Engineers' mental health

The working lives of LAMEs are interwoven with stress. Sometimes, it gets too much. Here’s how to spot the early signs and take action.

Maintenance engineers in aviation spend their days keeping aircraft finely tuned, so people can fly safely.

But, like many professionals whose priority is people’s safety, sometimes engineers put their own wellbeing last.

And an overload of relentless stress can lead to fatigue, burnout, and mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression.

Engineers aren’t alone in this. Nearly half of New Zealanders will experience mental illness or distress during their life.¹

“Prolonged periods of high stress (chronic stress) is detrimental to both our physical and mental health, particularly when it’s unabated,” says Alaska White, CAA’s Chief Advisor of Human Factors.

Paul's story

When Paul² stepped up to be the chief engineer at an aircraft maintenance company, his workload, roles, and responsibilities increased significantly.

And in the interests of supporting his team, especially those who were newer to the company, he took on some of their tasks that he could do more quickly.

Instead of the tasks transferring to them over time, it became the norm that Paul did them.

While he acknowledges now that he may have made a rod for his own back, he says it all felt manageable at first, and the effects of the ongoing stress were gradual.

“It sneaks up on you.”

Paul became heavily involved in managing customers, supporting staff, organising rosters to keep everyone working, running logistics, solving supply chain issues, and signing off engineering jobs.

He was sleeping just a few hours a night, with his days often starting around 3am when he woke and his “mind started ticking”. He was working up to 12-hour days, sometimes six days a week.

“I brushed it off”

Paul’s family and friends noticed his deteriorating mental state before he did. “My partner said, ‘We need to look at this seriously’. I brushed it off as ‘just how it is’.

“But I started to notice I was getting short with people and being more grumpy – including with customers and staff.”

Listen to the people who know you

Paul wishes he had listened. It would have helped him recognise some of his unhealthy behaviour patterns sooner, and he may have been quicker to put steps in place to better manage what was happening to him.

“Take note when people close to you are telling you things aren’t good. My partner was very good to me through this. Quite often, I would snap at her. I didn’t realise to what extent that was happening.”

The final straw

Some mornings, Paul didn’t want to get out of bed, and he began to have anxiety attacks.

“You have an overwhelming fear of what you need to achieve and you know you can’t do it.”

The final straw came when, after many months of relentless pressure, he was driving to work on his first day back after New Year.

“I had to stop and throw up on the side of the road. My stress levels were through the roof.”

Paul resigned a few weeks later.

A fresh start

It’s important to let your employer know if you have workload concerns or you’re feeling fatigued and stressed. They can’t fix it if they don’t know.

Looking back, Paul says he didn’t think enough about the personal consequences of the strain he was under.

“Afterwards, I thought I was a dumbarse. I put the job ahead of my family. I really regret how that damaged my relationship with my kids.

“After I resigned, my kids commented that I was smiling again. They said they hadn’t seen me smile for years.”

He wishes he had been more communicative with his staff when he was under pressure. He said sorry to some afterwards, and he apologised to customers who had got the sharp side of his tongue when he was under stress.

In his new job, Paul’s working hard to learn the ropes and enjoying his spare time.

“I’m enjoying spending time with my kids, and going out on a Saturday afternoon with my partner for lunch. Before, I was on call 24-7.”

He says that, while some engineers may say the industry is not how he has described it, that’s how it was for him, and he believes others face similar pressures.

There’s no silver bullet to fix it all, he adds. “It’s a job where there is stress, and you’ll never get rid of that, but it’s important to learn to manage it.”

Don’s story

Don McCracken has worked in aviation businesses for 35 years – in engineering, management, and leadership roles.

He still bears the emotional “scar tissue” from an incident when, as a young engineer, he released an aircraft back to a customer against his better judgement, without having been able to replicate the electrical fault the customer had complained of.

The fault recurred as the owner flew back to home base that night and, while the aircraft landed safely, Don says it took a long time for him to recover mentally and emotionally from what ensued.

Don says his decision to release the aircraft that day was part of a longer-term pattern of not wanting to let customers down.

In this case, he says the customer was a very successful person not used to being told ‘no’, and Don respected him a lot.

