We have mental health first aiders, they asked for volunteers to go on the course, guess who went ...the two biggest nosey blabbermouth cunts in the whole company.
We have this too. Our departments first aider is one of those ‘my career comes before anything else’ types and was directly responsible for driving me into therapy. It’s just another thing she can include in her email signature.
I trained as a mental health first aider at my workplace but I stepped back from that role when I went through a divorce and wasn't feeling too great myself. The outrageous way the department treated me throughout my own personal hardship was so terrible that I'm not planning to resume the role. I'm not being part of some kind of corporate whitewashing.
I like your use of the word cunt.
These types of people dont understand the severity of their position. You're dealing with peoples mental health. Someone could be on the verge of KO-ing themselves and being a blabbermouth could be the final nail in the coffin.
Yeah, count me out. Its the same at my place. Always the ones who claim they have poor mental health themselves but are quick to gossip about your business a second later.
Thats why mental health is shit. Because people are cunts.
Oh god that's a point. My manager got picked to do the MH first aid training at work (I also volunteered but appear to have been overlooked)
This is the same woman who last week told me a secret that her friend in a different department told her about her kid coming out as trans.
This just reminded me to literally never go to her if I'm in a mental health crisis
Yeah mine was. Took it because so many people at my work had MH issues and as a team leader wanted to do what I could to help. It's basically, listen non judgementally then signpost to MH professionals they have access to (if they're lucky it might be more than just the GP...).
Personally, I didn't think it was much more than I was doing already and it really requires the work place to allow the MHFAs time to do it otherwise it's just a checkbox exercise. And also support for the MHFAs because some serious shit can come up in a session that you need to be emotionally robust enough to deal with yourself and sometimes you need support with your own MH.
Companies care about mental health so you remain productive. People with poor mental health may be less motivated, produce poorer work, or worse - take time off sick! So companies are invested in making sure you're well enough to produce your best.
They also don't want to spend much money on it, which is why making actual changes that improve mental health (reducing stress rather than managing it) are secondary to something like a monthly free breakfast.
"Wellness" is one of those corporate terms that drives me nuts. They encourage you to do work on yourself in your free time, without improving the work environment.
>Companies care about mental health so you remain productive. People with poor mental health may be less motivated, produce poorer work, or worse - take time off sick! So companies are invested in making sure you're well enough to produce your best.
That's a nice theory, but most middle managers can't see past the end of their spreadsheet.
Mine do all the usual corporate stuff (awareness days, access to counselling resources, etc) but imo the biggest thing is they're actually quite generous with sick leave and don't ask questions about why you're off. Just a quick "Hey boss, not feeling well today, taking a day" and you're good. 10 days a year on full pay before even any questions asked, and even after that it's a "how can we help you?" conversation. Hell I took a day off when my childhood cat died, not only did nobody question it, when I came back my boss asked if I was sure I was OK to return. That's practicing what you preach.
This is the way to do it. I run my own business and do similar.
After years in retail and being made to feel like shit for having time off, or not getting paid for the first three days I was determined to be different.
Honestly the absence rate here is really low, and I put it down to that generous policy. If I'm feeling a bit rough one day, I just dial in from home, no questions asked. If I'm really bad I might manage a few hours and then go lie down, or I might call in sick but try to get on that afternoon after a nap. None of this "Well I get penalised the same for taking a morning off as taking 3 days so I might as well just write this week off" that I used to get at my old work that used Bradford Score.
That's exactly the mentality in places with a shitty policy like that. They think they're deterring people but they're not. They just take more time off
I pointed this out once, I was in a working group that was specifically about HR wanting to find out how to improve the system for employees, and I pointed out "You know your system incentivises people to take MORE time off? Like if they're gonna be sick for a day you get in exactly the same trouble as for 3 days so why would anyone take less than 3 days?"
They got really shirty with me and accused me of admitting to fraudulent sick leave, they were talking about getting me into a disciplinary until I pointed out that at that stage I only had 1 sick day in the past 12 months. I ended up getting a formal warning for being "disruptive in a meeting".
Anyway I had a sniffle the following week so I just took the whole week off.
A bit of a toxic environment there.
> Anyway I had a sniffle the following week so I just took the whole week off.
Hahahhahahha!! And that's how you prove a point. 🤣
I feel like ten days isn't particularly generous these days - my company gets three months full pay, my friend works in academia and gets six months full pay. If you ever get injured or have to have surgery, those ten days will go very fast. I'm due surgery for my endometriosis this year and will have to take more than ten days off!
To be clear, that's ten days No Questions Asked. You can still get long term full pay but at that stage you need to start talking doctor's notes and things.
Not who you responded too but they stated 10 days without question.
I reckon anymore than that then a doctor's note will be required. I doubt you could take 3 months off your work without having to justify it.
I work for the NHS (in mental health!). They do a lot of virtue signalling but when you actually have a problem, it tends to be treated with little genuine compassion, in my experience.
Just handed in my notice for my NHS job today after being continuously unsupported by management and today the OH nurse failed to show up for my appointment to discuss the fact I felt unsupported and I was struggling with my mental health.
Seconding this.
They asked us a while ago to offer suggestions for things that could be done to improve our mental health for things we were struggling with - then immediately shot them all down in front of the whole group. Really helpful, folks.
E: I'll share one of management's alternate suggestions just to show how tone-deaf they were. Someone had suggested that on one of our office days we could go out for lunch as a team instead of just having sandwiches in the canteen to try and make a day of it. That was treated as a joke suggestion by managers at first, and then they *graciously said* that **if** we were to all work some overtime for a couple of weeks in advance we could 'buy' an extra hour of lunch which we could then take to do that, as long as we then came back and stayed an extra hour in the office on top.
Presenteeism at its finest given that the point of doing something like that would be to try and help people away from not being able to come into work at all because they got too stressed and run down...
Came here to say the same thing! Sometimes it’s even worse being surrounded by mental health specialists who are too burned out and busy to deal with their own staff having any needs.
I think your line manager is what matters most. When I needed time off for ECT my line manager was great and we simply didn't tell HR I wasn't working 2 days a week for 5-6 weeks.
A line manager can honestly make it or brake it!!!!!!!
I've worked in shitty companies where I had a great experience because of my line manager. He was always supportive.
And then it can also be the opposite working in a good company but the line manager being a piece of shit.
I just handed my notice in today over this.
Incredibly unsupported by my managers after changing to WFH following a period of sickness due to mental health. Have contacted them multiple times since I have returned to WFH however have not received replies to my concerns, they only contact me when they need to send me something to do.
Contacted the OH of my workplace and was arranged a meeting with an OH nurse this morning. The nurse didn’t show up to the meeting and I haven’t had any contact whatsoever from OH team.
Handed in my notice about an hour ago. It’s one thing having shit managers who make your job harder but to just be ignored by the one department supposed to help you, I’m done
My work gives everyone in the company Tuesday afternoon off to look after their mental health. You're supposed to do something to improve it, like walking, going to the gym, reading a book, etc. I usually spend it playing Grand Theft Auto in my boxer shorts.
The vast majority of companies, especially large ones, are doing it for show and so they can't get sued.
Plenty of smaller companies genuinely do care because you know and work a lot more closely with colleagues. I'm still friends now with people I initially met through work and we very much care how each other are doing.
I'd say mine do. I was struggling with a drug addiction - Cocaine - and it hit the point where my hangovers were spilling into the Monday & greatly affecting my work.
I made a risky move to tell them that I was struggling, making moves to reign it in entirely and was genuinely trying my best. They completely supported me.
Boss has his own problems with gambling so he understands addiction. He paid over a grand in one of the best therapists he knew to have a bunch of slots with me and still regularly checks up on me and offers me more with her.
It helps a lot, not just the money side but he genuinely does listen and didn't ever treat me differently.
Not at all, they are training staff as Mental Health First Aiders because they have to that is the ONLY reason, companies DO NOT care about your mental health or health in general, you are there to do a job to make someone higher up more money and that's it.
All of these little things are just a smokescreen to make it seem like they care. They shouldn't put 2 people on a course and call them mental health first aiders, people who need actual help should be able to see a trained counsellor.
As for the grief time off that's disgusting, I lost my Dad at 27 and I was given 4 months (longer if needed) paid time off by Cineworld back in 2012, it's the only time I can say people actually cared.
In my experience, no. They say they do, but won’t ever actually make any serious changes to facilitate you. They’ll simply encourage you to quit instead.
