Understanding the Importance of Mental Health in the Security Industry

In order to address the Mental Health of the security personnel we need to consider two basic factors even though the job roles or job definition of a security personnel isn’t heavily jaded there still is a high stress level amongst them.

Imagine you need to sit on a table for 12 Hours doing nothing but stare at the empty space.

Or

Let’s say you are tasked with walking around your society block for 8 or 12 hours at a stretch.

In either of these cases, you would end up being bored to death just by doing this for a day. Now imagine if you had to do this for an entire month!!! You would be tearing your hair out, and how frustrating would this be if I’d go on to say that this shall be your career job?

Being paid for doing not much but being physically present is not the standard job role of a security personnel, they do more than that. What we need to understand is the impact of Occupational Stress on people & Security Personnel or the Frontline Warriors are prone to falling a prey to the stress induced issues.

In order to address the Mental Health of the security personnel we need to consider two basic factors even though the job roles or job definition of a security personnel isn’t heavily jaded there still is a high stress level amongst them. The other things we need to account for is that there is a relationship between the associated factors & occupational stress (OS).

In this case what needs to be understood is that role ambiguity, long hours, tight deadlines have been spoken & are known about as the factors which lead to occupational stress but equal weightage needs to be given to the physical parameters too which lead to OS.

As an employer there are a few things which one needs to keep in mind when hiring and managing security personnel. These will not only help you retain good security personnel but also allow you to extract the best from them in terms of Job Roles.

· Physical Illnesses

· Psychological Conditions

· Workplace Conditions

· Work - Life balance

· Salary

· Shift Timings

· Job responsibility

· Leaves

· Role ambiguity

· Work overload

· Travelling Distance

· Job security

· Marital status

· Number of dependents

 Not only does physical illness affect the health of security personnel but work-life balance is also a leading factor for occupational stress.

The employment routines of the security personnel gave them limited time for other activities and family, led to behaviour change, influenced disharmony in relationships, and family issues. So due to this the life becomes meaningless for them. 

Considering security personnel profiles and stress factor levels, the organizational environment may be considered as the prima-facie source of stress & also the best way to mitigate it.

 A good mental health can be considered a significant factor regarding every profession including security personnel and occupational stress can be mentioned as a harmful effect that can break the flow of the good mental health.

Conducting stress management workshops and mentoring security personnel to cope up with the daily stressors that they should face due to their job profile can be recommended and to boost their emotional well-being and mental well-being.

Psychological health needs a great deal of attention, it needs to be faced and dealt with. Everybody knows there is no such thing as usual, there is no black-and-white definition of usual. The usual is subjective. There’s only a messy, inconsistent, silly, hopeful version of how we feel most regular, normal & ordinary in our lives.

The frontline warriors are your first line of protection & privacy for you, your data & your assets. It’s high time the organization & its stakeholders give importance to these people who keep doing jobs which are routine, mundane & thankless in nature.