In the oil and gas industry in which I've worked in the past, a point of pride for all the major companies is how much they focus on safety (a critical success factor for all organizations in this sector). Some have digital clocks in open workspaces proudly showing the time since the last LTI (Lost Time Incident), others start each meeting with a safety moment shared by one of the attendees.
This is a good thing, continued focus on safety and a constant reminder of its importance to the organization is to be commended.
But when was the last time the safety moment was about a mental health issue in the workplace? How many LTI counters reference time lost due to mental health issues in the workplace?
The reason for penning this note is to share a personal experience from 2016 regarding stress in the workplace and to explore why we’re not further along in this field.
I did not see it coming
Despite being someone who tries to focus regular time and effort on wellbeing in the workplace, the best way to describe this period of time was “how did I get here?”.
I didn’t see it coming, no-one around me did either and once in it I constantly underestimated the depth of the stress until it began manifesting itself physically (trouble sleeping, headaches, no energy).
Here are some of the key events which took place:
Mask the issue by working longer hours and prioritizing some work items at the expense of others
Alert coworkers to my level of work and try to redistribute
Highlight workload to project leadership
Focus only on immediate, high priority items to keep the workstream afloat
Unfortunately, none of these steps yielded an intervention or resulted in a change in my behavior which positively impacted my situation. Likely that this is the same for many others during challenging times in the workplace.
I’m disappointed (although not embarrassed) to say it took until I had a few hairy moments whilst driving with a lot on my mind that I decided to call it in and reach out for support – a full 3 months later from when the issue started.
One of the key lessons I have taken away from my experience is that this can happen to anyone, at any time and without warning. Whether you are at a difficult point in your career or enjoying a strong period of growth, a time of high stress or a mental health issue can just be round the corner.
What I want to explore next is the current mindset in many workplaces we have around stress and other mental health issues at work.
The sympathy vote
Sympathy; an emotion that is comforting but ultimately not all that helpful in dealing with a mental health issue.
I received lots of this over the 3-month period with “helpful” advice such as “get some rest”, “take it easy”, “look after yourself”, all of which I was grateful for but which did little for my situation as the work continued to pile up.
The real issue at hand is people around us can spot when someone is having a tough time at work but often don’t know how to approach the next step in helping someone through it.
I think there are 3 main reasons for this:
The issue can’t be seen, touched or quantified easily
The individual with the issue is often reluctant to share information about it
The workplace has not yet accepted stress and other mental health issues into its dialogue
With a mental health issue, not only do coworkers have to deal with the lack of information and discussion about it in the workplace, they also cannot see or visualize the impacts making it difficult to know how they can help.
The performance question
For me personally, this was the most important aspect of my situation as it drove many of the poor decisions I made as I worked through the 3-month period.
How do you tread the fine line between getting the support you need and protecting the vision of you as a high performing individual in an organization?
“Speak Up”, the simplest of phrases and advice to impart on others, and one I have used many times in my coaching conversations with new joiners to the firm. However, when faced with my own situation I realized just how challenging this is in a competitive workplace environment.
The default philosophy in today’s workplace is that focus, commitment and drive is the best way to ensure individual success. On the surface this looks like a good approach which will create engaged people and a successful organization but it fails to grasp the support people require.
On a bad day this philosophy is a major barrier to people asking for help when they need it most for fear of the impact it will have on perception, promotion and relationships with others in the organization.
Where do we go from here?
I’m a big fan of campaigns around mental health, they help me engage more on the topic and are slowly changing attitudes and increasing knowledge in the workplace. However, they are only the first step in advancing this subject and on their own are inadequate.
I typically find week long campaigns create temporary “safe zones” where mental health conversations flow freely for that week but which don’t linger long enough in people’s conscience to change their day to day.
It is time for organizations to pick up the baton and go further than annual online training and advocacy groups for issues such as mental health. They must make a conscious effort to implement changes in their psyche that will alter how the real influencers in the firm operate.
“Toughing it out” should no longer be an accepted modus operandi for individuals who are suffering in the workplace.
The Mid-Level Manager
This tier has the power to drive the mental health discussion forward with teams on a weekly basis and is fundamental in implementing culture change in any organization. More than in any other area of the organization, this tier can and must do more.
The Senior Exec
All leaders should challenge the commonly held philosophy in publicly traded companies that share price trumps all else. It is time for a new philosophy that links individual and team wellbeing to overall organizational performance and an acceptance that without a focus on care, sustained long-term success is not achievable.
The Individual
We all as individuals must put more trust in our support networks in times of need. Easier to say and harder to do, but if we are all more open and honest about what stress really is and the impacts it has on all of us, we will build a better workplace.
Closing thoughts
Mental health will affect us all during our lives so by sharing and learning more about it we are not just helping others; we are preparing ourselves to deal with it when it comes.
Generations past did not identify stress as a health issue, so the good news is we’ve come a long way. Looking into the future, I feel confident in saying mental health issues will achieve parity with physical health in the workplace, but we’re not there yet.
Our generation's challenge is to ensure we spend as little time on this road as possible. We need to minimize the time it takes to achieve this end state and to better appreciate the value of care within our organizations.
Let’s get to work.
Views are my own and do not represent organizations or clients I have worked for
Comments