Having the conversation about mental health at work
It was after taking on his first management job that Jaan Madan discovered the impact of a conversation. Having recently moved to a new area with his young family, he was determined to excel at work — but his mental health soon started to deteriorate.
“Quite rapidly, my performance dropped,” he says. “I was coming to work earlier, I was staying later, I was trying to catch up. It was having an impact on my personal life, the team was starting to drift, and were unhappy.”
To mitigate this, experts say communication is critical. Miriam Earley, director of inclusion and wellbeing at Deloitte, points out that if an employee had a “broken leg, we’d want to know, so we can ensure the right adjustments are in place — and we take the same approach with mental health”.
One pitfall, says Berrie, is making assumptions. Some managers might have had a previous employee who suffered mental ill health, but comparisons are often unhelpful. “Something we heard reported during the pandemic was people being asked, ‘[If] everyone else is in the same boat and they’re doing the fine, why can’t you?’”
This story originally appeared on: Financial Times - Author:Faqs of Insurances
