“It’s okay not to be okay”.
Does it sound familiar?
It does because we heard it all our life. Life happens, and it’s alright if you are facing an issue or you are experiencing an emotion.
Do you know two out of five people around you can be suffering from a mental health issue?
But we don’t realize it. There can be many causes behind mental problems, like family, financial, genetics, or even a toxic workplace.
You can most commonly analyze depression, anxiety or stress among office workers.
Therefore, if you are running a company or supervising employees, you are responsible for taking care of their happiness and well-being. Or even if you are an employee, it is good to support your co-worker emotionally.
Mental health is a major problem, and it’s not taboo to talk about it or discuss it with your supervisors. People take them lightly and create myths about them. Therefore, this article will discuss a few mental health myths in the workplace. So you can be aware of them and change your thinking.
Did You Hear About These Myths In Your Work Place?
They will go away if you don’t care about the things that matter.
Employees are the assets of the company.
Hence, it’s a manager’s responsibility to consider their mental health. Or else it will consider a toxic work culture. Many employees resign from a company due to this bad work culture, and they can’t cope with it. Therefore, they take a gap in employment.
The researcher has noticed that when CV writing services UK ask candidates about the gap between their employment. The answer often relates to mental health problems. Thus, fighting against these myths is crucial if you want to retain your employees. Let’s have a look at what those are.
Association Of Mental Health Issues With Weakness:
How can someone coming to work, giving their best and having a mental illness be weak?
It’s clearly not true.
When employees say they are dealing with depression, don’t assume they are weak. Because sharing one’s problems is a sign of courage and strength, not everyone can do that.
So as a manager, it’s your duty to support them and help them with the issues causing mental illnesses. Caring about employees’ problems creates a compassionate work culture.
Mental Health Sufferers Can’t Do Their Job Correctly:
The reason behind a person not doing their work correctly can certainly be because they don’t know what they are supposed to do.
If you ask a medical CV writer to make software, they surely can’t do that.
Otherwise, a mental illness can’t be a reason behind it.
If employees are hardworking and faithful to their work, they can work productively and efficiently, even with depression or anxiety. So you can’t associate an employee’s productivity with mental health issues.
It’s impossible to tell if someone is mentally unwell because sufferers can still produce the best performances and professional attitudes in the workplace.
Therefore, it is suggested to train managers about the warning of these illnesses so they can detect them and work accordingly.
Pressuring Your Worker Leads To Productivity:
If you agree with this, then it’s better to rethink again.
Because it’s okay to put a little pressure if motivating employees or meeting deadlines is your purpose.
But if managers continuously pressure their employees, it can become a cause of these mental problems. Therefore, taking care of employees’ work-life balance is essential while not putting too much pressure on an employee that they can’t bear it. Pressuring employees can affect their performances, impacting the company’s growth.
There Is No Role Of Managers In Dealing With Employee’s Mental Health:
People assume that the only treatment for mental health problems is consulting a physiatrist. Or taking a break from everything.
But it’s not true.
If we provide a healthy work environment to our employees, it will positively impact their minds. This is where the manager’s role comes in. It is true that supervisors can’t medically cure depression or anxiety, but they can take initiatives that help employees in their mental well-being.
People With Mental Illness Have Anger Issues And Are Violent:
Another misconception is that people relate anger to mental illness.
Anger is an emotion, and we can control that. On the other hand, we can’t control stress and depression. Therefore, violent behaviour can be part of someone’s nature, but we can associate it with a health problem.
Managers Discriminate If People Discuss Their Mental Illness:
People think that if they have a specific problem, then they are not compatible.
But it’s wrong.
Managers should have one-on-one discussions with their employees, so their employees can openly share their problems with them. Moreover, managers should evaluate their employees justly and not discriminate against them as low performers if they discuss their mental illness.
High-Performance Employees Can’t Have Mental Health Issues:
Depression and anxiety are undetectable.
Therefore, if an employee is a high performer, he can also suffer from these problems. It can be possible that he is better at hiding or overcoming it.
Vice versa; you cannot associate a low performance of an employee with a mental illness or weakness. Because everyone shows results according to their pace.
Employees With Many Friends Have Nothing To Be Depressed About:
Some people are best at suppressing their problems while staying jolly and friendly, but it doesn’t mean they can’t be victims of these illnesses.
So assuming that an extrovert employee who is everyone’s friend can’t be depressed is wrong.
People can be jolly and still bad at expressing what they feel. Therefore, don’t judge, and stay kind.
Conclusion
Mental health problems can be commonly seen these days.
You can’t predict someone sitting next to you can suffer from these illnesses.
Therefore, treat everyone humbly.
There can be many causes for these mental illnesses. But it’s our duty to find solutions for them.
Therefore, managers should provide employees with an environment to share their ideas or thoughts and discuss things that are affecting them. At the same time, encouraging and appreciating the employees on their performances and treating everyone equally. Moreover, cut the roots of the myths that are discussed above from your company. Arrange training sessions on mental health issues and share open forums where workers can share their views.
All in all, the company’s growth depends on the growth of its employees. It will impact the success of an organization if they don’t think about the people working in it and their well-being.
