Mental illness affects every job
Follow your empathy and remember: Everyone’s dealing with their own individual issues
In my work as a mental health researcher, I came to know a man with severe depression whose mother was dying on top of it. Work was important to him, but given the enormous strain, he wasn’t able to put in the standard nine-to-five day. His boss allowed him to work the way he needed for that period of time — and kept his life intact.
This man never forgot the favour, and still goes the extra mile for his employer. It was a win all around.
Whether you know it or not, you are working alongside people with mental illness. One in five Canadians has a diagnosed mental health condition such as clinical depression, anxiety disorder or bipolar disorder, and most of those people work. Increasingly, employers are beginning to understand that the mental health of their employees is their business and a concern to be shared by all.
As a boss or a co-worker, you can do a lot to help a person with mental illness thrive in your organization.
People with mental health conditions often have episodes where they feel worse from time to time, much like MS or rheumatoid arthritis. When they return to work after a mental health leave, co-workers are often reluctant to talk to them, for fear of saying the wrong thing. It’s not uncommon to hear about coworkers avoiding walking past someone’s desk and chatting with them, or leaving them out of plans for group outings or lunches.
This does not go unnoticed — and it hurts.
In my work as an occupational therapist, I help workers re-enter their workplaces in a way that helps them feel confident. This includes helping co-workers find the words to say to employees when they come back. A simple, friendly opening goes a long way — something like, “Nice to see you back! How are you doing? Let me know if you need a hand with anything.” Then, make sure to treat your co-worker just like you did before. So if you typically chatted about the game last night, or about your families, or joked about a difficult situation, go right back to that. People coming back from mental health leave often find they’re passed over for promotions or new assignments. It’s important to know that unless you’re told otherwise, your col- league is ready, willing and able to do all the work they once did. When someone is on mental health leave, make sure you maintain the usual contact with them that you would have with someone on other kinds of sick leave, or on family leave. Send flowers or a card, or the occasional email to see how they’re doing (but don’t pressure them to come back). Definitely do include them in all the social activities you would invite someone on leave to attend.
Try following your empathy. Put yourself in your co-worker’s shoes and ask yourself how you would like to be treated after coming back from sick leave.
Nobody wants to have to take time off for a mental health condition — they’d much rather be working, and feeling well enough to work. So trust your co-worker or employee and believe them when they say they need this time off. Don’t make anyone feel guilty about the work that needs to get done while they are on leave. So often because you can’t see a mental health problem the way you can see a broken arm, co-workers aren’t entirely convinced it’s real.
It may be invisible, it may even be a fluctuating kind of disorder with good days and bad days. But it’s no less real than a physical illness.
Sometimes, when a person has a mental health issue, they may need accommodations to do their job. Some medications make people sluggish in the mornings, for example. In that case, perhaps an employee’s hours can be adjusted temporarily. Others may need a quieter work space, or a partial work-from-home arrangement for a time. Some people may come back gradually, to make sure they’ll be successful.
We in Canada are very fortunate because we now have a national standard for psychological health and safety in the workplace.
Since 2013, companies have been signing on voluntarily, and just in the last year, the Mental Health Commission of Canada has started working with employers to help them implement it.
That standard is a great advancement for Canadian workers and workplaces. But regardless of what your employer chooses to do, everyone can play a role in creating an environment to help people with mental illness thrive.