MENTAL HEALTH
At this year’s NN Businesses for Social Responsibility Spring Conference, we heard directly from participants employed throughout the state on the topic of mental well-being in the workplace.
While some of the data we gathered echoed what the workforce is saying nationally, all the ideas expressed are relevant to New Hampshire employers as we address our mental health crisis together. Below are both the issues named and ideas the group posed for resolution:
Training leaders, acclimating managers
Feeling anxious, depressed or living with an addiction are vulnerabilities people keep private for fear of negative repercussions. Participants are asking for trainings to help leaders and managers know how to check in with employees and offer resources, including mental health days, from a place of fuller understanding.
One participant said they didn’t want to be deemed lazy if they took take time off to preserve their mental health. Additional suggestions included interdepartmental check-ins, coaching and obtaining feedback about the effectiveness of implemented mental health initiatives.
Preventing burnout
Our group mirrored the national sentiment that burnout is more prevalent when workloads are heavy and people are asked to do more, with less. This leads to greater fatigue, increased mistakes and breakdowns in communication and key relationships — a soup of factors that destroy well-being.
Our participants want to be valued for what they do, and they want their work lives to be sustainable. This group added that true downtime and receiving regular on-the-job support all contributed to a more positive outlook, setting the table for them to better engage with and perform their jobs.
Accessing resources
Maintaining consistency was a high priority for our group in regard to using mental health services.
Long waits, lack of affordability, trouble navigating benefits and figuring out the overall mental health system were all cited as barriers to receiving ongoing care. While not all of that lies with employers, employees hope that their organizations make it a priority to provide navigation tools.
In addition to professional services, participants also saw value in organized walking groups, other physical movement opportunities, assigned venting buddies, team bonding activities and healthy food options (i.e., the availability of foods known to improve mood).
Emotional intelligence and social skills
Participants said they’ve seen a decline in good social skills at work. This relates to basic courtesy and kindness, as well as the ability to clear up miscommunications and conflicts.
No one wanted to feel isolated from their co-workers; instead, they want to be in interpersonally supportive environments.
Through the feedback there are several points of overlap, which is good news, as more than one facet of the mental health challenge can be tackled at a time, with a set of well-chosen tools.
The overall feeling from our group was that employees are ready to have mental health become normalized and part of regular discourse.
They’re also ready to find sustainable well-being in collaboration with their workplaces.
Debra LeClair, a psychologist and executive coach, works with clients at corporations, nonprofit agencies and public schools to help them move through obstacles and meet their goals. She can be reached at debleclair@fullspectrumwellness.com.