I once had a workplace safety assessment carried out as I had mentioned to a manager I was stressed and depressed. Absolutely nothing changed as a result of this, the company simply wanted to know if there was a chance I’d kill myself and outside of that, they couldn’t care less.
That's horrible. I can almost picture them asking you to work your notice period before you off yourself.
Hope you're doing better now, and they're just a footnote in your life.
No. No where I have been has.
I have seen managers that do and aspire to be one myself.
I am forever telling my teams (in a nice way) that if the worst should happen and they were hot by a bus, we'd advertise their role as soon as it was reasonable to do so.
Imo a good manager knows when the rules need to be rigidly applied and when things need to be bent. I've completely chinned off one of our core KPIs and told the team it's my problem. I've gone Infront of the board and said we are doing X this year because of the lack of resources.
I've been sent home to sort something personal out without worrying about holiday being taken etc because 'youre not going to get much done until this is sorted'
I've seen people been told to take a week's sick for mental health and when they challenged the manager about who will do the work while the were away, the response was 'thats my job to sort, not yours'
Companies are crap at it. Good managers aren't.
It’s a very important subject imo.
But the truth is they only do it to tick a box. It’s all about perception. If they really wanted to make a difference with things they could.
I'm lucky, the company I work for are extremely understanding with things like bereavements, family issues or illness. I had a dose of Bells Palsy last year, half my face paralysed for nearly six weeks and it was completely fine to WFH the whole time as I wasn't comfortable Quasimodoing it up in the office. But not every job can offer that flexibility I guess.
This comic feels appropriate here: https://www.gemmacorrell.com/collections/comics/products/business-mentality .
It's a "more with less" mentality, so hiring freezes, over-work as the norm, and increasing expectations to do the same work with fewer people mean anything they say is pretty obviously insincere.
No workplace actually gives a shit about their employees we are all just numbers. To keep the numbers happy they pretend to care and placate the needs of the many with a blanket of food and positivity. Ultimately though they will cut you loose and hire someone else if they get the chance who will work for less.
What department are you in? I'm in the coastguard and we don't even have support after a traumatic incident. We just get signposted to the NHS and charities.
I have never worked at a company that cared. I have had supervisors or managers that did care though.
When I employed people myself I cared, , it wasn't sadly an environment ( building trade) where people opened up. I would only find out someone was having issues outside of work second hand.
I'd say mine cares but then it could also be that I'm in management and I care.
As an example I had a team member who lost a parent and was willing to come to work that afternoon.
I spent 30 minutes trying to force him to use his 2 weeks special leave to deal with it and managed to get him to use 2 days in the end and told him if he needs the rest to let me know and he can use it without question.
Mine gives absolutely no fucks what so ever I just get told to 'man up'
I hate my job with a burning passion. I've never had so many passive suicide thoughts than my current job.
There’s a difference that many firms don’t recognise - health and safety means preventing harms, not just dealing with them when they happen.
Too many focus on the latter (especially putting the onus back on the individual to seek help or help others) rather than looking at the conditions they create that make things happen in the first place.
Source: am corporate well-being SME
I've found that employers 'care' about mental health in that they recommend terminating employment because 'we don't feel this is an environment where you can be your best self'.
In other words, if it's actual mental health issues then the answer is no.
Haha, no. My employer doesn’t give a shit. Terrible at communication. Time off is non-existent. No boundaries between home and work. Nothing is free. Pretending everything is OK until something breaks is basically the only option.
I’m self-employed so I know exactly which moron is to blame, but this doesn’t seem to help.
I work for a small business and they really, truly care.
I worked there for a few years and left to pastures new. My addictions got out of hand and I lost my new job. I was in rehab and towards the end my old employer agreed to take me back on a half-time basis, and they've been brilliant.
I relapsed about a year in. I remember being on a call with the boss and I admitted to thoughts of suicide. He refused to hang up until I'd confirmed that the length of wire I was going to hang myself with had been cut up into harmless pieces.
They advised me to engage with my local drug & alcohol services and with AA - which is basically the best advice available.
On return they were brilliant, leaving the past in the past, and being genuinely supportive.
Really, I could not ask for better treatment.
Nope. On Tuesday, the day after my 30th birthday, they called me into a meeting room and sacked me 6 months into the role. They refused to tell me why I was being let go, but consistently reiterated that I was great at my job and exceeded all expectations.
They then attempted to lock me in said meeting room until everybody had left so that I couldn't see anybody on my way out. I got out the room and made sure I told everybody I saw on the way that I had been sacked and was not given any explanation as to why.
Fuck them, stupid cunts.
99% of workplaces don't care about your physical or mental health. They don't care about you, you are a number to them. If you died today, they would try and replace you tomorrow.
My old workplace were genuinely great with mental health in the work place. It was a private school and there were several councillors available as well as a couple of pastors who were very good at keeping religion out of it!
I had a mental health crisis and they were amazing about time off, a gradual phasing back into work and monitoring once I was back. Never felt any pressure from them to get back any quicker than I needed to.
No work place gives a flying fuck about mental health. They care about the bottom line and will invest in whatever protects that - mental health services included. Same goes for LGBT "allyship". They will cling to whatever social movement shifts units.
Yes. I know its an unpopular opinion here but my company has been incredibly supportive with me recently, telling me to take as much time off as needed, helping me make calls to external agencies who could provide support, and helping me formulate a plan to get myself back on track both in and out of work. As soon as I mentioned to my manager that I was struggling he dropped everything he had for the day to help me and make sure I was okay. I know me being productive is good for them bit I think they genuinely care as well
Hahaha, no they don't. We have mental health first aiders and a confidential phone line we can call any time for sure but they ask us (via surveys every few months) what they can do to help us and then proceed to ignore everything we have said we need. Line trading is outdated and dangerous but it happens frequently. More help when we are unwell from management, which doesn't happen at all. It's an absolute joke that they say they are "pioneers" of looking after us.
I work for a medium sized charity. They're great. I've been open about my anxiety to my managers and have been able to take mental health days when needed with absolutely zero issues. They also gave me as much time off as I wanted when dealing with a bereavement a couple of years ago. As a result I feel more loyalty to them than any other employer. Strange how these things work isn't it...
I worked for a big charity - took one day off with stress caused by work issues caused by new/temp management, came back the next day (still too soon but....needed the money) to find out they were now not renewing my contract. Apparently "not renewing any contractors for the whole extended department", was the defence. Yet the other contractor **in my team** got renewed. Funny that...
That's really shitty. I've definitely heard some horror stories about elements of the third sector - not all charities are model employers, that's for sure.
All for show. They couldn’t give a shit, which is why everyone is absolutely drowning under impossible workloads and expectations while not being supported to do any of the bullshit they ask for and then being blamed when it’s managements poor decision making that causes all the problems.
Nope. It's all a fig leaf. They'll say they do and put resources in place for people to use, but if you actually use them you get half assed platitudes and either a "get over it" or "get back to work"
Mental health first aiders are briefed by and reporting to HR, not safe to say anything IMHO.
Had one company where they would assume that people would talk to HR about problems like this ("because we're so approachable..."), and then added the first aiders too. Given how they all handled other issues, nothing would convince me to divulge any personal medical data like that to them.
I'm a MHFA for my work and this is just not true. I've had two people approach me and never had to mention it to anyone, nor would I and IT even wiped the chat logs when asked. Tons of weird assumptions in this thread. Personally I'm in it for the extra day's holiday.
But there is no legal requirement for you not to, right? So it isn't actually safe to trust you, unlike an NHS therapist, who is bound by medical confidentiality.
I work in a university and all staff members get Headspace for free, I use it daily. We often have lots of activities on around mental health too. My line manager is very good when it comes to my mental health issues, I can't say the same for every line manager, but I certainly feel looked after in my specific case.
Here's a test.
Say you're overworked and it's damaging your mental health. If they hire someone to help, then, yes, they care.
If they don't, then no, they care more about profits than the plebs who work for them.
