Mental Health + Work: The Hardest Equation To Solve?

Existential Employees! Graham here. 

We’ve all heard the simple story of mental health. In fact, you’ve probably heard it at least a hundred times by now, on various Mental Health Awareness days.

The simple story goes something like this:

Ask for help. Get help. Feel better. 

Then there’s the ‘not-so-simple story’ of mental health, which maybe goes more like:

Ask for help. 

After a few tries, find something that seems like it might actually be helpful...? 

Feel better for a bit, then worse, then maybe plateau for a while until things start to get really wobbly again and… 

Rinse and repeat. 

The good news is, this not-so-simple story is way more common than you might think. It’s just, we don’t often talk about it, so it’s easy to feel like it’s just a you problem…

The other good news? Over time, we learn things on this longer mental health path. Really important things! Even if we only realise it in retrospect. But by definition, the whole thing is a marathon not a sprint. 

Goddammit. Why is it never “a relaxing Fiji holiday” not a sprint?

Big feels in the workplace

Since we don’t often talk publicly about the ‘not so simple’ mental health story, there are certain aspects of that experience that we’re often left to muddle through on our own. And some of them are pretty damn tricky. 

Like: navigating your work and career, while also navigating big feelings. 

How does your mental health affect your work? 

How does your work affect your mental health? 

How honest can you be at work about the things you struggle with?

What do you do when shit really hits the fan, and it can feel like you’re forced to choose between your responsibilities at work and your needs as a human?

None of these questions has a nice easy answer. But we think it’s time we had more spaces to explore questions like these together, with other big feelers living the ‘not so simple story’ of mental health.

Help us shape a new resource for big feelers in the workplace?

As we mentioned a few weeks back, we’re right now working on a series of talks and workshops to offer workplaces of all stripes. We’re thinking of it as, ‘beyond mental health awareness: supporting your workers on the long term mental health path’. 

Right now, we need your help working out what topics we should cover. 

We’d love to hear your thoughts on the mental health + work equation! Because really, there’s not a lot out that speaks to how people juggle this particularly complex dance, so your experiences are super valuable.

Click here to take the survey and share your experience. 

The survey asks what you’ve struggled with at work, what you’ve learned so far, and what things you still want more support in working out.

For those of us living the not so simple story of mental health, work can be one of the trickiest parts of life to navigate. We shouldn’t have to do it alone! Help us make more workplace mental health supports that don't suck?

We’ve tried to keep the survey not too long, and if you want it can be completely anonymous :)

A thousand thank you to those who do it. It really is so helpful!

Whether you've done a bunch of these for us in the past, or this is your first ever Big Feels survey, thank you.

— Graham