Struggle over employees psychological well-being. The politization and depolitization of the debate on employee mental health in the Finnish insurance sector

ABSTRACT This article examines the emergence and evolution of the discourse on mental health problems as an occupational health risk in the professional debates among Finnish insurance workers from a historical perspective. Our findings indicate that the mental health discourse was influenced by organizational, cultural and political changes. We also found that the employee’s role and the power relations in the insurance sector influenced the way in which mental health problems were articulated in professional debates. The workplace democratization movement of the 1970s and the increasing power of trade unions paved the way for the recognition and manifestation of employees’ mental ill-health and vice versa, the increase of mental health problems legitimized the activity of the union. In the 1990s and 2000s, however, the individualization trend led to the view that employees themselves were responsible for maintaining and regulating their own mental health and competitiveness, once again limiting their opportunities to express their grievances at the workplace and undermining the solidarity between employees.