He says if he had the time again, he would have resisted the pressure he felt to release the aircraft back to the owner without having discovered the source of the fault.

And after the event, the company put clearer rules in place to support engineers’ decision-making – especially around resisting pressure from customers.

Traumatic investigation

Find a mentor or someone who will listen, not criticise or judge your actions.

The ensuing post-incident internal investigation was traumatic for Don. Such was the impact, that he considered leaving the industry.

He got through it with a combination of counselling and talking to others.

“It took a massive recovery for me to sign anything off again.”

“To try to get my confidence back, I talked to peers – licensed engineers who had been around longer. They were good listeners.”

He said the fact they worked in the same field, and had experienced similar problems, meant they understood and often had helpful advice.

To this day, Don says he finds the way to manage anxiety around decision-making in any aspect of a job is to talk it over with the team. Then everybody knows what the objective is, and there are no shortcuts.

Locking hurtful feelings away

He says during his recovery he put some of his more overwhelming feelings away in his “hurt locker”.

Even today, though, the feelings resurface when he faces similar decisions and situations. This can be helpful, he says, because it’s an opportunity to work through decisions from the perspective of what he does differently now. “You have feelings that help you not to go there again.”

What does the law say?

The law is clear about an employer’s responsibility to provide a safe physical and psychological workplace.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 (HSWA) “…requires Persons Conducting a Business or Undertaking (PCBUs) to provide and maintain a work environment that is without risks to safety and health, including mental health, so far as is reasonably practicable”, WorkSafe’s website says.

“As with other risks, we [WorkSafe] expect PCBUs to identify mental health risks and eliminate them from work so far as reasonably practicable. If the risks can’t be eliminated they should be minimised.”

Find out more about this in the “information and support” section at the end of this article.

Early warning signs

Alaska White says that disturbed sleep, poor concentration and moodiness are some of the classic early warning signs that your mental health needs some extra support.

“Left unchecked, these interconnected symptoms can lead to fatigue – an overwhelming feeling of mental and physical exhaustion that doesn’t improve much with sleep or rest. It can take months or years to recover from.

“The effects of fatigue can include degraded situational awareness and judgement, poorer accuracy and precision, delayed reaction time, and a struggle to prioritise tasks.”

Cycle of worry

For engineers, Alaska adds, these effects can be alarming in themselves because of the possible negative impacts on your performance and the safety of aircraft. This cycle of worry can keep the symptoms going.

Alaska says it’s important to let your employer know if you have workload concerns or you’re feeling fatigued and stressed. They can’t fix it if they don’t know.

And while some people will seek medical assistance and counselling to help get them back on track, Alaska says there are also practical habits that help us maintain good mental health.

Stay active and sociable

“Regular exercise, eating well, and drinking plenty of water helps promote the good sleep that’s so essential to our wellbeing,” Alaska says.

“Keep your social plans, even when you don’t feel like it. Lots of research shows that staying connected with supportive loved ones, friends, and peers is essential for our longevity, and physical and mental health.

“This can be especially important for engineers who work by themselves a lot, or have little separation between work and their personal lives.

“Do stuff you enjoy and learn new things. It helps with mindfulness (being ‘in the moment’, rather than thinking about the past or future), and it’s proven to increase your confidence and sense of achievement.

“Limit your alcohol consumption. After its short-term, feel-good boost, the effects of alcohol on your brain can make anxiety and depression worse. Other substance misuse, including prescribed medication, can have a similar effect.

“Contact your workplace Employee Assistance Programme (EAP), if that’s something your employer provides.

“Finally, it’s important to listen to your body. We’re all human, we’re all fallible, and we all feel stressed and low from time to time. But if you’re feeling low for a prolonged period (two weeks or more), talk to your doctor as the first point of contact to see what options are available to you for your situation.”

Shifting gear into leadership

Don knows a thing or two about making the shift from being a hands-on engineer to leading people and companies. And he’s got some advice that has stood the test of time – for him, and others he knows in the industry.

“A big part of day-to-day business requires solving nonengineering problems. Often significant stress is caused by not having the knowledge, skill, and experience to manage these types of problems.

“These can tax the brain with things like finances – such as ‘can we pay the wages?’, or ‘will that customer pay us on time?’

