Mental Health and Leadership
Mental health has been a more visible topic over the years, with a new generation focusing on the merits of a stable support system in order to curb the rampant mental health issues that society is becoming more aware of. Although it’s likely these mental health issues have always existed in our society and most poignantly to this conversation, our workplace, we are still far from the utopic future of chatting about mental health openly in our workplaces and easily accessing psychological help.
COVID-19 has also made us more susceptible to mental health illness and reports show that this issue is only growing. Days ago as of writing this, a Toronto Transit Commission employee attempted to take their own life due to a mental health crisis. This is the result of a boiling point that essential workers are facing and needs to be addressed.
However, for this article, I’ll be focusing on non-essential workers. These home-office workers are facing a strange juxtaposition as of late: safe at home, yet trapped at home. Work and home life meld together in a cacophony of slack and teams notifications, children crying with frustration because they are home, daily updates on death tolls and a chime of a doorbell when Amazon packages and Uber Eats are delivered without contact. What can leaders do to ease this burden, and what can employees do to ensure they find jobs that offer the best chance for their wellbeing?
Research health resources provided by your employer and community
For the healthy, benefits are rarely at the front of mind. However, it can benefit anyone to understand what’s included in their benefits package at work. When it comes to a crisis for you or a coworker, these tools are invaluable.
Does your package provide coverage at a certain percentage for psychotherapy and physiotherapy? Is there a yearly or lifetime maximum amount? Does it provide easy access to online help? Who can an employee call if they are having a crisis?
If these company-provided resources are lacking, community resources can be leaned on. Research help groups, affordable doctors, online or over the phone medical lines, and therapists can be essential to providing employees help when the company at large fails.
If your company isn’t providing adequate mental health resources start a dialogue about it.
Have Open Dialogue About Mental Health
Talk about mental health in team meetings, and keep your door open. While it’s not a leader’s job to be a therapist or psychologist, it can help your team by being present and available. Let them know you care about their mental health as well as their physical well-being. Help connect your team with the help they need and talk about resources at these meetings. While it helps to share your own struggles, it’s not required. Just knowing that you are open to talking about mental health can mean the world to someone struggling.
For employees, asking mental health to be a topic in a team meeting or lunch and learn is a great way to open up this dialogue. Consider talking with your peers and checking in. Being in a state of remote work
Mental Health Days are Sick Days
Being open with your team about how they don’t need to explain why they’re not feeling well. There is still a stigma when it comes to taking mental health days and letting your team know you have this value will encourage them to be honest with you, but in contrast, it becomes your job to be non-judgemental.
Mental health is not a barometer that impacts people equally. People have different thresholds, and understanding that something may be more impactful on others can help us better accept mental health days.
While I don’t advocate for people taking advantage of sick days, encouraging mental health days can help positively impact productivity by mitigating crises and making sure people can take a break to recharge during these times of high stress.
Family
Being productive is difficult when you are worried about a family member. Children being home, partners experiencing job loss, caring for elderly family members and more were unexpected situations that came out of quarantine.
Lieu time or flex time is a great way to deal with this situation. While someone may need to help their children get set up for school in the morning, and someone else may need to go to the grocery store at unusual times.
Allow employees the flexibility to make up for this time so they both feel productive and the ability to care for their home needs.
Ergonomics; physical health can impact mental health
Home offices are new to a lot of the workforce. Offices are designed to cater to our unique ergonomic needs and it has always been a given. If possible, subsidize home office equipment for employees. Give suggestions on affordable home office equipment and encourage employees to carve out a workspace at home.
