Making space for mental wellbeing

The pandemic reshaped the working world in many ways but it also laid bare the invisible labour women often take on outside the workplace. With boundaries increasingly blurred, work-life balance can suffer, impacting on mental wellbeing. What can employers do to be aware of mental wellbeing and the risk of burnout? And how can we make space for mental wellbeing at work? Medley co-founder Edith Cooper offers her insights. Share your thoughts in the comments or create your own post this #IWD2022.

Entrepreneurs lead a high-octane life, but it's important to use that pressure to propel you forward. Anxiety can be your superpower. When harnessed correctly, it can drive you to accomplish amazing things. #Entrepreneurship

Honored to be featured in LinkedIn’s #BreakTheBias campaign for International Women’s Day. The pandemic has led to alarming rates of burnout, particularly among women (especially mothers). Our multiple identities blend together in today’s environment — work, family, self, friend, partner — and balancing them can be incredibly challenging. Never mind if for the past two years a lot of that has been happening in the same room. It's no longer relevant to choose a single identity and place all contexts behind it. Grateful to see how much our Medley community supports our members navigating all the goals within their various identities, and see them armed with new tools, peers, and hope for moving that much closer towards aligning them.

It's hard for me to enjoy vacation I'm constantly dealing with ups and downs, push back and pull as a working mom: - Stock market volatility - Getting everyone’s gear together - Harsh cold conditions of the mountains,? - Snow hitting us in the face, - Overtired kids. In the past when we come to Jackson Hole,? I remember:? - Japan’s tsunami that slammed into the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power,? - the beginning of the COVID outbreak 2 years ago Now I feel terrible about the war in Ukraine? So this morning I took out my #calm app and spent time meditating.? We are so lucky to live in the United States? We are so lucky to be here in nature and enjoy its beauty? Jay Shetty spoke calmly about:? “You’re in control of your life’s GPS, you can take an alternative route, or change the destination altogether.” Throughout the pandemic, we women have carried a disproportionate amount of mental load and emotional labor both at work and at home.? What can we do to make space for mental wellbeing at work and at home?? Give ourselves grace,? Know that we can power through the dips and ask ourselves?are we climbing the right mountain? This is the mountain I chose to climb I love my family, I love my job, and I love skiing.? There is no other path #IWD2022? #womenshistorymonth #wellbeing

I believe the reduction of mental health stigma since the pandemic is another piece of progress we should be thanking women for, since I'm positive it was our emotional labor that brought us here. #iwd2022 Before the pandemic, like in most workplaces, no one really talked about #mentalhealth in mine. In fact, other than my boss, no one knew I had Depression, Anxiety, and ADHD. When March 2020 hit, male colleagues would often start meetings by talking about how stressed out they were. How anxious. They were asking for reassurance as they'd make jokes about how weird it was talking about this stuff. And I was so torn. After all, I was advocating for people to be more open about mental health more for the past 3+ years. And now they were finally doing it. So why was I mad? It was the fact that it took a pandemic to make it normal to talk about emotions. And that before then, emotions were always dismissed as something central to being a woman. When I had tried to mention emotional considerations before, by saying things like "Hey, we're expecting people to do way too much work in their 40 hours, and they'll burn out and leave." Or "We should make sure the new mom at work isn't overwhelmed or she'll leave." I was ignored every time. In fact, in a role previous to that one, I was once was told I'd have to wait until next year to discuss a promotion because I should work on "feeling better" first. Yet, I couldn't blame my boss. I had cried in of him in his office. That was a sign I was unwell, right? Unfit for a promotion. How many guys had done that? No matter that I had taken on extra work. No matter that other than in his office, behind closed doors trusting him, I never let anyone know how I was feeling. In that moment I showed weakness. I was not worthy of the job. I blamed myself a lot for not being stronger. So when I saw all the guys smirking about how weird it was to talk emotions now? Well, it hit different. Like an insult, rather than a win for the cause. Suddenly it was my job to assure these guys, who were insecure talking about feelings for the first time, that it was ok. And that I wouldn't judge them the way I knew they would have judged me just a month prior. I wish I could say I didn't judge them. I did. But not because of how they felt, it was more than ok to feel stressed/anxious. But I judged them on their hypocrisy. Still, I put that aside to reassure them that their emotions were normal and safe with me. I told them I was happy to see them be so open and how important that was. Toxic masculinity and the role it plays in men's mental health in this scenario and beyond is a whole can of worms I'm not opening here. But I think it further serves to prove my point that because of this, most of the work of emotional openness was left to women for way too long. #iwd2022 #licreatoraccelerator

