Can we talk about the elephant in the room?!
Mental Health Industries/Companies have been making noise this past year and half over how Mental Health has intercepted into the workplace.
New ideas, faster access, new innovations are promised everyday to provide the employee a way to seek help without losing the industries productivity.
Great news all around! But here is what no one really talks about- the aftermath, when employee discusses their mental health with their employer- repercussions! Demotion! Pushes the employee harder!
Personal opinions from an employer of what mental health looks like, makes the employee more afraid to speak up! The employee makes mistakes, and eventually are let go, or take a step back from the workplace. Sick leave begins !
Let’s put this into Statistic Analysis – 500,000 Canadians missed worked today, due to mental health issues and only 23 percent would speak about their mental health with their employer ! Main statement an employee asks themselves “ if I tell my boss I need time off because I feel off, they will give my position to someone else or say they can’t rely on me”
So instead of making it about the employee around mental health in the workplace- let’s begin to teach employers and management on the “how to’s”
Educating managers about mental health; have them participate in mental health first aid workshops; talk about their own experience around stigma; how to engage in talks with employees ( not all managers understand that listening skills are far more beneficial than voicing out the rules of the company).
When all of the above is achieved and completed by managers/employers – only then implementation of programs can be introduced!!
The problem truly isn’t all around the employee, it is how employers really think what mental health is!
Easier and faster access allows the increase of productivity in a company – but humans are not robots! Healing takes time! So let’s provide that space, that respect to the employees because without them, companies /services would not thrive!!
Let’s stop band-aiding the truth about Mental Health in the Workplace and let’s get to the root ! That’s where sustainability, productivity, Success lives:)