Mental Health Support in the Workplace…
Good morning swellcast. Next week we will dive into the crucial topic of how companies are supporting their employees'mental, health and wellness. We will explore the unfortunate reality of mental health issues being silenced in the workplace and emphasize the importance of giving a voice to those who suffer in silence. The this podcast aims to shed light on the urgent need for appropriate accommodations for individuals dealing with conditions such as grief, anxiety and depression. Doris Listening will meet you here every Wednesday at 08:00 p.m. Eastern Standard Time
Deborah Pardes
@DBPardes · 1:00
Dora, thank you so much for posting this. And it's so interesting that you're talking about mental health support in the workplace, because I read an article about Newsweek's commitment to cover that internally and also externally. Internally as a company and also externally as a reporting agency
Hi, Deborah. Thank you so much. Yes. I really appreciate you offering this platform for every one of us. But particularly, I thank you for bolstering this conversation because I think it's one that we need to have, because it's not just impacting adults, it's impacting children as well. And so it's now a trickle down effect because if parents aren't getting help in the workplace who have these issues, then certainly what are happening with our children as well
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 3:38
So organizations that are like, oh, maybe next year you'll see, you'll see that in your attrition. You'll see that in your happiness engagement levels. You'll also see that people are not deeply tethered to the places they work, where if you don't invest in your people, then your people don't invest in your. It's one and the same. Your is only as strong as your people
By encouraging discussions though, and providing platforms for employees to share their experiences, we can break down barriers and create a more supportive environment where individuals feel comfortable seeking help by creating a sense of belonging through community engagement and service, and we can build a workplace where everyone feels valued and included. This will not only benefit the employee, but the well being of the employee, but also contribute to the overall success of the company. See. Bye
I mean, how many of us have been at the workplace and actually had a situation where someone felt like either you harassed them or they harassed you or you returned back from bereavement and you felt like you were being targeted? So let's talk about that because that's one of the things that was common in Covid, right? Post Covid and probably pre Covid too. You come back from bereavement and your boss is looking at you side eye even though everybody knows that you're grieving
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 3:44
But definitely know anything is possible in this life and my advice in that circumstance would be really trying to a as from the employee perspective try to be able to name what exactly is the lack of inclusivity feeling like? Is it around how people are communicating with them, not communicating with them? Do they feel like they are being deprioritized when it comes to promotional considerations? Like where is the lack of belonging?
Therefore, how can we address this issue in the workplace and cater to an individual sense of belonging? I guess that's my question. So one possible solution could be to provide more time off for grieving individuals. It is important to recognize that grief is complex and cannot be rushed. It's a complex process. So allowing employees to take the time they need to grieve, we can show empathy and support their emotional well being
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 2:55
And whether that's to lay in bed and watch the witcher, or if that is to heal from a loss of a loved one, if that's to heal from the loss of a pet, if that's to take time to deal with mental health concerns or depression, I think we are providing too much space for the judgment and or the delegation of what is appropriate time. And it's like time is the most valuable asset we have in our life
So workplace wellness offerings are things like apps, coaching, and courses in time management or financial well being. In this article, it says that it didn't have any effect, any positive effect, according to the study, while resilience and stress management training seemed to have a negative effect, she says. That's a quote also from Jason Henry for the New York Times
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 1:52
And also, what time of the year was this? During COVID Was this right after Covid? There's so many different factors that can change how data is not only going to be collected, but also how it can be interpreted. Human beings have a remarkable way of being able to rationalize information as we see fit. Whether it is the only truth or source of truth available, we will put it and anchor it as such. And so I disagree
By implementing these strategies, workplaces can better support their employees mental health needs, particularly in light of the increasing prevalence of mental health issues today. Thank you for taking the time to listen and please follow and share this story with others to join this important conversation. Also, I want to quote an article that
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 2:10
I think there's coaches over 70 different countries now, so very cool. It's an app people can just pop on. I have people sign up and talk with me for ten minutes or an hour or more than that, and then they have group coaching, which is where you have some of that transformative action in the workplace among managers and leaders executives. And that's fantastic because those are curated sessions based around whatever the DEI or specific issue that people related issue that's needed
Wow. Natasha. Okay. Task human. I love this. What an amazing program. I'm reading about it here, and I see they have quite a few testimonials on here from people who've actually used the program. And they actually have a testimonial about how it kind of got started. And it said that this person by the name of Dave Korzak, he gives this testimonial from November 19, 2021. And he said he's actually the CFO and of a rural legal assistant
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 3:41
So it's a space that allows for those conversations that need to happen for that personal and professional growth. And then on the flip side, organizations that not only just offer the coaching for their employees, but also take it upon themselves to say, hey, we want some programmatic design work and we want to do a training on what does it mean to be inclusive?