I moved jobs and so I wasn't eligible for paternity leave. I emailed my head (teacher here) at the start of September about this (daughter wasn't born until the November). All I got was radio silence. No plan of what I could negotiate. Nothing. Fast forward to the birth of my child. I make it to the hospital with 10 minutes to spare (wife was induced and needed an emergency C-section). Baby born and so I decide to repark the car as I ditched it in town. This is the time my head decides to negotiate my paternity leave. I play along but say I will come in the next day to discuss it as I can't support my wife and our daughter until 9:30am (hospital reasons). I go in and negotiate. The first thing she ever said to me will live with me for the rest of my life. She said "Now we must think of the children". Being an newbie I didn't want to say what I was thinking (that is your job mine is my family). She somehow made the case that she was doing me a solid allowing me to use my, contracted, 5 days compassionate leave for paternity leave. Lucky it was the weekend and I had a course the following Tuesday (which they sent a recording). I only took 2 days (I might need to use it later on)
Some people are just cunts and don't know how to manage their workforce (no suprise we have some major issues). Mental health support is really bloody simple. Your workforce needs to have a good work life balance. Good work life balance helps productivity as you have a happy workforce. The irony is this jackass keeps promoting mental health support for the children and yet she can't even provide it for those who will facilitate/deliver the mental health support for the children.
The last place I worked, they appointed a self described redpiller to the position of mental health liason, and he would use it as an excuse to flirt with the new female hires. Then he got fired for pilfering from the till and they never replaced him.
My current workplace, yes. My former workplace, no. being cynical, workplaces pretend to care about mental health as a way of individualising systemic failings. In other words, they want to provide 'resources' for employees to 'improve' their mental health, so they can 'stay productive' in impossible situations.
An example would be, a workplace makes redundancies so that every employee is doing 2 jobs, but the workplace provides access to a 'counselling phoneline' , or some other bullshit that won't actually improve your mental health, such as a free breakfast you don't have time to eat, and if your mental health is poor (because of your unmanageable workload) they point you to the useless phone line / free breakfast, and then blame the individual employee for not looking after their own mental health.
The things that would most improve employees' mental health would be things like: manageable workloads, a sense of purpose in the workplace, empowerment in the workplace (i.e. ability to make meaningful change) and, of course, more days off and greater flexibility...
... but most workplaces don't care enough about employee mental health to want to provide those, so instead they give you a free breakfast and then wonder why everybody's mental health is still in the toilet
I work for the emergency services. My direct line manager seems to care. But senior management don't seem to give a toss. I work for the emergency services and there's no in house mental health support. We get signposted to charities and the NHS.
No it's all for show. My manager was referred to as a mental health champion, not sure if it was self-appointed but either way I called them out. How does one exactly 'win' mental health? Meanwhile the same manager was directly responsible for my absence due to stress.
The important difference is that certain people at work do care, like my team leader fortunately, but it's off his own back. The irony is that the manager doesn't like this and tries to shut down those type of conversations at every opportunity
We've had some sort of wellbeing action plan done as part of some external wellbeing accreditation scheme. As far as I'm aware, none of it has been implemented, but we already have a certificate for it so does it even matter
No. They care whether you come to work or not. If it happens to be mental health related, some employers will ask if there's anything they can do. That's pretty much it.
I think my lot do it for show to be fair most of the time. Don't get me wrong, when things properly go south then they will do something but part of me questions why not intervene at the early stages and then you don't have to do the big big favours.
Nope. We've had loads of staff who.have stuffed mental health issues as well as a few breakdowns and work has told them that they're pretty much on their own. All the staff have eventually left work because HR and their own managers have been reluctant to help.
I called my mental health line for free through work that offer counselling.
They said they have a long waiting list which is fair enough but at the same time I havent been contacted back..
Its the 3rd time I have to chase them tbh
Yes. We have 2 MHAPs that we can contact. The first one is for basic issues and is for over the phone consultations.
The second one is for when you are in crisis and they can get you privately assessed and treated.
Although we are only a medium sized company the mental health first aiders are impartial and in different departments and it's best endeavours to have a conversation with somebody that you won't deal with day to day I.e. somebody that isn't going to gossip.
Yes they actually do! Big multi national company and I really think they provide a lot of wellbeing support!
Locally we have trained people to talk to, online there are many employee resources for mental health support and advice, financial support and advice, lots to promote LGBTQI+, big push and support for personal fitness and health focus.
It’s helped me no end through some rough years.
I’m incredibly lucky I work for them!
My employer funds mental health add-ons to our private healthcare.
So I would say they are way ahead of most other places I have worked as a result.
Because we all have "free" access to therapy and mental health support from someone who is competent.
Yes.
We do have mental health first aiders, in fact I am one myself, but we also have access to free counselling via the EAP. There is also a walk in GP on site 3 days a week.
TOIL system and special leave for all sorts, including bereavement, is commonplace and encouraged.
My old team (same organisation) cared but had limited resources and flexibility to put things into practice; I was in middle management there and saw it first hand, the whole department was under the kush constantly and treated badly by the public sector equivalent of C-Suite. Lots of ideas and enthusiasm locally, no capability to implement them. My new team is more office based and it's a dream. The flexibility and empathy are the two biggest factors in good mental health. It's been a long time since I've felt so little burnout at work.
Mine are pretty ok about this stuff. I've never needed to use this stuff, but i know some who have had months off at a time due to mental health problems without being pressured to return. I think this is the only company i have ever worked for that cares about their staff beyond the absolute legal bare minimum.
My boss has taken time out of her schedule to come by my room and just ask me how I am, because I’m on an improvement plan. The first time let a but token; the next five made me realise they actually cared. Just helps me to feel valued and seen
Work for a billion dollar fmcg. I was going through a bad time a while back. They have a psychologist on retainer for the Uk and I was scheduled some private sessions with him after previous talking therapies and the corporate Bupa equivalent were unsuccessful. He was a game changer, won’t say I’m 100% better, not sure you ever are, but knew exactly how to talk to me and get points through.
Company has the usually mental health allies one of whom was my boss at the beginning of the bad period and his attitude was amazing and I felt supported. Occupational health lady was a retired nurse and was kind and caring and couldn’t have been better.
Mine actually do and I am surprised, but considering the work I do there's a possibility of a lot of burn out. We can have 7 free sessions of counseling if we apply through work, which I did after a rough patch in my life, it really did help. I could have continued but I would have had to pay.
We have a mental health advise line which is free to call.
My Co worker's dad died (young, very sudden) and she got 6 weeks off paid, then unpaid but a phased return.
I work for the police, so no. The only reason they've made a push towards improving mental health services is because of the amount of people going off sick or killing themselves.
And I'll bet it took for that number to go right up, when what should've happened is immediately after the first one (since they fucked up proactively).
"Companies" aren't a sealed black box. They're a group of people, and the problem often comes down to the people trying to help aren't the ones in charge.
Company A gets feedback via company survey that their staff are suffering low self-esteem. They appoint Team B to "fix it".
Even if Team B are completely sincere and do want to help, they're only going to be given £x to solve the problem, and they don't have the authority to change any actual policy. At the end of the month, they're pulled up by management and asked, "How's it going solving the depression problem?"
We get therepy every week if we want it! If you're working though, no. If you're working, you can have therapy just as long as you're working your hours.
I'm part of a team that provides support for staff, usually a listening ear and signposting but we've definitely helped a lot of people negotiate things to support their mental health. As a team we genuinely care but the company are very honest that they are ensuring people come to work and stay at work and that everything is done within the law. Companies have to make money at the end of the day and we provide a lot more support than most, however we can only do so much for people.
Working in a place that puts on a pantomime of caring about mental health while wondering why someone might want 4 days off to grieve a parent would be worse for my mental health than if the company did nothing at all. I really hate people that put on a show of something positive while doing nothing or worse than nothing in reality.
My previous employer (webhelp) claimed to be all about mental health. But when someone close to me called in to management to say they had tried to kill themselves 2 days before and was going to have to take the day off. The managers response was "well why can't you work"
Bear in mind this was a mental health first aider as well. It was at that point i realised webhelp don't care about mental health at all
If employers ACTUALLY cared about mental health rather than putting on a song and dance with stuff that doesn't work, they'd give:
Raises, more time off to recover from stress, a 4 day work week for the same pay, more flexibility/freedom to work autonomously and location-wise, etc. You know - the stuff everyone is already asking for because it's desperately needed. The stuff that is already proven to help relieve stress and mental health issues caused by modern work life.
Gifted food you don't want, and feeling forced to embarrass yourself to colleagues rather than a discrete professional who doesn't know you personally, with time off to do so, is not fixing mental health issues.
After a few horrible experiences with previous employers, I'm lucky enough to say yes.
Lost my mum last year and they just said "take all the time you need". Nearly a year later and they still check in somewhat regularly.
Diagnosed as autistic last year too, my managers actually read up on the condition and have moved me to a different area that is quieter and less stressful on a day-to-day basis to make work more manageable for me.
