Diversity in the Workplace

Supporting Mental Illness and Reducing Stigmas That Do Not

Helen Pham

CED 250: Career Development

Riley O’Toole

April 14, 2024

Introduction

Experts say to support a workplace in any environment, small to large companies should

be able to develop interventions that help tackle mental health stigmas that affect an everyday

worker. A survey was developed in six different languages with the help of organizations and

advocacy groups to distribute within eight European countries and Australia as an online

platform for data collection. The purpose of the survey was to “comprise closed and open text

questions to assess expert opinion about interventions for employees with mental health

difficulties, interventions supporting their managers, and anti-stigma interventions.” (1) Mental

health issues are a common, even normal, result of societal influences that we all take on as a

way to express ourselves. It’s common for anyone to have a mental illness from a good range of

harmless to harmful actions that we take on to our everyday lifestyle. Mental illnesses are

regularly disregarded in the workplace because we have power dynamics within that is

stigmatized to believing power has more say to how someone should act or feel. The percentage

of responses was 42% where it is agreed that only 26.2% of them are more open to speaking

about their mental health. This multinational survey also “ indicated workshops of people with

lived experience of mental illness (80.0%) and awareness campaigns (78.5%) were most required

to tackle stigma.” (1). Mental Health has recently been an ongoing topic and when it becomes a

mediocre discussion, that’s when stigma comes in to put limits on how much mental illnesses

should be taken seriously based on the situations we are given. On a behavioral aspect, it’s never

okay to pull out the mental health card because a person wants to take their anger out on their

peers or use someone else’s mental health against them for any benefits.
Opinion

The issue of mental illness is a fickle matter in today’s society since it’s constantly

stigmatized to be a common issue in the workplace. Any workplace will have at least a handful

of workers with mental health issues, no one is truly okay and that’s okay. I agree with the

statements that when there is a workplace that accommodates workers with mental health, there

are also workers with stigmatizing attitudes. Small to medium companies tend to lack programs

of the sort to help their workers which is around 93% of European workplaces. When we are

generally around the same vicinity of people, it builds familiarity between coworkers to feel

more comfortable, what isn’t seen as an issue is when the relationships between co-workers

become stigmatized towards uncomfortability and crossing boundaries. By then it’s not an issue

most people can bring up due to how long the workplace friendship was built up based on

familiarity. This causes a lot of work/life boundaries being crossed and increased risks of mental

illness ideals and disorders. Healthcare and construction workers are seen to have a bigger issues

of suicide rates as “workers already suffered from higher levels of mental illness than the general

population, including depression and anxiety” (2) Treatment gaps for depression and anxiety is a

major health concern that is known to be a disability around the world. It affects major parts of

society “such as lower country-income level and socio-economic status“ (3,4) as there are life

burdens that add onto ones’ health. I fully believe that support isn't enough in a work

environment but a third party organization that is able to work with companies to offer mental

health support, it’s more approachable when confidential feelings are remaining confidential like

therapy. We often feel the need to make mental health an important factor because it does affect

a workplace if no one is being supported the way they should be but also withholding their end

of the bargain to get work done.

Relevance to Career Development

This is a simple cause and effect situation that can be applied with the support of

programs that provide for companies who are in need of mental health to reinforce their

development. It is also a team effort on every part of a company to participate fully, like an

investment, as workers we should be able to still provide for the company but the tricky part is if

the company is willingly providing for their workers in ways that are useful benefits other than

financial. We could also find help outside of the workplace like therapy, whether a self or health

concern, we should be able to be supported from our workplace to accommodate when we

include help from outside of our work. There are bosses who do thrive better when they consider

their workers, but it’s understandable to know how much it can be taken advantage of if they are

not careful to not cross boundaries. Favoritism is rarely talked about for mental health in the

workplace, we often don’t realize that it can affect workers who aren’t favored but also how

greatly it can affect most favored employees. This issue is something I could speak on, as I’ve

experienced being a favorite and being on the other side of being favored, it plays into my people

pleasing tendencies but also feels like I would be taking advantage when I’m suddenly given the

power of a higher up without being paid for it. It’s a dangerous type of environment when a

company plays favorites because it affects the worker which later on will cause the downfall of a

company if it’s not handled correctly.

Application to Self

This widely applies to my career choice and lifestyle, I would always put my health first

before the comfort of others. It’s also a great way to vent in a healthy way if my work or

personal life is having issues within the appropriate environments. I currently work in customer

service which can put me at a disadvantage when it comes to putting myself first, I frankly get
paid to put aside my feelings if I am helping my customers but it’s not something I would throw

my arms up about. At times when the workload becomes too much, I let my peers know I am

slowing down for the sake of my health and how fast my physical health can deteriorate if I don’t

slow down. I make it a point to let my higher ups know that my health matters more than my job

at the moment because it is a part time job, saying “I don’t get paid enough to feel that way” is a

common quote from me because I’m not wrong. I can do my job but there should be an

understanding on how my pace should be more careful for better results. I’ve applied myself to

personal time when my social life becomes harder, this is a skill I’ve learned as someone who

grew up with anger issues. My issues stem from outbursts and slight childhood trauma that I’ve

learned to recognize and apply changes to better myself and my own environment. I believe I

haven’t fully overcome those habits but it gets better everyday for me if I try harder to

understand myself from a third person perspective. It helps with how I can communicate with my

colleagues better than bluntly being upset and have gotten better at being able to be comfortable

for myself to speak to my higher ups on issues that aren't just my problem but can be a problem

for others. It’s a careful process of how I work around issues. I go through so many cause and

effect moments to determine if what I say, do and react is appropriate or worth my time. I found

it easier to confide in my peers if I knew them for a while, which is how I build relationships

with them for reliability and understanding who they are as a person. Frequently, it becomes easy

to pick up on habits and repeated behaviors, which makes me a little too self and socially aware

of issues that I shouldn’t be worried about. I often have people pleasing tendencies that do come

out if I admire a person, whether socially or in a work environment. I try to contain those

feelings due to understanding that most of these people are too temporary and if I indulge too

hard it can become an issue I would have a hard time overcoming.

Decision-Making Policies

As a big advocate for mental health, I personally never used my company's mental health

benefits like on site therapy. Everything should be third party to keep personal feelings

confidential and supported by the company at a distance. There have been issues of using

company’s benefits but not feeling mentally safe because of the fear of your higher ups knowing

about your true feelings about your company. I believe that workers should feel safe in a space

that is only funded by my company but not provided by my company to achieve a better result of

honesty and better work environments. Providing accommodations like a safe space to work or

even bringing service animals that have started to become a thing within many workplaces is a

way to put more workers at ease to not feel exploited. High ups should always know how to

respond to issues of oppression/discrimination where probation periods are a form of

punishment, there are also write-ups but they can cause more damage than good due to the

negative impact it gives workers. Probation periods based on behavior is a non-official write-up

that is just a reminder that the defending party needs to keep themselves in check to understand

the severity of how their attitude/actions can affect their environment.

Conclusion

The studies we have on mental health is a frequent subject when it comes to the result of

issues within the workplace or the environment. But it’s often not applied to provide much

needed help within companies that are high in demand and results, which becomes a stressful

condition towards workers who work their 9-5. We can talk about mental health as much as we

would want and can but it’s a hard to resolve issue due to the advantages and disadvantages

accommodations can give for the people who are affected. A workplace should have effective

benefits that is controlled given for anyone who is struggling and in need of more help.
References

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https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00406-022-01443-3

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