“Things like arguments over job costs, delays, and quality issues, or delays over invoice payments, invade every spare bit of thinking space – going around and around until they’ve created a permanent repetitive circuit in your brain.

“Other factors such as relationships, family, health, and emotional influences can also cause chaos within your regular thought processes.”

Build a support network

Don says connections are everything.

“Find a mentor or someone who will listen, not criticise or judge your actions. Ensure you have friends around you.

“Get advice and support from peer groups. As I said earlier, spend time with those who have worked in the same field before, as they’ll have experienced similar problems and may have helpful advice. Accept help when it’s offered.

“Include those who work for you in discussions around the work that the company is doing,” Don says, “because they’re an integral part of your success.”

Stay in the moment

“Try to solve only the problems of the day. Don’t search your mind to remedy the problems of the next day, week, or month. That’s best done at a planned strategy session with help from others.

“Finally, we all make mistakes, seldom are they catastrophic. The opportunity is to learn from them.”

Communication is crucial

John Keyzer, a CAA Aviation Safety Advisor with more than 24 years’ industry experience as a rotary-wing engineer, says the first COVID-19 lockdown taught him heaps about the importance of keeping communication lines open to manage stress.

“Ordinarily, my job takes me all over the North Island visiting maintenance providers as well as running workshops and courses across the country.”

When the first lockdown happened, John quickly developed a way to keep in touch with his industry contacts so he could keep fulfilling his role.

“I developed a series of questions to trigger discussion points, and I called all the senior engineers I knew.

“I would ask them, ‘How is this situation affecting you and your family? How is it affecting your business and your staff? What measures have you put in place to support them?’

“Then I’d tell them what the CAA was doing to keep people informed on developments and changes, and where to find information.

“Then, without directly mentioning mental health and wellbeing, I’d suggest if they needed any help or support or a listening ear, give me a call. I had the time.

“I was making at least six to eight calls a day, often for up to an hour, listening to people’s problems, offering advice and support.

“By the end of every day I was shattered, and that was from just being on the end of the phone.

“The upside was, within a week I was getting calls from senior engineers thanking me for my call, and saying it inspired them to do the same for their staff.

“This was soon followed by people calling me, checking in to see how I was doing.

“Being a listening ear can mean so much to an engineer who may be struggling.”

John managed his stress during that time by putting his effort into home DIY after work.

“I stripped wallpaper, I plastered walls, and I painted the whole inside of the house, one room at a time, over about eighteen months.”

He has one more tip for any engineer who’s feeling overwhelmed for any reason.

“Sit down with a sheet of paper. Write down anything that’s worrying or bothering you. Then separate them into things you can change, things you can’t change, and the things that are important to you. This may help you to look at things more objectively.

“Then sit down with a trusted person – your business partner, your life partner, a mentor – and decide your next steps. It may be easier when you’re thinking rationally.”

The role of industry groups

Don, who’s chair of the Aircraft Engineers’ Association of New Zealand (AEANZ), says groups like these can be great for building networks and getting access to training and development opportunities. AEANZ is part of the Aviation Industry Association, an umbrella body for the industry in New Zealand.

Engineering New Zealand, a professional body for engineers since 1914 and with branches all over the country, also offers a community of learning, collaboration, and support for engineers from all disciplines.

While Engineering New Zealand has no specific special interest group for aviation engineers, it says the Mechanical Engineering Group and the New Zealand Society for Safety Engineering have aviation engineers as members.

Organisational culture

The culture of a workplace – the ‘way we do things around here’ – plays a massive part in contributing to wellbeing at work. Take a deep dive into this topic, and learn more about the human factors that contribute to people’s performance, in a Vector Online article written by CAA Chief Advisor of Human Factors, Alaska White:

Engineers’ mental health. From stress to strength.

Information and support

Talk to someone

Need to Talk? Text 1737 or visit 1737.org.nz(external link)

Samaritans: 0800 726 666

Rural Support Trust: 0800 787 254

Healthline: 0800 611 116

Footnotes

¹ Mental distress prejudice and discrimination in Aotearoa | Key statistics 2022,
Mental Health Foundation of New Zealand.

² Not his real name.

Posted in Engineering and maintenance, Health and human factors;

Posted 4 months ago