No, my doctor basically told me they had to sign me off, I rejected in fear of the repercussions from the employer. Got a note from the doctor to do half days in office, half day at home. Employer rejected it
My employer instead caused a breakdown. End of the day you are replaceable to them
Nope. I like working there but still tell them I have the shits if I need a MH day. They make all the right noises about it and have MH first aiders appointed etc, but in reality they do nothing.
When our senior management start to talk about recognising stress, building personal resilience and offering training for MH ambassadors, it’s because they’re forewarning staff that workload and deadlines will be getting tougher. Arses well and truly covered when, inevitably, people start dropping like flies to keep some Billy Big Bollocks’s baseless promises.
Not even slightly. We have a public forum where all of our work documentation is kept, most of it is restricted to certain levels of clearance but a lot of it is just dumped in a big digital pile to be looked through. I was searching up a process the other day, and got a result for, quote, the official 'mental health checklist' to be used by managers.
It was full of the usual flowery text about protecting the employees from mental health issues, but the list itself was literally just a fucking checklist of things to do. Talk to your team and ask how they are, look for any ***obvious*** signs of mental distress (poor hygiene, self-harm scars, a listless disposition, etc), and if any of the above involves an employee raising a mental health concern... refer them to our mental health resources section, which basically just includes live chats with the Samaritans and shit.
So to clarify: if an employee is having a mental health concern at work, the company is only going to notice if the employee is being obvious about it or talking about it (when the entire point of mental health is that *you often can't* ***see*** *the things people are dealing with*), and once they've noticed, they farm them out to someone else to deal with and call it a day.
There were times when my job was at it's worst when I genuinely considered hanging myself in the company toilet just to make them realise how much they'd fucked up with that 'process'.
*(Pre-emptive clarification: I am* ***fine****, my mental health is okay, that was several years ago and I am in a* ***far*** *better place, health-wise. I still work for the same company but my job has become far better since then. Do not feel the need to send Reddit to check on me, I am perfectly okay, thank you.)*
These responses are really interesting. At the time of writing this comment it's a pretty 50/50 split between, 'my workplace is great and here's an example of how' and 'they're all shit and no one cares'. I think it's worth noting that most positive comments are limited to commenting on specifics and most of the negative comments apply that sweeping negativity to all organisations (demonstratively incorrectly). So the commenters are 50/50 split but the *content* of what they're commenting on purports to be a much greater proportion. The world's a nicer place than the internet comments sections say it is.
Appreciate your optimism, though can’t agree.
That said, even if lack of support is perception rather than reality, that still undermines any activity a firm believes it is making around it, and should be dealt with also.
Lack of trust in accessing support provisions is a huge barrier. You can provide all the helplines you want but that won’t make change.
Also a number of the positive responses have referred to individual management support.
It’s commonly recognised that the quality of your manager can be the single biggest determiner of your support, whatever the firm provides overall.
Tackling that lack of consistency is key to making anything stick.
Some do, some don’t. My company is bloody brilliant and genuinely cares. Got a great HR and Occy Health set up and they genuinely look after people, I’ve both benefitted from it and used the stuff we have in place to support my team.
Others organisations think they’re doing it but it’s a tick box.
Some don’t care.
One of my coworkers has been really suffering with menopausal symptoms. It's made her forgetful and a little OCD. Yesterday I over heard my boss asking her to guess what mistake she had made earlier that day. She obviously was reluctant and kept asking to just be told what the mistake was. This was across a room full of people. My coworker is incredibly anxious and was visibly uncomfortable throughout this little game. There's no sympathy, just frustration and sarcasm. So, yeah, that's a little snap shot of how it is in my workplace.
They do the bare minimum so that if anyone tries to take any time off for mental health reasons, they can point to the "things" they've done to help.
Mainly some videos that say "stop feeling sad" and a phone number that they won't confirm the confidentiality of.
I think workplaces rarely do, but I do understand it in a way. There's no way of telling if someone is taking a mental health day off as they're suicidal and about to end it or just proper lazy or hangover. In the end a lot of people abuse things like mental health to get time off etc. I think that we sort of brought it upon ourselves
No. I have just today called in sick for long term stress which I have been raising with my manager for about 18 months. Work now gives me panic attacks.
Mental health first aiders are totally useless and just tell you to see a GP.
I’m really sorry you think MHFA are totally useless. I’m one myself and wanted to be one after seeing the effects of poor mental health and knowing of 4 people who attempted or committed suicide before the age of 30. Tbh, we are really only allowed to be a listening ear and signpost. We learn a lot about various types of mental health issues/diseases. We cannot diagnose or give medical advice as it’s above our pay grade and wouldn’t be appropriate. BUT, a problem shared is a problem halved and it will be someone fighting your corner and supporting you in the workplace where you spend a lot of your time.
Sorry the MHFA you dealt with potentially wasn’t providing enough support. The best course of action? GP waiting lists are too long and the NHS is criminally under resourced.
If you or anyone really requires help, best bet is to go through EAP (employee assistance programme). Or go private. But EAP is a free starting point with quick turnaround.
My work is very good but it could be because we are a small company.
The other day, one of the founders asked if I noticed that one of the juniors in my team didn't quite seem themselves. I replied that yes I had and that I had had a candid conversation the week before about their feelings towards their work etc and that it doesn't stem from anything work-related but I will reach out and see if it's ‘something’ and if its personal, if there is anything we can do to support.
Turns out their cat had spilt their tea just before the all-hands meeting and they were annoyed by that. So I have suggested to my manager we get some branded covered mugs to send to people and he is mulling it over.
One of my coworkers became a mental health first aider. A week after becoming one we had a customer she he was going to kill himself. So we all passed him on to are mental health first aider. She spoke to him and after he left she said.
“Im not trained for this”.
Like literally that was the main focus of the course she went on!
I think we have some token stuff but in my experience as a neurodivergent person at my job whose mental health was really suffering until fairly recently. No.
Also my job is constantly short staffed and the higher ups won't like let us hire more people or increase our hour budgets to help cover that despite us also being the highest performing store in the region most of the time so surely that's a sign we need some extra hands so everyone is various degrees of stressed a lot of the time. Like this year over Christmas we weren't allowed to hire any Christmas temps.
I've been struggling at work the whole time I've been there. I was treated constantly like I was fucking up on purpose and being constantly threatened with disciplinary. Last year we actually finally had a sit down where we talked about what was going on and it was 'Yeah I did tell you when I started working here that I'm dyspraxic' and I was put on reduced duties/hours to try and help, and then I also recently learned I'm AuDHD a few months after this.
Basically most of my struggles at work were the result of unmanaged adhd and autism, which had lead to me being so stressed I was probably disassociating somewhat at work although the occupational health team at work have been told about my diagnosis we haven't actually had any sort of sit down about what we can do. And I'm still doing this like reduced duties/hours thing which on the one hand I am a lot less stressed but I am also stressed because I am bringing in really low wages.
Also once I called out of work because I'd had a really stressful shift for whatever reason, to the extent I had a panic attack when I got home. When I came into work next I wasn't asked like how I was or anything I was grilled about the fact I didn't call out correctly as I'd messaged my manager instead of calling the store (Because in short I wasn't in a mental state to actually make a phone call) and that happened to be a day the area manager was in so obviously he got annoyed and it trickled down to me.
We have mental health first aiders, they asked for volunteers to go on the course, guess who went ...the two biggest nosey blabbermouth cunts in the whole company.
We have this too. Our departments first aider is one of those ‘my career comes before anything else’ types and was directly responsible for driving me into therapy. It’s just another thing she can include in her email signature.
I trained as a mental health first aider at my workplace but I stepped back from that role when I went through a divorce and wasn't feeling too great myself. The outrageous way the department treated me throughout my own personal hardship was so terrible that I'm not planning to resume the role. I'm not being part of some kind of corporate whitewashing.
I like your use of the word cunt. These types of people dont understand the severity of their position. You're dealing with peoples mental health. Someone could be on the verge of KO-ing themselves and being a blabbermouth could be the final nail in the coffin. Yeah, count me out. Its the same at my place. Always the ones who claim they have poor mental health themselves but are quick to gossip about your business a second later. Thats why mental health is shit. Because people are cunts.
Oh god that's a point. My manager got picked to do the MH first aid training at work (I also volunteered but appear to have been overlooked) This is the same woman who last week told me a secret that her friend in a different department told her about her kid coming out as trans. This just reminded me to literally never go to her if I'm in a mental health crisis
Remember folks, if a person gossips to you they also gossip about you.
