I have always had the attitude ‘work through it, not around it.’ This couldn’t be more true when considering mental health. Depression has stopped me dead in my tracks, and in my early twenties, I lost jobs, friends and my mind. I was met from all areas with misunderstanding, ignorance and uninterest, but the hardest to deal with was work.
Spending the majority of your time working, and at work can be hard enough as it is. Employees need to consider things such as commuting times, childcare and earning enough money. But working whilst battling mental health issues presents an entire host of other issues. Whilst I was working at my previous companies, I was battling chronic depression. Most days, I couldn’t even get out of bed, let alone to go to work, but often I had no choice. I spent the day drifting, not giving my all, and feeling exposed, demeaned and vulnerable, not traits that make a good employee. I spoke to several employers and I was met with a lack of support, and worse, I was instantly treated like an outsider. As if I couldn’t be trusted, as if I was going to all of a sudden going to have a mental break down. One company offered me a week off, just to get me out of the office, and another put me on a completely different team with a new manager. And eventually, a breakdown was inevitable. The depths of this depression at the time of my life, gave birth to severe anxiety. I couldn’t function, I was failing at work and I knew that the only way that I could even consider recovering was to be away from the office environment. This meant leaving my job, as a sabbatical was out of the question, and that meant no income. But my health was more important.
During this period, I had cognitive behavioural therapy and counselling. Neither worked for me personally, but the short sabbatical from work allowed me to reflect and really focus on myself, and making myself better. It also made me realise what I wanted to do.
So I left my company, and decided to set up my own PR company, Boxed Out PR. Though this is a journey in itself, I set up the company as that’s where my experiences and skill sets were, but my main goal was to create a working environment that was open to mental health issues, where employees can openly talk about their problems and aren’t afraid to ask for time off or to work around their issues. Speaking from experience, this is the most important element that you can offer any employee in your business, in order to support, develop and gain a thriving team and workplace.
I am a huge advocate of remote and flexible working, and my team know that they can work around their schedules, and if they need to be out for any reason, that they can just ask. Also, without the commute to and from work, they are less stressed, and more productive. I offer an open door policy and though I am not a counsellor or a friend, I am always available and will always listen and do my best to advise.
If I had the support and understanding from previous companies, I genuinely believe that my mental health would not have suffered as much as it did, and my retention and productivity rates would have been a hundred times better. The anxiety that I used to feel when calling in sick, or talking to my boss about it used to drive me into the ground. My team are positive, happy, productive, hard working, confident and they feel valued.
People with mental health issues are going to be affected by them, one way or another. There is nothing that you can do about that. But there are ways that you can help them cope, or make it easier for them to manage whilst at work.