The workplace can be a stressful environment, but few people talk about it — and even fewer know how to help, according to the American Psychiatric Association.
In its recently published survey, 77% of respondents said they have experienced “some kind of stress or mental health issue, 40% believed they weren’t safe to talk about mental health issues at work because of the fear of retaliation or being perceived as weak in the workplace,” said Rawle Andrews Jr., executive director of the American Psychiatric Association Foundation.
And almost half “didn’t believe they could power off even when they weren’t on the clock anymore, so they could never escape work, even when they weren’t on the clock,” Andrews said.
As for why employees and their managers are so reluctant to discuss mental health issues?
“Because of the biases, the shame, and the fear, workplaces haven’t been created with these psychological safe spaces, where people feel they have permission to freely talk about mental health in the workplace,” Andrews said.
By contrast, “People feel perfectly comfortable talking about physical issues in the workplace.”
The American Psychiatric Association Foundation has developed an e-learning program, called “Notice, Talk, Act at Work” — a 45-minute online training geared toward managers and employees.
Breaking down each element, Andrews asks questions: “How do we notice signs of distress in ourselves or others? How are we able to have courageous conversations about mental health or stress versus having difficult conversations? And how do we leverage tools so that we can get help or we can give help to our coworkers in need, starting from the top down?”
Asked for an example, Andrews posed a hypothetical: “Let’s say you’ve noticed I’ve been coming in late, my camera is always off on Zoom, and some of my assignments have been incomplete or missing.”
A key is starting the conversation in a fruitful, rather than accusatory way.
“Rather than saying ‘Rawle, what’s wrong with you?'” Andrews said a concerned coworker might respond, “‘Hey, I’m concerned about what I’m seeing, and I just want to know if there’s any way I could better support you, or is there any help I can provide to make it easier for you to perform.'”
After that conversation, managers or coworkers could connect the person to resources, including a company’s employee assistance program.
“That’s going to help me, that’s going to make you a better teammate, but overall, it’s going to make our organization a stronger organization,” Andrews said.
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