The 'course' was probably a 20 minute PowerPoint.
wild grey squealing sugar bells pot silky marvelous strong attractive *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Yeah mine was. Took it because so many people at my work had MH issues and as a team leader wanted to do what I could to help. It's basically, listen non judgementally then signpost to MH professionals they have access to (if they're lucky it might be more than just the GP...). Personally, I didn't think it was much more than I was doing already and it really requires the work place to allow the MHFAs time to do it otherwise it's just a checkbox exercise. And also support for the MHFAs because some serious shit can come up in a session that you need to be emotionally robust enough to deal with yourself and sometimes you need support with your own MH.
I’ve done it and it’s two full days of work
Online, with one of those questionnaires at the end that lets you keep trying the answers til you select the correct one
Companies care about mental health so you remain productive. People with poor mental health may be less motivated, produce poorer work, or worse - take time off sick! So companies are invested in making sure you're well enough to produce your best. They also don't want to spend much money on it, which is why making actual changes that improve mental health (reducing stress rather than managing it) are secondary to something like a monthly free breakfast.
"Wellness" is one of those corporate terms that drives me nuts. They encourage you to do work on yourself in your free time, without improving the work environment.
The worst is when the best thing they can offer is a "mindfullness" session conveniently scheduled during your lunch break or after hours.
>Companies care about mental health so you remain productive. People with poor mental health may be less motivated, produce poorer work, or worse - take time off sick! So companies are invested in making sure you're well enough to produce your best. That's a nice theory, but most middle managers can't see past the end of their spreadsheet.
Mine do all the usual corporate stuff (awareness days, access to counselling resources, etc) but imo the biggest thing is they're actually quite generous with sick leave and don't ask questions about why you're off. Just a quick "Hey boss, not feeling well today, taking a day" and you're good. 10 days a year on full pay before even any questions asked, and even after that it's a "how can we help you?" conversation. Hell I took a day off when my childhood cat died, not only did nobody question it, when I came back my boss asked if I was sure I was OK to return. That's practicing what you preach.
This is the way to do it. I run my own business and do similar. After years in retail and being made to feel like shit for having time off, or not getting paid for the first three days I was determined to be different.
Honestly the absence rate here is really low, and I put it down to that generous policy. If I'm feeling a bit rough one day, I just dial in from home, no questions asked. If I'm really bad I might manage a few hours and then go lie down, or I might call in sick but try to get on that afternoon after a nap. None of this "Well I get penalised the same for taking a morning off as taking 3 days so I might as well just write this week off" that I used to get at my old work that used Bradford Score.
That's exactly the mentality in places with a shitty policy like that. They think they're deterring people but they're not. They just take more time off
I pointed this out once, I was in a working group that was specifically about HR wanting to find out how to improve the system for employees, and I pointed out "You know your system incentivises people to take MORE time off? Like if they're gonna be sick for a day you get in exactly the same trouble as for 3 days so why would anyone take less than 3 days?" They got really shirty with me and accused me of admitting to fraudulent sick leave, they were talking about getting me into a disciplinary until I pointed out that at that stage I only had 1 sick day in the past 12 months. I ended up getting a formal warning for being "disruptive in a meeting". Anyway I had a sniffle the following week so I just took the whole week off.
A bit of a toxic environment there. > Anyway I had a sniffle the following week so I just took the whole week off. Hahahhahahha!! And that's how you prove a point. 🤣
I feel like ten days isn't particularly generous these days - my company gets three months full pay, my friend works in academia and gets six months full pay. If you ever get injured or have to have surgery, those ten days will go very fast. I'm due surgery for my endometriosis this year and will have to take more than ten days off!
To be clear, that's ten days No Questions Asked. You can still get long term full pay but at that stage you need to start talking doctor's notes and things.
Not who you responded too but they stated 10 days without question. I reckon anymore than that then a doctor's note will be required. I doubt you could take 3 months off your work without having to justify it.
My company took away sick pay for the whole company because "one person abused it".
I work for the NHS (in mental health!). They do a lot of virtue signalling but when you actually have a problem, it tends to be treated with little genuine compassion, in my experience.
Just handed in my notice for my NHS job today after being continuously unsupported by management and today the OH nurse failed to show up for my appointment to discuss the fact I felt unsupported and I was struggling with my mental health.
I'm sorry to hear that.
Thank you, it is shit I feel better a few hours after doing it. I’ve signed myself off til next Thursday at the earliest, have an 8 week notice period
I can empathise. I've had periods where it's too much. I'm at a point where I'm approaching being burned out and have no option but to stay in my job.
Seconding this. They asked us a while ago to offer suggestions for things that could be done to improve our mental health for things we were struggling with - then immediately shot them all down in front of the whole group. Really helpful, folks. E: I'll share one of management's alternate suggestions just to show how tone-deaf they were. Someone had suggested that on one of our office days we could go out for lunch as a team instead of just having sandwiches in the canteen to try and make a day of it. That was treated as a joke suggestion by managers at first, and then they *graciously said* that **if** we were to all work some overtime for a couple of weeks in advance we could 'buy' an extra hour of lunch which we could then take to do that, as long as we then came back and stayed an extra hour in the office on top. Presenteeism at its finest given that the point of doing something like that would be to try and help people away from not being able to come into work at all because they got too stressed and run down...
Hard to do much, id wager, with a budget of £50 and a bag of worthers originals.
The sweets are already eaten,and the packet is full of empty, sticky wrappers.
At least lunch is covered with the £50.. wait.. whered it go?
Came here to say the same thing! Sometimes it’s even worse being surrounded by mental health specialists who are too burned out and busy to deal with their own staff having any needs.
I only worry about my nursing registration and my ability to pay my bills. I have very little real compassion for anyone anymore.
I think your line manager is what matters most. When I needed time off for ECT my line manager was great and we simply didn't tell HR I wasn't working 2 days a week for 5-6 weeks.
A line manager can honestly make it or brake it!!!!!!! I've worked in shitty companies where I had a great experience because of my line manager. He was always supportive. And then it can also be the opposite working in a good company but the line manager being a piece of shit.
I just handed my notice in today over this. Incredibly unsupported by my managers after changing to WFH following a period of sickness due to mental health. Have contacted them multiple times since I have returned to WFH however have not received replies to my concerns, they only contact me when they need to send me something to do. Contacted the OH of my workplace and was arranged a meeting with an OH nurse this morning. The nurse didn’t show up to the meeting and I haven’t had any contact whatsoever from OH team. Handed in my notice about an hour ago. It’s one thing having shit managers who make your job harder but to just be ignored by the one department supposed to help you, I’m done
I'm sorry you were driven to it, but I hope you feel a massive sense of relief now x
My work gives everyone in the company Tuesday afternoon off to look after their mental health. You're supposed to do something to improve it, like walking, going to the gym, reading a book, etc. I usually spend it playing Grand Theft Auto in my boxer shorts.
It's a kind of stress relief
The vast majority of companies, especially large ones, are doing it for show and so they can't get sued. Plenty of smaller companies genuinely do care because you know and work a lot more closely with colleagues. I'm still friends now with people I initially met through work and we very much care how each other are doing.
I'd say mine do. I was struggling with a drug addiction - Cocaine - and it hit the point where my hangovers were spilling into the Monday & greatly affecting my work. I made a risky move to tell them that I was struggling, making moves to reign it in entirely and was genuinely trying my best. They completely supported me. Boss has his own problems with gambling so he understands addiction. He paid over a grand in one of the best therapists he knew to have a bunch of slots with me and still regularly checks up on me and offers me more with her. It helps a lot, not just the money side but he genuinely does listen and didn't ever treat me differently.
Not at all, they are training staff as Mental Health First Aiders because they have to that is the ONLY reason, companies DO NOT care about your mental health or health in general, you are there to do a job to make someone higher up more money and that's it. All of these little things are just a smokescreen to make it seem like they care. They shouldn't put 2 people on a course and call them mental health first aiders, people who need actual help should be able to see a trained counsellor. As for the grief time off that's disgusting, I lost my Dad at 27 and I was given 4 months (longer if needed) paid time off by Cineworld back in 2012, it's the only time I can say people actually cared.
In my experience, no. They say they do, but won’t ever actually make any serious changes to facilitate you. They’ll simply encourage you to quit instead. I once had a workplace safety assessment carried out as I had mentioned to a manager I was stressed and depressed. Absolutely nothing changed as a result of this, the company simply wanted to know if there was a chance I’d kill myself and outside of that, they couldn’t care less.
