It’s OK to talk
How a dedicated few are smashing the stigma around mental health at SumUp.
Priya Nair and Verónica Aguado, People Partners in our Berlin office, are on a mission to break the stigma around mental health at SumUp. We caught up with Priya to learn how they’re tackling this issue as part of a wider company wellness initiative. “We’ve been speaking about how to make SumUp a healthier organisation, and about how we should take a holistic approach to this. In Berlin, we have plenty of benefits related to physical health, like yoga classes and subsidised gym membership. We’re also doing quite a lot to support intellectual wellness, with our 360 feedback cycle, internal courses and training budget. But we agreed we should be doing much more around emotional wellbeing.”
Priya became convinced of the need for a wider discussion at SumUp earlier this year. “We had employees with symptoms of mental health problems, but they didn’t really know who to speak to at work, or how to arrange treatment. And in trying to get them the help they needed, I discovered that it can be tricky to arrange counselling and therapy in Berlin. It’s even harder if you don’t speak German, which is the case for many here.”
Priya has a very clear sense of what she hopes to achieve: “We want to get to the point where everyone at SumUp feels completely comfortable talking about mental health. And people should know how to get help.” When it came to defining the next steps, however, she wanted to involve as many SumUppers as possible. “We decided to kick things off with an internal awareness session. We figured this would be the best way to announce our intentions, to make it clear that this is something we really care about. I sent out an initial message and got an overwhelming response. Many people wanted to help and had stories to share. For research, we attended a mental health Meetup. This was great, as it gave us an idea of what other companies are doing. We also met Katy Campbell from APX–she’s really passionate about workplace mental health, so we asked her to take part in our event.”
And so, on World Mental Health Day (10 October, 2019), Katy and psychologist Suzanne Jones joined a panel of SumUppers–Angus, Anja, Kristiin and our co-founder Marc–for a session titled “It’s OK to talk.” Before a packed audience, the group discussed their personal connections to the topic, gave advice based on their experiences, and considered what we should be doing to make SumUp a healthier organisation.
The panelists agreed that this event was a vital first step. Marc observed, “By opening up and speaking about your own problems, you may find that other people in your life come forward to share their own struggles. This can help you see how common these issues are.” Katy agreed: “The more you share, the more other people share. It’s important to remember that everybody is not always OK, and that it’s OK to not be OK!”
When it comes to taking care of your own mental health, our speakers stressed the importance of figuring out what works for you. Anja suggested a simple first step: “Set aside time for yourself, and spend this doing whatever makes you happy or relaxed. Music was always my best friend; for others it might be sport.” Katy added that you shouldn’t feel guilty if your approach to self-care isn’t entirely virtuous. “Pretty much every article about depression and anxiety tells you to eat healthily, go to the gym, get fresh air, go for a walk, And these are all great things, don’t get me wrong, but these are the things you do when you’re coming out the other side and ready to face the world. Before you get to that stage, you might just want to stay in bed for a few days watching Netflix and eating pizza. And that’s ok, because it’s going to pass. I think we have to give ourselves permission to wallow in depression and try to understand where it’s coming from, rather than always look for the quickest way to get out of it.”
SumUppers in the audience were also keen to learn how to help if a loved one is having a tough time. Suzanne explained, “It can be hard to be the partner of someone with mental health problems, as it’s very easy to fall into the trap of feeling responsible for their wellbeing. It’s important to widen the support network so it’s not just you carrying the burden alone. And then ideally you should encourage them to get professional help as soon as possible.”
Regarding specific challenges we face at SumUp, Marc reminded us that we all have a role to play in tackling these. “I think we work hard to create a welcoming and safe environment, but we’re a very fast-growing company, and it gets harder to sustain a sense of community when you have 800 people joining in a year. Also, it’s important to remember that many people move from overseas to work here and don’t have their families nearby. When you’re having a bad time and your parents live in Australia, it’s easy to feel lonely. So we need to look out for each other.”
Katy’s external perspective proved valuable throughout the evening, and left us with plenty to think about as we plan the next steps of our wellness initiative. One of her observations that really stuck with us is that there are no easy shortcuts when it comes to building a mentally healthy company: “I think it’s awesome that you’re doing this, but it’s not enough to arrange the occasional event. This has to be something you talk about every day.”