When the pandemic started, I became isolated and less independent as a disabled woman. I did not feel comfortable navigating the world with my white blindness cane anymore because now there was so much more to worry about. How could I ensure that people were socially distant from me and how could I ensure that I was socially distant from them? With masking, I lost the ability to read lips.? I love being safe and masks are necessary, but they also have made communication way more difficult for me as a hard of hearing person. This has reduced my independence as well, and it’s been tough to contend with. I know I’m not alone in this. Women have faced a disproportionate amount of mental load and emotional labor at work and at home during this time. What can employers do to create space and support for mental wellbeing for women? Here are some ideas. - Support remote work and flexible schedules. Flexibility helps everyone and reduces stress.? - Don’t pressure team members to always have their cameras turned on for virtual meetings. This can be fatiguing and stressful. - Create a culture that promotes and respects boundaries around work time and does not send messages after hours. - Show empathy when someone is having a hard time. Let them know it’s okay to not be okay. - Schedule a gap between big projects and deadlines, if possible, to allow team members to have a lighter week where they can catch up on other tasks. - Allow everyone to show up as they are. Don’t pressure someone to be more high energy than they are feeling at that moment. - Work with your managers to ensure that there is alignment across teams and that everyone is holding space for mental wellbeing. What are other ways can employers support mental wellbeing at work? #IWD2022 #MentalHealth #WorkplaceInclusion #Wellbeing

We are stronger than we believe and we can get through it! It is a reminder before the answer to “What can we do to make space for mental wellbeing at work?”, a question I got a lot from my Moving Mango community. It is us to believe, to open ourselves up and accept a space for mental well-being at work. I believed in a space for #MentalHealth at work, so I made it happen. For me, for my team, for all the working professionals, and for my loved ones. I’m advocating for #WorkplaceWellbeing everyday. The pandemic has put an extra burden and emphasized invisible labor on us, especially working women. As mental disorders can affect women and men differently, depression and anxiety are more common in women. The pandemic, as tough as it is, it taught us a few things. ?? It taught us not to neglect our mental space, emotional wellbeing. These elements are just as important as physical health. To make the whole experience a little bit smoother and less stress-inducing, there are a few ways to come about it. 1?? The first step, to make space for mental wellbeing at work, is to simply be aware of it, allow open discussions of mental health in the workplace. ??Mental health includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, act, make choices, and relate to others. ??The more we comfortably talk about it, the more we can reduce the stigma surrounding mental health, the more we can make it a priority. 2?? The second, dedicate, and designate time and a welcoming space/zone where one can come and let go. ??Encourage regular breaks throughout the work day so employees can relax, unburden, lighten. ??Physical movements can help a lot to unburden the mind. Doing so individually, or as a team, can help significantly. ?? It is also important for those who works remotely to work on this. 3??The third, implement a culture of wellness by taking simple steps, such as: ?? regular check-ins, ?? motivate everyone to ask for support when necessary. ?? It isn’t such a bad idea to train managers to detect signs that can affect mental health, heightened stress, anxiety, burnout. #health #wellbeing #womenentrepreneurs #licreatoraccelerator #iwd2022

Throughout the #pandemic, #women have carried a disproportionate amount of mental load and emotional labor both at #work and at #home. One of the most important things that we can do to make space for mental #wellbeing at work is simply to talk about it. An important part of being a #leader, in my experience, is being willing to be vulnerable, being willing to talk about the aspects of life and well-being that leave us feeling the most exposed.? I think this is one of the most powerful things we can all do (as a formal or informal leader) to create a culture and climate at work, where we support one another and eliminate the #emotional and #intellectual #energy that can go into “pretending” and/or hiding.? I will always remember the time when, as a relatively new #CEO, I was standing before at least 300 employees and decided to talk openly about #mentalhealth.? It was not easy, I felt passionate about doing it, but also needed to embrace feeling incredibly exposed. To talk about challenges, to talk about the importance of #therapy, to speak about the fact that in my experience, real #healing and #growth begins when we don’t feel we have to hide our imperfections and our challenges. I don’t say any of this to suggest that #privacy isn’t also important for many #people at times in their lives, but it is about creating a #culture of #acceptance and understanding so that people can feel encouraged to find the #support that they need, whatever that looks like for them.? The pandemic put this into stark relief, and my hope is that it actually helped cultures move forward in embracing the need for more conversation on this topic, in fact, my #experience would suggest that it did.? #IWD2022 #BreakTheBias #internationalwomensweek Sunrun