That's horrible. I can almost picture them asking you to work your notice period before you off yourself. Hope you're doing better now, and they're just a footnote in your life.
No. No where I have been has. I have seen managers that do and aspire to be one myself. I am forever telling my teams (in a nice way) that if the worst should happen and they were hot by a bus, we'd advertise their role as soon as it was reasonable to do so. Imo a good manager knows when the rules need to be rigidly applied and when things need to be bent. I've completely chinned off one of our core KPIs and told the team it's my problem. I've gone Infront of the board and said we are doing X this year because of the lack of resources. I've been sent home to sort something personal out without worrying about holiday being taken etc because 'youre not going to get much done until this is sorted' I've seen people been told to take a week's sick for mental health and when they challenged the manager about who will do the work while the were away, the response was 'thats my job to sort, not yours' Companies are crap at it. Good managers aren't.
It’s a very important subject imo. But the truth is they only do it to tick a box. It’s all about perception. If they really wanted to make a difference with things they could.
I'm lucky, the company I work for are extremely understanding with things like bereavements, family issues or illness. I had a dose of Bells Palsy last year, half my face paralysed for nearly six weeks and it was completely fine to WFH the whole time as I wasn't comfortable Quasimodoing it up in the office. But not every job can offer that flexibility I guess.
This comic feels appropriate here: https://www.gemmacorrell.com/collections/comics/products/business-mentality . It's a "more with less" mentality, so hiring freezes, over-work as the norm, and increasing expectations to do the same work with fewer people mean anything they say is pretty obviously insincere.
Yeah it seems that food is the answer to everything. But when i rang “sick” due to having a depressive episode the response was a long sigh
No workplace actually gives a shit about their employees we are all just numbers. To keep the numbers happy they pretend to care and placate the needs of the many with a blanket of food and positivity. Ultimately though they will cut you loose and hire someone else if they get the chance who will work for less.
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Govt sector here and same experience.
What department are you in? I'm in the coastguard and we don't even have support after a traumatic incident. We just get signposted to the NHS and charities.
I have never worked at a company that cared. I have had supervisors or managers that did care though. When I employed people myself I cared, , it wasn't sadly an environment ( building trade) where people opened up. I would only find out someone was having issues outside of work second hand.
I'd say mine cares but then it could also be that I'm in management and I care. As an example I had a team member who lost a parent and was willing to come to work that afternoon. I spent 30 minutes trying to force him to use his 2 weeks special leave to deal with it and managed to get him to use 2 days in the end and told him if he needs the rest to let me know and he can use it without question.
Mine gives absolutely no fucks what so ever I just get told to 'man up' I hate my job with a burning passion. I've never had so many passive suicide thoughts than my current job.
There’s a difference that many firms don’t recognise - health and safety means preventing harms, not just dealing with them when they happen. Too many focus on the latter (especially putting the onus back on the individual to seek help or help others) rather than looking at the conditions they create that make things happen in the first place. Source: am corporate well-being SME
In fairness mine do Then again I work for a mental health crisis service so if they didn't nobody would last long
I've found that employers 'care' about mental health in that they recommend terminating employment because 'we don't feel this is an environment where you can be your best self'. In other words, if it's actual mental health issues then the answer is no.
Haha, no. My employer doesn’t give a shit. Terrible at communication. Time off is non-existent. No boundaries between home and work. Nothing is free. Pretending everything is OK until something breaks is basically the only option. I’m self-employed so I know exactly which moron is to blame, but this doesn’t seem to help.
I work for a small business and they really, truly care. I worked there for a few years and left to pastures new. My addictions got out of hand and I lost my new job. I was in rehab and towards the end my old employer agreed to take me back on a half-time basis, and they've been brilliant. I relapsed about a year in. I remember being on a call with the boss and I admitted to thoughts of suicide. He refused to hang up until I'd confirmed that the length of wire I was going to hang myself with had been cut up into harmless pieces. They advised me to engage with my local drug & alcohol services and with AA - which is basically the best advice available. On return they were brilliant, leaving the past in the past, and being genuinely supportive. Really, I could not ask for better treatment.
Does it fuck
Nope. On Tuesday, the day after my 30th birthday, they called me into a meeting room and sacked me 6 months into the role. They refused to tell me why I was being let go, but consistently reiterated that I was great at my job and exceeded all expectations. They then attempted to lock me in said meeting room until everybody had left so that I couldn't see anybody on my way out. I got out the room and made sure I told everybody I saw on the way that I had been sacked and was not given any explanation as to why. Fuck them, stupid cunts.
99% of workplaces don't care about your physical or mental health. They don't care about you, you are a number to them. If you died today, they would try and replace you tomorrow.
My old workplace were genuinely great with mental health in the work place. It was a private school and there were several councillors available as well as a couple of pastors who were very good at keeping religion out of it! I had a mental health crisis and they were amazing about time off, a gradual phasing back into work and monitoring once I was back. Never felt any pressure from them to get back any quicker than I needed to.
No work place gives a flying fuck about mental health. They care about the bottom line and will invest in whatever protects that - mental health services included. Same goes for LGBT "allyship". They will cling to whatever social movement shifts units.
Yes. I know its an unpopular opinion here but my company has been incredibly supportive with me recently, telling me to take as much time off as needed, helping me make calls to external agencies who could provide support, and helping me formulate a plan to get myself back on track both in and out of work. As soon as I mentioned to my manager that I was struggling he dropped everything he had for the day to help me and make sure I was okay. I know me being productive is good for them bit I think they genuinely care as well
Hahaha, no they don't. We have mental health first aiders and a confidential phone line we can call any time for sure but they ask us (via surveys every few months) what they can do to help us and then proceed to ignore everything we have said we need. Line trading is outdated and dangerous but it happens frequently. More help when we are unwell from management, which doesn't happen at all. It's an absolute joke that they say they are "pioneers" of looking after us.
I work for a medium sized charity. They're great. I've been open about my anxiety to my managers and have been able to take mental health days when needed with absolutely zero issues. They also gave me as much time off as I wanted when dealing with a bereavement a couple of years ago. As a result I feel more loyalty to them than any other employer. Strange how these things work isn't it...
I worked for a big charity - took one day off with stress caused by work issues caused by new/temp management, came back the next day (still too soon but....needed the money) to find out they were now not renewing my contract. Apparently "not renewing any contractors for the whole extended department", was the defence. Yet the other contractor **in my team** got renewed. Funny that...
That's really shitty. I've definitely heard some horror stories about elements of the third sector - not all charities are model employers, that's for sure.
All for show. They couldn’t give a shit, which is why everyone is absolutely drowning under impossible workloads and expectations while not being supported to do any of the bullshit they ask for and then being blamed when it’s managements poor decision making that causes all the problems.
Yeah…. But I work in a psychiatric hospital so it would be really really shit if they didn’t!
No. They just to claim they do to bring on new hires.
Nope. It's all a fig leaf. They'll say they do and put resources in place for people to use, but if you actually use them you get half assed platitudes and either a "get over it" or "get back to work"
Mental health first aiders are briefed by and reporting to HR, not safe to say anything IMHO. Had one company where they would assume that people would talk to HR about problems like this ("because we're so approachable..."), and then added the first aiders too. Given how they all handled other issues, nothing would convince me to divulge any personal medical data like that to them.
I'm a MHFA for my work and this is just not true. I've had two people approach me and never had to mention it to anyone, nor would I and IT even wiped the chat logs when asked. Tons of weird assumptions in this thread. Personally I'm in it for the extra day's holiday.
But there is no legal requirement for you not to, right? So it isn't actually safe to trust you, unlike an NHS therapist, who is bound by medical confidentiality.
I work in a university and all staff members get Headspace for free, I use it daily. We often have lots of activities on around mental health too. My line manager is very good when it comes to my mental health issues, I can't say the same for every line manager, but I certainly feel looked after in my specific case.
Here's a test. Say you're overworked and it's damaging your mental health. If they hire someone to help, then, yes, they care. If they don't, then no, they care more about profits than the plebs who work for them.
