60% of people report having mental health challenges with 60% sharing that they are unable to discuss their mental health problems with their employer. Mind Share Partners, SAP, and Qualtrics (HBR)
Every day when I wake up, I start again. As a leader, mother, wife, entrepreneur, crusader and human committed to making a huge positive difference in the world, I am no different from the statistics.
Although the stigma of mental health is slowly being broken down by celebrities and people in the public eye such as Lady Gaga, Prince Harry and Ed Sheeran, talking more openly about their own mental health, the research finds that the stigma of talking about mental health still exists at work.
“Up to 80% of us will manage a mental health challenge in our lifetime”.
According to HBR, over 200 million workdays are lost due to mental health conditions each year ($16.8 billion in employee productivity), but the recent study reported that “less than half of our respondents felt that mental health was prioritized at their company, and even fewer viewed their company leaders as advocates. 86% of our respondents thought that a company’s culture should support mental health. This percentage was even higher for Millennials and Gen Zers, who have higher turnover rates and are the largest demographic in the workforce. Half of Millennials and 75% of Gen Zers had voluntarily left roles in the past for mental health reasons, compared with just 20% of respondents overall, a finding that speaks to a generational shift in awareness.”
Is combating mental health challenges up to the workplace or the individual? We would say both.
Let’s talk about a few ways that we can all help ourselves.
The Mental Health Foundation, gives a 10 point plan for looking after your mental health. Number one? “Talk about your feelings”. Also, in the top 10 are “Doing something you are good at” and “Accepting who you are”. YES!!! #beyourselfatwork
In our experience, we would challenge the ‘talking about your feelings’ point, as the be all and end all. I would say that I have mental health challenges every day. If I talked about it, I’d never get anything done and it would amplify my challenges. I suggest that many of us have mental health challenges every day. We just name it as stress, pressure, self-doubt, fear, resentment. And we cope with it through distraction, anger, power, adrenalin…I could go on and on.
Our help this week on managing your inner world is to do three core things;
- Actively build a strong relationship with yourself. Talk to yourself. Be your own inner friend and cheerleader. But be truthful with yourself and self-aware.
- Accept that you can only action what is in your control and accept what you can’t control. Make it a mission to gain the wisdom to know the difference.
- Work hard to not let your mood be affected by others and your circumstances. Making yourself happy and not waiting for others to do it for you.
Finally, make a positive and powerful difference in your workplace and support mental health by being the best you.
#BeYourselfAtWork
If you’d like to explore our webinars and workshops that support mental health in the workplace get in touch at potential@courageoussuccess.com