Clocking in while falling apart

Tendai Gukutikwa
Health Reporter
THE numbers are stark.
A recent workplace wellness assessment across four major organisations in Zimbabwe revealed that 85,5 percent of employees arrive at work already exhausted or too tired to concentrate.
Another 82,7 percent battle financial stress, while 62,6 percent live with mental health challenges ranging from anxiety and depression to substance abuse and gambling addiction.
Nearly one in three has experienced an anxiety disorder.
More than a quarter admit to being intoxicated at work at least once. And 28,8 percent have seen a colleague report for duty under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
Behind these statistics are ordinary Zimbabwean workers carrying invisible burdens that quietly erode productivity, weaken businesses, and slow economic growth.
Take Mrs Theresa Makoni, a typical employee in Zimunya township.
Her alarm rings at 4.30am. She drags herself from bed while darkness still blankets the city.
By 6am, she is at a crowded bus stop, anxiously scanning the road for transport. Every minute raises the fear of arriving late.
She knows traffic will choke the Mutare Flyover, as always. Each fare increase chips away at her already stretched budget.
Finally squeezed into a mushikashika, she spends the journey worrying about school fees, unpaid loans, rent, groceries, and a medical bill waiting at home.
Then there is the boss – the one who demands perfection, who wants reports submitted yesterday, who notices every mistake but rarely acknowledges effort.
By 8am, Mrs Makoni is physically present, but mentally drained. The day has barely begun, yet her energy is already spent.
At home, her husband frets over rising costs. Her children need money for school activities. Her phone buzzes with creditors’ messages. And still, she is expected to perform at her best.
To many people, this may simply appear to be stress.
Mental health experts warn that Mrs Makoni is, not a mere statistic, but one of a growing number of Zimbabwean workers, whose problem runs much deeper.
According to one of the experts, Professor Herbert Zirima of the Zimbabwe Psychological Society, who is also Lead and Managing Consultant at Identity Consultants, depression and anxiety are increasingly becoming part of everyday life in Zimbabwean workplaces.
“The employee may be physically present, sitting behind a desk or operating machinery, but mentally they are somewhere else. When concentration drops, mistakes increase. Reports are poorly written. Customer service suffers. Productivity declines. Safety incidents become more likely. Businesses lose valuable employees through burnout and resignation,” said Professor Zirima.
He said one major condition affecting workers is depression.
Professor Zirima said depression is often misunderstood because people mistake it for ordinary sadness.
“Sadness is normal when people lose loved ones, face relationship problems or experience difficult life events. But depression is different. It is a persistent feeling of sadness, hopelessness and loss of interest that continues over time and interferes with daily functioning,” he said.
He said employees living with depression often struggle to concentrate, lose motivation and withdraw from activities they once enjoyed.
Others become irritable, constantly tired or overwhelmed by feelings of hopelessness. Some battle disturbing thoughts about death.
Professor Zirima said the condition frequently goes unnoticed in workplaces because many people still treat mental illness differently from physical illness.
“If somebody breaks a leg at work, everyone rushes to help. But when someone says they are overwhelmed emotionally or mentally, people often dismiss it,” said Professor Zirima.
He said stigma often forces employees to suffer in silence, and that the challenge becomes even more severe when depression is accompanied by anxiety.
According to findings presented by Professor Zirima, about 33,7 percent of people experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lifetime.
“Unlike ordinary worry, anxiety involves excessive and persistent fear about everyday situations. Employees become trapped in cycles of overthinking. They worry about things that have not happened, and may never happen, and this could include a ringing phone which often triggers panic, an approaching deadline which becomes overwhelming, and a simple conversation with a supervisor becomes a source of fear,” he said.
Professor Zirima said one increasingly common workplace problem is performance anxiety.
“Another phenomenon is when the supervisor is a perfectionist, employees become so afraid of making mistakes that they struggle to perform effectively. They want to do everything perfectly like the boss wants, and so they end up not performing at all because they are afraid of failure,” he said.
He warned that some workplace cultures unintentionally worsen the problem.
“Managers who constantly apply pressure, focus only on mistakes or demand perfection may create environments where anxiety flourishes. Employees become afraid to take initiative, to innovate and to fail,” he said.
He said the result is lower productivity rather than improved performance.
Professor Zirima said another major driver of mental health challenges in Zimbabwean workplaces is financial stress.
“Mental health challenges do not develop in isolation. One of the biggest drivers of emotional distress is financial stress. The workplace is like a field under attack by pests, and financial stress is the most destructive pest affecting employees today.
“Most employees are worried about money, debt and expenses. These worries follow them into the workplace and affect their productivity,” he said.
Interestingly, he said research suggests financial stress is not confined to low-income workers, and that some senior managers and executives experience even greater financial strain than lower-paid employees.
“The issue is not always about salary levels. It is often about financial management, budgeting and debt management,” he said.
Fatigue is another major challenge.
Professor Zirima said many employers misunderstand when the working day actually begins.
“As employers, we might think the employee starts work at 8am. In reality, many employees start work at 4am when they wake up, prepare for work and begin the struggle for transport. By the time they arrive at work, many are already exhausted. After work, they face the same struggle trying to get home. Many then begin a second shift running side hustles or other income-generating activities.
“They wake up tired, work while tired and go home tired,” he said.
The consequences of depression, anxiety and fatigue stretch far beyond individual workers because when employees are distracted, fatigued, anxious or depressed, businesses suffer through reduced productivity, higher absenteeism, staff turnover, workplace accidents and increased healthcare costs.
Professor Zirima said the national economy suffers too. He said when large numbers of workers are struggling mentally and emotionally, economic growth inevitably slows.
“An economy depends on the productivity of its workforce, Zimbabwe depends on those employees that are depressed, fatigued and anxious because of their supervisor. Who do you think suffers then? It is the company’s productivity, the economy of the nation. Mental health, therefore, is not merely a personal issue. It is a workplace issue, a business issue and ultimately, an economic issue,” he said.
Another expert, Dr Shingi Mugaviri, the Occupational Safety and Health Promotion and Training Manager at the National Social Security Authority (NSSA), speaking recently, said the country still lacks sufficient trained occupational health and counselling professionals to adequately respond to workplace mental health cases.
“We still have a gap in trained occupational health personnel and counselling capacity within workplaces to effectively deal with mental health challenges,” she said.
She said organisations must move beyond treating employee wellness as an annual awareness campaign.
Instead, she said they should invest in financial literacy programmes, counselling services, fatigue management systems, transport support initiatives and regular workplace wellness assessments.
“Ultimately, employees do not leave their personal struggles at the office gate.
‘‘They carry financial worries, family pressures, relationship problems, transport frustrations and mental health challenges with them every day. The burden does not stay at home. It walks into the workplace every morning.
“Until organisations acknowledge the invisible battles many employees are fighting, countless workers will continue to sit behind desks, operate machinery, serve customers and attend meetings while their minds remain elsewhere. They will be present in body but absent in mind,” she said.
She said the cost of that absence is being paid, not only by employees, but by businesses and the nation itself.