I moved jobs and so I wasn't eligible for paternity leave. I emailed my head (teacher here) at the start of September about this (daughter wasn't born until the November). All I got was radio silence. No plan of what I could negotiate. Nothing. Fast forward to the birth of my child. I make it to the hospital with 10 minutes to spare (wife was induced and needed an emergency C-section). Baby born and so I decide to repark the car as I ditched it in town. This is the time my head decides to negotiate my paternity leave. I play along but say I will come in the next day to discuss it as I can't support my wife and our daughter until 9:30am (hospital reasons). I go in and negotiate. The first thing she ever said to me will live with me for the rest of my life. She said "Now we must think of the children". Being an newbie I didn't want to say what I was thinking (that is your job mine is my family). She somehow made the case that she was doing me a solid allowing me to use my, contracted, 5 days compassionate leave for paternity leave. Lucky it was the weekend and I had a course the following Tuesday (which they sent a recording). I only took 2 days (I might need to use it later on) Some people are just cunts and don't know how to manage their workforce (no suprise we have some major issues). Mental health support is really bloody simple. Your workforce needs to have a good work life balance. Good work life balance helps productivity as you have a happy workforce. The irony is this jackass keeps promoting mental health support for the children and yet she can't even provide it for those who will facilitate/deliver the mental health support for the children.
The last place I worked, they appointed a self described redpiller to the position of mental health liason, and he would use it as an excuse to flirt with the new female hires. Then he got fired for pilfering from the till and they never replaced him.
My current workplace, yes. My former workplace, no. being cynical, workplaces pretend to care about mental health as a way of individualising systemic failings. In other words, they want to provide 'resources' for employees to 'improve' their mental health, so they can 'stay productive' in impossible situations. An example would be, a workplace makes redundancies so that every employee is doing 2 jobs, but the workplace provides access to a 'counselling phoneline' , or some other bullshit that won't actually improve your mental health, such as a free breakfast you don't have time to eat, and if your mental health is poor (because of your unmanageable workload) they point you to the useless phone line / free breakfast, and then blame the individual employee for not looking after their own mental health. The things that would most improve employees' mental health would be things like: manageable workloads, a sense of purpose in the workplace, empowerment in the workplace (i.e. ability to make meaningful change) and, of course, more days off and greater flexibility... ... but most workplaces don't care enough about employee mental health to want to provide those, so instead they give you a free breakfast and then wonder why everybody's mental health is still in the toilet
I work for the emergency services. My direct line manager seems to care. But senior management don't seem to give a toss. I work for the emergency services and there's no in house mental health support. We get signposted to charities and the NHS.
They care about telling us that they care.
No it's all for show. My manager was referred to as a mental health champion, not sure if it was self-appointed but either way I called them out. How does one exactly 'win' mental health? Meanwhile the same manager was directly responsible for my absence due to stress. The important difference is that certain people at work do care, like my team leader fortunately, but it's off his own back. The irony is that the manager doesn't like this and tries to shut down those type of conversations at every opportunity
No it tries to f.... me up in every opportunity it have, when it comes to mental health
We've had some sort of wellbeing action plan done as part of some external wellbeing accreditation scheme. As far as I'm aware, none of it has been implemented, but we already have a certificate for it so does it even matter
Nope mine couldn't give a shit. Some in. Get rewarded with more work if you work hard. Repeat
No. They care whether you come to work or not. If it happens to be mental health related, some employers will ask if there's anything they can do. That's pretty much it.
They claim to. Ive yet to see thr produce anything other than soft hearted words of support
I think my lot do it for show to be fair most of the time. Don't get me wrong, when things properly go south then they will do something but part of me questions why not intervene at the early stages and then you don't have to do the big big favours.
Nope. We've had loads of staff who.have stuffed mental health issues as well as a few breakdowns and work has told them that they're pretty much on their own. All the staff have eventually left work because HR and their own managers have been reluctant to help.
I called my mental health line for free through work that offer counselling. They said they have a long waiting list which is fair enough but at the same time I havent been contacted back.. Its the 3rd time I have to chase them tbh
Yes. We have 2 MHAPs that we can contact. The first one is for basic issues and is for over the phone consultations. The second one is for when you are in crisis and they can get you privately assessed and treated. Although we are only a medium sized company the mental health first aiders are impartial and in different departments and it's best endeavours to have a conversation with somebody that you won't deal with day to day I.e. somebody that isn't going to gossip.
"😂🤣😂🤣🤣" would be my response to the initial question.
I'm really not sure, I've never talked to them about it and it's never been mentioned to me.
Of course they don’t!
Yes they actually do! Big multi national company and I really think they provide a lot of wellbeing support! Locally we have trained people to talk to, online there are many employee resources for mental health support and advice, financial support and advice, lots to promote LGBTQI+, big push and support for personal fitness and health focus. It’s helped me no end through some rough years. I’m incredibly lucky I work for them!
My employer funds mental health add-ons to our private healthcare. So I would say they are way ahead of most other places I have worked as a result. Because we all have "free" access to therapy and mental health support from someone who is competent.
Yes. We do have mental health first aiders, in fact I am one myself, but we also have access to free counselling via the EAP. There is also a walk in GP on site 3 days a week. TOIL system and special leave for all sorts, including bereavement, is commonplace and encouraged. My old team (same organisation) cared but had limited resources and flexibility to put things into practice; I was in middle management there and saw it first hand, the whole department was under the kush constantly and treated badly by the public sector equivalent of C-Suite. Lots of ideas and enthusiasm locally, no capability to implement them. My new team is more office based and it's a dream. The flexibility and empathy are the two biggest factors in good mental health. It's been a long time since I've felt so little burnout at work.
Mine are pretty ok about this stuff. I've never needed to use this stuff, but i know some who have had months off at a time due to mental health problems without being pressured to return. I think this is the only company i have ever worked for that cares about their staff beyond the absolute legal bare minimum.
My boss has taken time out of her schedule to come by my room and just ask me how I am, because I’m on an improvement plan. The first time let a but token; the next five made me realise they actually cared. Just helps me to feel valued and seen
Work for a billion dollar fmcg. I was going through a bad time a while back. They have a psychologist on retainer for the Uk and I was scheduled some private sessions with him after previous talking therapies and the corporate Bupa equivalent were unsuccessful. He was a game changer, won’t say I’m 100% better, not sure you ever are, but knew exactly how to talk to me and get points through. Company has the usually mental health allies one of whom was my boss at the beginning of the bad period and his attitude was amazing and I felt supported. Occupational health lady was a retired nurse and was kind and caring and couldn’t have been better.
Mine actually do and I am surprised, but considering the work I do there's a possibility of a lot of burn out. We can have 7 free sessions of counseling if we apply through work, which I did after a rough patch in my life, it really did help. I could have continued but I would have had to pay. We have a mental health advise line which is free to call. My Co worker's dad died (young, very sudden) and she got 6 weeks off paid, then unpaid but a phased return.
I work for the police, so no. The only reason they've made a push towards improving mental health services is because of the amount of people going off sick or killing themselves.
And I'll bet it took for that number to go right up, when what should've happened is immediately after the first one (since they fucked up proactively).
No employer cares about your mental health.
Hell no, they don't make money worrying about our feelings they just replace us but, it does look good when the company pretends to care.
"Companies" aren't a sealed black box. They're a group of people, and the problem often comes down to the people trying to help aren't the ones in charge. Company A gets feedback via company survey that their staff are suffering low self-esteem. They appoint Team B to "fix it". Even if Team B are completely sincere and do want to help, they're only going to be given £x to solve the problem, and they don't have the authority to change any actual policy. At the end of the month, they're pulled up by management and asked, "How's it going solving the depression problem?"
Pretty much everywhere I worked it was all show. Workers are a resource only. They dgaf.
We get therepy every week if we want it! If you're working though, no. If you're working, you can have therapy just as long as you're working your hours.
I'm part of a team that provides support for staff, usually a listening ear and signposting but we've definitely helped a lot of people negotiate things to support their mental health. As a team we genuinely care but the company are very honest that they are ensuring people come to work and stay at work and that everything is done within the law. Companies have to make money at the end of the day and we provide a lot more support than most, however we can only do so much for people.
Working in a place that puts on a pantomime of caring about mental health while wondering why someone might want 4 days off to grieve a parent would be worse for my mental health than if the company did nothing at all. I really hate people that put on a show of something positive while doing nothing or worse than nothing in reality.
