56/365 Some thoughts on employee mental health

By vinodnarayan on August 18, 2021 • ( 0 )

Recently I see many articles on employee mental health and even companies being concerned about it. Also companies have been started to just address this space. What I am not sure is if it has always been a concern or the pandemic just made people discuss this more.

We used to discuss stress at work and we used to discuss mental health in general. But I guess from a company’s perspective mental health also impacts their bottom line. I want to think slightly different.

First let us take company outside the equation even if it does not impact the profits of a company as human beings and employees we need to discuss mental health. I say so because most of the articles I read are from a company point of view.

Being an Employee is a state of mind that many of us are in… we are an employee because we need to pay bills and be engaged and have a sense of purpose. I consider voluntary work also in there.

It sometimes does not matter which company it is. What matters is a lot of other factors… the kind of work we do… the working culture and how we deal with set backs and so on… and the most important… being open to talk and also take help when we need assistance in mental health.

As a society we are still only opening up… some societies have much more longer way to go… So I think the fundamental issue is that even today mental health is not something we discuss because we fear being judged and in any way that would impact our growth as an employee. Here is where companies can show a difference.

I am sure some companies will lead the way where the mental wellbeing of their employees becomes as important to it as the profits and revenue. They don’t talk about it because it impacts revenue and profits but it is also what they do.. They are in the business of creating value to the society by ensuring people work there do not break down doing it.

Is this practical in a dog eat dog market… I don’t know… we as employees can start the conversation. When do we think we should seek out help… I don’t think this is a company issue alone and there are other factors that are more personal and clinical and so on… but since being an employee is an activity we all do together mostly during the same period of the day I think talking about it on an employee level could have very positive impact on society.

Closing out with one more thought… I think we all should read more about the efforts happening in the employee mental health arena.. if we do not create mentally safe workplaces we will find more and more people not looking at work as the place they would like to be in life.

Recently there is a new term coined ‘The Great Resignation’… why?…. maybe we will talk about it another day..

The question that would be interesting for employers to answer is this “If I work for you for a year and after that will I be in a better mental health for you to hire me again.”