Let's see what kind of dialogue we can have around this discussion, because I just thought it was really interesting seeing how this executive board member from Siemens says that mental health is a priority
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 2:20
But this life is beyond challenging, beyond overwhelming, and there is usually just a lack of safe spaces for people to express these concerns, nor even be able to have the time or the resources to care for themselves. Because if we're being honest, if we're really being honest with ourselves, if mental health was a priority, how we orient and how we speak to each other would be different. How we tap into social media would be different
And so we are seeing the disparity that is happening amongst so many that are living out here in the regular world and they're not able to cope with everyday problems. Something is wrong. And we have to take a more bigger approach, I think, to resolve this. So I hope that they spend more
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 1:32
You? Yeah, you know, I'm just generally exhausted by the lack of prioritization of mental health. But specifically to your call out around organizations. People dedicate most of their life to working. And the fact that some organizations don't see either the value and or don't prioritize the funding and the spending to take care of the mental health of their employees is beyond challenging. Because like I said, you can't work when your mind is chaotic or you're feeling overwhelmed
As a society, we must prioritize the basic mental health needs of our individual employees to create a safer and healthier work environment for everyone. I would like to leave you all with a question. What would you like to see in your workplace to feel supported post pandemic what type of supports would you like to see in your workplace? Post pandemic
Natasha Nurse
@DressingRoom8 · 3:18
It's just, it's going to come down to budgets. How much can the company bear? But like I said earlier, there's not a price tag enough that works when it comes to this, because there's no point in not putting money behind this and then having employees get sick and or having employees not show up or not be able to be as productive and efficient because they really just aren't given the mental health support that they need. And we all require it
Ranjana Kamo
@Gamechanger · 0:06
That sounds like an interesting subject. Thank you so much for sharing. Bye
Cheyonia Wade
@Chey · 4:01
It's so. I think this is a very interesting topic. I love how you guys speak so candidly about it. Like, that's amazing. And I really love the replies. They were very helpful in just framework and forming a picture. But I was thinking that possibly implementing it could be the same strategy used for drug and alcohol substance abuse
So I'm so glad that, you know, I'm attracting more people to talk about this topic because, as you said, you for yourself, you came back from a maternity leave, and look at what happened and just think about having somebody there that was there to kind of transition you back into the workplace instead of maybe just having you work a little bit here or there
What do you guys think about the impact of AI and how that could help us with providing workplace supports for individuals on their job who are suffering from depression and anxiety? How could AI help those individuals? And do we see America moving to a place where machines will control and run the workplace so that Americans, humans can actually live human lives?
Cheyonia Wade
@Chey · 4:10
That sounds like a very interesting concept. I would definitely have, like a thousand questions in regards to, like, I need a visualization of what that would look like or at least some, some pieces to put together to have some type of picture of what that may look like, because AI can be tricky. It can be very helpful, but it can also be, it can make you very dependent
Hi, Che. Yes, you're right. What would that look like? Well, I think it would really look like possibly in the future, because now they're standing up robots. I mean, it could be someone or an AI standing in place for different things. Being a personal assistant in an office, you know, by maybe taking messages and answering the phone
That's really the goal, and I guess to move and be more productive in the workplace because things happen, people get sick, people die. And so AI will help with creating you those supports that we need, like having an AI to respond to all your emails for you and possibly create presentations and, you know, have them proofread novels for you
Cheyonia Wade
@Chey · 2:08
Okay, so I understand a little better now, girl. I was on a whole nother path. That's why I'm like, what would that look like? I was thinking, like, the Jetsons and what was her name? The thing that rolled around on the little robot. That's what I was thinking. But you're talking about incorporating it as far as, like, you know, travel time and saving on cost efficiency and things of that nature. I get it now
Ranjana Kamo
@Gamechanger · 1:36
So, yes, probably, you know, 70% to 80% of the work can be done by AI, and we could be like the super, super supervisors. So maybe that's an idea that could work. And I think, you know, going forward, maybe 2030 or maybe 50 years down the line, we would be seeing machines taking over majorly. So that is another possibility that I can foresee. Thank you so much for bringing such interesting topics
And I say fight because it does sometimes feel like that at the workplace that is you against them. But ultimately issue, it's all about you feeling well at the place where you work. Right. And having the support that you need and also getting enough time to be able to rejuvenate and then being able to feel free to innovate and create at the workplace. Well, how do I do that? Well, if you're happier, then you'll do it
So I think AI is going to help us with this. Now, I know it may have its hurdles and of course, there may be things that we have to think about, such as, you know, AI taking over, but we have to be the programmers, right? We're the coders, so we can't give our, you know, ability to be able to be a creator to the machine
Ranjana Kamo
@Gamechanger · 0:15
Thank you so much for getting back on this. And you're right, you know, when we are the creators, we cannot give that right to the machines. Thank you so much and have a lovely weekend. Bye
Shawna Kearsley
@OnAcornBay · 2:37
So I don't know what kind of budget they passed, but I do know that there is a mental health piece, piece in the budget where our governor is putting a lot of financial muscle funding behind mental health now and forever. So mental health in youth and adults, and also mental health in folks with criminal background in our prisons and our institutions
Shawna Kearsley
@OnAcornBay · 4:12
Organizational health, vitality. This is such a wonderful, swell cast. I enjoyed this piece, the human resource perspective. You have a DEI background as well. I love this piece. The folks that we train have a criminal background. Mental health there is. Oh, yeah, let's talk about that. I also applaud you on bringing to light that support equals funding. That really is what is needed