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Time To Talk Day: Hug Your Mug & Take a deep breath

Updated: Jan 31



Mental health in the workplace has been in the spotlight for a while now—but what does it really mean? We all know about burnout by now, but burnout is what we see on the surface. It’s the final stop after weeks (or months) of stress, exhaustion, and feeling like your brain has turned into mush. In other words, burnout is the end result of underlying problems piling up. So let’s talk about what’s actually going on beneath the surface.



The Reality of Employee Mental Health


According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), work-related stress, depression, and anxiety continue to significantly impact the workforce. In the 2023/24 period, approximately 776,000 workers reported experiencing these mental health issues, leading to an estimated 16.4 million lost working days. That’s a huge substantial amount of employees struggling in silence while still trying to meet deadlines, attend meetings, and pretend everything is fine (when in reality it’s not.)


Let’s be real-as much as we don’t want to, we still bring a piece of ourselves to work and we bring a piece of work to our personal life. The office is where we spend a substantial part of our day, so it’s no surprise that it affects how we feel. But work shouldn’t feel like an energy-draining vortex. Instead, it should be a space where people can thrive, feel valued, and maybe even enjoy themselves.



Why Employees Keep Quiet


Sometimes, we come to work and just feel very exhausted, but often we don’t feel like we can come up to our boss and say “Hey, I’m really not okay today” (that report is still waiting to be finished, right?). But should it be that way? Should employees walk heads down just getting through the workload, without speaking up how they feel and what they need because talking about mental health at work still feels kind of awkward? We don’t think so. We believe that the manager should know his team, they are his people, and as much as the manager is responsible for achieving the company goals, he is also responsible for the wellbeing of the team.


The first step is to speak up-  be honest, say how you feel and keep your head high. If you think your problem is not important, we can guarantee you that there are at least five other people with the same problem that are thinking the same as you- “maybe it’s just me so I shouldn’t say anything”. But you should speak up, because speaking up means you have recognized the problem and recognizing the problem is the first step to solving it. So when you think about it, you are already halfway to the solution.



Managers: What’s your part?


We talked about employees, but what should managers do? As we said before, be open and listen to your employees. Get to know them and their problems and try to accommodate them so they can feel their best. Start thinking about them as “your people” and that you are responsible for them ,that also entails being responsible for their mental health. Having a healthy team is the way to achieve all the goals you set out to achieve and the way to that is to create an environment that supports the mental health of each employee. So book that coaching class and learn how to be the modern manager who leads happy and successful teams.



So, on February 6th is your chance. According to the wellbeing calendar, It’s Time to Talk Day. Let us all be more open on that day and start the conversation. If not with your boss, start the conversation with your colleague, make it the first step (and hopefully many more steps will follow and you will be on the Mental Health marathon soon enough). 




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