation, to the BPO sector, where agents answer call after call under relentless pressure, to the hotel sector, where employees must always have a smile under invisible mental pressure, and let’s not forget our teachers, who must endure under-resourced and overcrowded classrooms. For too many Jamaicans, stress in the workplace has become a mental strain.
The fact is that toxic workplaces present real consequences. Hostile supervisors, subtle workplace bullying, unclear communication, micro-aggression, and constant pressure ‘to do more with less’ can take a psychological toll. When employees are stripped of agency, recognition, and respect, the result is not only decreased productivity but also emotional exhaustion. Research has proven that toxic workplaces have been linked to increased absenteeism, substance abuse and misuse, physical health issues, and, yes, suicide.
In Jamaica, the conversation around mental health has amplified, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. While we speak loudly, silence reigns because amplification without action is useless. While we talk loudly, employees silently battle insomnia, panic attacks, and depression. The stigma around mental health remains the invisible barrier between employees speaking out and remaining quiet because vulnerability may cost them opportunities or even their jobs. Silence is useful only to reinforce the stigma.
Workplace mental health issues are not novel but are becoming harder to ignore. We are normalising the dysfunctions. Long hours are seen as dedication. Anxiety? That is pressure to be productive. Too many managers dismiss employees feeling drained and detached as a bad attitude. When mental health issues are overlooked, the ripple effect impacts far beyond the workplace. Families suffer when adults go home from work irritable and exhausted. The country suffers when exceptional talent is wasted in toxic work environments instead of being channelled to foster innovation and creativity for meaningful national growth.
We are compelled to reimagine our workplaces as a community where employees can thrive. It means leaders must lead with grace and equity. It means offering mental health support services and opening the dialogue to reduce the stigma. It means employees must demand fair treatment and set boundaries without fear of reprisal. Employers must invest in well-being with equal vibrancy; a pay cheque or sizeable bonus cannot justify mental health abuse, nor is ignorance an excuse.
The truth is that the place that ‘feeds’ you should not simultaneously make you sick. When work becomes a source of stress, anxiety, or burnout, it is a warning that must not be ignored. The cost of neglecting mental health is more than a productivity loss; it is a loss of innovation, creativity, and national well-being.
DR ALFRED DAWES
Shadow Spokesman on Health
and Wellness