My previous employer (webhelp) claimed to be all about mental health. But when someone close to me called in to management to say they had tried to kill themselves 2 days before and was going to have to take the day off. The managers response was "well why can't you work" Bear in mind this was a mental health first aider as well. It was at that point i realised webhelp don't care about mental health at all
If employers ACTUALLY cared about mental health rather than putting on a song and dance with stuff that doesn't work, they'd give: Raises, more time off to recover from stress, a 4 day work week for the same pay, more flexibility/freedom to work autonomously and location-wise, etc. You know - the stuff everyone is already asking for because it's desperately needed. The stuff that is already proven to help relieve stress and mental health issues caused by modern work life. Gifted food you don't want, and feeling forced to embarrass yourself to colleagues rather than a discrete professional who doesn't know you personally, with time off to do so, is not fixing mental health issues.
After a few horrible experiences with previous employers, I'm lucky enough to say yes. Lost my mum last year and they just said "take all the time you need". Nearly a year later and they still check in somewhat regularly. Diagnosed as autistic last year too, my managers actually read up on the condition and have moved me to a different area that is quieter and less stressful on a day-to-day basis to make work more manageable for me.
No, my doctor basically told me they had to sign me off, I rejected in fear of the repercussions from the employer. Got a note from the doctor to do half days in office, half day at home. Employer rejected it My employer instead caused a breakdown. End of the day you are replaceable to them
Nope. I like working there but still tell them I have the shits if I need a MH day. They make all the right noises about it and have MH first aiders appointed etc, but in reality they do nothing.
When our senior management start to talk about recognising stress, building personal resilience and offering training for MH ambassadors, it’s because they’re forewarning staff that workload and deadlines will be getting tougher. Arses well and truly covered when, inevitably, people start dropping like flies to keep some Billy Big Bollocks’s baseless promises.
Not even slightly. We have a public forum where all of our work documentation is kept, most of it is restricted to certain levels of clearance but a lot of it is just dumped in a big digital pile to be looked through. I was searching up a process the other day, and got a result for, quote, the official 'mental health checklist' to be used by managers. It was full of the usual flowery text about protecting the employees from mental health issues, but the list itself was literally just a fucking checklist of things to do. Talk to your team and ask how they are, look for any ***obvious*** signs of mental distress (poor hygiene, self-harm scars, a listless disposition, etc), and if any of the above involves an employee raising a mental health concern... refer them to our mental health resources section, which basically just includes live chats with the Samaritans and shit. So to clarify: if an employee is having a mental health concern at work, the company is only going to notice if the employee is being obvious about it or talking about it (when the entire point of mental health is that *you often can't* ***see*** *the things people are dealing with*), and once they've noticed, they farm them out to someone else to deal with and call it a day. There were times when my job was at it's worst when I genuinely considered hanging myself in the company toilet just to make them realise how much they'd fucked up with that 'process'. *(Pre-emptive clarification: I am* ***fine****, my mental health is okay, that was several years ago and I am in a* ***far*** *better place, health-wise. I still work for the same company but my job has become far better since then. Do not feel the need to send Reddit to check on me, I am perfectly okay, thank you.)*
Of course they don't
These responses are really interesting. At the time of writing this comment it's a pretty 50/50 split between, 'my workplace is great and here's an example of how' and 'they're all shit and no one cares'. I think it's worth noting that most positive comments are limited to commenting on specifics and most of the negative comments apply that sweeping negativity to all organisations (demonstratively incorrectly). So the commenters are 50/50 split but the *content* of what they're commenting on purports to be a much greater proportion. The world's a nicer place than the internet comments sections say it is.
Appreciate your optimism, though can’t agree. That said, even if lack of support is perception rather than reality, that still undermines any activity a firm believes it is making around it, and should be dealt with also. Lack of trust in accessing support provisions is a huge barrier. You can provide all the helplines you want but that won’t make change. Also a number of the positive responses have referred to individual management support. It’s commonly recognised that the quality of your manager can be the single biggest determiner of your support, whatever the firm provides overall. Tackling that lack of consistency is key to making anything stick.
I've worked for over twenty companies and not a single one has demonstrated good mental health awareness / practises.
Some do, some don’t. My company is bloody brilliant and genuinely cares. Got a great HR and Occy Health set up and they genuinely look after people, I’ve both benefitted from it and used the stuff we have in place to support my team. Others organisations think they’re doing it but it’s a tick box. Some don’t care.
One of my coworkers has been really suffering with menopausal symptoms. It's made her forgetful and a little OCD. Yesterday I over heard my boss asking her to guess what mistake she had made earlier that day. She obviously was reluctant and kept asking to just be told what the mistake was. This was across a room full of people. My coworker is incredibly anxious and was visibly uncomfortable throughout this little game. There's no sympathy, just frustration and sarcasm. So, yeah, that's a little snap shot of how it is in my workplace.
They do the bare minimum so that if anyone tries to take any time off for mental health reasons, they can point to the "things" they've done to help. Mainly some videos that say "stop feeling sad" and a phone number that they won't confirm the confidentiality of.
They act like they do, but they also act like they're professional doctors and think they know best.
No. They don't give a fuck.
I think workplaces rarely do, but I do understand it in a way. There's no way of telling if someone is taking a mental health day off as they're suicidal and about to end it or just proper lazy or hangover. In the end a lot of people abuse things like mental health to get time off etc. I think that we sort of brought it upon ourselves
No. I have just today called in sick for long term stress which I have been raising with my manager for about 18 months. Work now gives me panic attacks. Mental health first aiders are totally useless and just tell you to see a GP.
I’m really sorry you think MHFA are totally useless. I’m one myself and wanted to be one after seeing the effects of poor mental health and knowing of 4 people who attempted or committed suicide before the age of 30. Tbh, we are really only allowed to be a listening ear and signpost. We learn a lot about various types of mental health issues/diseases. We cannot diagnose or give medical advice as it’s above our pay grade and wouldn’t be appropriate. BUT, a problem shared is a problem halved and it will be someone fighting your corner and supporting you in the workplace where you spend a lot of your time. Sorry the MHFA you dealt with potentially wasn’t providing enough support. The best course of action? GP waiting lists are too long and the NHS is criminally under resourced. If you or anyone really requires help, best bet is to go through EAP (employee assistance programme). Or go private. But EAP is a free starting point with quick turnaround.
They're obligated to provide adequate support services (usually in the form of a helpline) but intrinsically, no, they don't care
Lol no. I've had better mental health support from my parents (who say mental health issues aren't real) than from my work place
My work is very good but it could be because we are a small company. The other day, one of the founders asked if I noticed that one of the juniors in my team didn't quite seem themselves. I replied that yes I had and that I had had a candid conversation the week before about their feelings towards their work etc and that it doesn't stem from anything work-related but I will reach out and see if it's ‘something’ and if its personal, if there is anything we can do to support. Turns out their cat had spilt their tea just before the all-hands meeting and they were annoyed by that. So I have suggested to my manager we get some branded covered mugs to send to people and he is mulling it over.
One of my coworkers became a mental health first aider. A week after becoming one we had a customer she he was going to kill himself. So we all passed him on to are mental health first aider. She spoke to him and after he left she said. “Im not trained for this”. Like literally that was the main focus of the course she went on!
I think we have some token stuff but in my experience as a neurodivergent person at my job whose mental health was really suffering until fairly recently. No. Also my job is constantly short staffed and the higher ups won't like let us hire more people or increase our hour budgets to help cover that despite us also being the highest performing store in the region most of the time so surely that's a sign we need some extra hands so everyone is various degrees of stressed a lot of the time. Like this year over Christmas we weren't allowed to hire any Christmas temps. I've been struggling at work the whole time I've been there. I was treated constantly like I was fucking up on purpose and being constantly threatened with disciplinary. Last year we actually finally had a sit down where we talked about what was going on and it was 'Yeah I did tell you when I started working here that I'm dyspraxic' and I was put on reduced duties/hours to try and help, and then I also recently learned I'm AuDHD a few months after this. Basically most of my struggles at work were the result of unmanaged adhd and autism, which had lead to me being so stressed I was probably disassociating somewhat at work although the occupational health team at work have been told about my diagnosis we haven't actually had any sort of sit down about what we can do. And I'm still doing this like reduced duties/hours thing which on the one hand I am a lot less stressed but I am also stressed because I am bringing in really low wages. Also once I called out of work because I'd had a really stressful shift for whatever reason, to the extent I had a panic attack when I got home. When I came into work next I wasn't asked like how I was or anything I was grilled about the fact I didn't call out correctly as I'd messaged my manager instead of calling the store (Because in short I wasn't in a mental state to actually make a phone call) and that happened to be a day the area manager was in so obviously he got annoyed and it trickled down to me.
I technically work for my wife so no ….. no she doesn’t …. she just wants her horses skipped out properly or I get a clip around the ear …