In the UK, Huw Edwards, the BBC News anchor, has been at the centre of flabbergasting accusations dominating the news this week. For my American readers, he’s the equivalent of Peter Jennings or Walter Cronkite – someone who the viewers trust. Huw is currently in hospital suffering from a mental health episode. Let’s be clear – you don’t get admitted as an in-patient for mental health issues unless it is very serious indeed.
The hospitalisation happened shortly after the Sun newspaper accused Huw of behaving inappropriately with a younger person. I will not get into the confusion behind the newspaper reports. It is clear, though, that the newspapers do not know the complete story. Indeed, we do not yet know if the accusations against Huw are true.
However, since his wife announced Huw was the mystery TV personality accused of wrongdoing, other people have come forward. They have said that they too were the recipients of improper behaviour from Huw Edwards. They talk of creepy messages and inappropriate language. There was one common feature between what these people said, though. They felt unable to report the offensive behaviour because of who Huw was and the position he held. They feared for their jobs.
As a psychologist, I am interested in why someone wants to send such messages. What triggers them to behave in such a way that they too would ultimately find unacceptable? Listening to Times Radio the other morning, a close friend of Huw Edwards revealed he has struggled to come to terms with the death of his father 13 years ago. His friend said that Huw has also been troubled because Oxford University rejected him. Yet Huw has a PhD from the University of Wales, so he is clearly intellectually capable. Unresolved problems in our past, though, are frequent triggers for altered behaviour in our present.
We also need to consider the environment in which people work. As “the face” of the BBC, junior staff would have admired Huw, almost putting him on a pedestal. But there is a problem when we place people on a pedestal in this way. Just ask all those admirers who truly believed that Boris Johnson was their saviour. When we elevate someone to a significant status, they can alter their behaviour, not always positively.
Putting someone on a pedestal places huge mental pressure on the individual. Huw Edwards was expected to “carry” the BBC, something that would also be an enormous struggle for anyone trying to cope with clinical depression.
The combination of mental health issues, combined with being on a pedestal and a pressured job, is an explosive combination. Add to that unresolved tension from the past and you cannot predict what an individual will do. Neither can they.
We should help others realise that someone in our office who is put on a pedestal is just human, like the rest of us.. Otherwise, the behaviour of everyone in the office will alter, which will change the way the person on the pedestal behaves – often negatively.
Similarly, if a person on a pedestal behaves unacceptably, then we must help those affected deal with the situation. Ignoring things, or hoping they will resolve themselves naturally, only allows any unacceptable behaviour to continue unchecked. That also contributes to a deterioration in the mental health of your work colleagues.
You might think all this is obvious. However, workplaces clearly are not dealing with issues that affect the mental health of employees. A survey by The New Statesman has shown that more than half of workers say their job negatively affects their mental health. For younger generations, it is two-thirds. Maybe that is why there is a growing trend on TikTok about “bed rotting”. This is where young people just spend the entire day in bed because they cannot face what the day brings them. Younger people are prioritising their mental health over work.
If a recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is anything to go by, one in five of the people you work with will have depression. According to the Mental Health Foundation, almost a third of the people you work with will also have anxiety. Together, this means that half the people at your place of work are suffering mental health issues. That also suggests there’s a 50:50 chance that you are one of them.
If the Huw Edwards episode tells us anything, it is that we cannot ignore mental health issues at work. It should also be a warning to managers that the culture they create in the workplace itself can cause mental health issues. Dealing with mental health at work that needs to be given priority. It is also the fact that we all need to ensure that our workplaces are not the cause of mental health issues. The statistics suggest another story. They show that there are too many toxic workplaces which could cause mental health issues. Don’t just deal with mental health issues at work – stop them from happening in the first place.
