Depressed? Get back to work.
Hello friends
I hope you all enjoyed the Easter break.
All my chickens came home to roost last month when the minister I worked for at the Treasury - Mel Stride, who is now Secretary for Work and Pensions - claimed in an interview with The Telegraph that mental health culture has gone too far.
Stride’s glib assessment of “the normal anxieties of life” being labelled as illnesses is a fallacy. It wilfully ignores the dire state in which people find themselves now thanks to fourteen years of austerity.
Stride says that he welcomes the conversation on mental health opening up - but that “there is a danger that this has gone too far.”
It suits the current alt-right brand of Tory to claim everything is ‘too woke’ rather than taking any action or spending money to address systemic problems across the country: sewage in rivers, derelict housing, the highest NHS waiting times on record and a proven link to at least 250 deaths per week , and no hope of getting a GP appointment that might have prevented a visit to A&E in the first place.
Only this week, the education secretary was wheeled out on a morning media round to defend the criminalisation of homelessness, despite her acknowledgement that people become homeless through no fault of their own, usually through tragic circumstances and mental health crises.
Working for Mel Stride was a miserable experience.
I was suffering with an undiagnosed lung condition and declining physically. My mental health was poor as a result of this, too. But Stride and many other ministers of his ilk perpetuated a culture of bullying in the civil service that left lasting damage .
Stride’s office, like many other government ministers at the time, was run by fear.
His own insecurities about being irrelevant manifested by hauling people in for interrogations, which I was subjected to (alone), infantile demands that he be given more media opportunities “with heft” - i.e. not trade media interviews on his relevant policy areas, and appointing a henchman who could only be described as psychotic.
In his interview with the Telegraph, Stride assumes the role of quasi-physician, stating that when those who are mentally unwell go to their GP (if they can get an appointment - lol), they say “I’m feeling rather down and bluesy” and essentially automatically get a sick note.
This is so unbelievably insulting to anybody who has ever gone to their GP for mental health reasons.
The courage it can take just to pick up the phone, to admit to yourself that you really are not ok and that you need some help. And then to ask for that help knowing that access to mental health services is practically nonexistent in this country, to be told that you’re ‘a bit bluesy’ and don’t really need a sick note by an over privileged, over promoted politician who has no concept of what you’re going through?
If I speak…
It’s a source of mild amusement to me that Stride and I now orbit the same sphere of work, albeit from very different perspectives.?
The writer George Monbiot highlighted in his column a recent study from the University of Essex that explored the economic value of childhood socio-emotional skills. In short, it found that bullies are more successful in life.
He says “the bullies’ triumph is also an outcome of the dominant narrative of our times: for the past 45 years, neoliberalism has characterised human life as a struggle that some must win and others must lose.”?
He’s right.?
Neoliberalism insists that people are only worthy or valued if they can contribute to society economically and financially. It starts with disabled children being erased from a school photograph and ends with people being told they’re wasting NHS resources and surplus to requirements .
Stride isn’t necessarily wrong that work is good for mental health.?But bullying people back to work who are unwell - threatening to cut their benefits - is not the solution.
I’ve found a lot of meaning in work, and sometimes even solace. But I have not achieved anything because of helpful structures being in place. I and many like me have done so very much in spite of a system that sets people like us up to fail, from childhood.?
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Punching down, according to Monbiot, affects all of us adversely: “a study of cichlid fish found that dominant males have “lower signal-to-noise ratios” (sound and fury, signifying nothing) and counter-productive impacts on group performance.“
Work cannot be enriching or fulfilling if people are not given the right support and means with which to find and sustain it. Work cannot be a stick by which the most vulnerable must be beaten.
If people like Stride can’t hear this, they must feel the consequences.?A spell on the back benches might just do this.
How well do you know your customers??
No really.
For many years, I’ve worked in stakeholder engagement in various forms. I’ve brokered meetings between the government and Greenpeace, tried to forge good relations between disparate parts of the NHS, and I’ve even incurred the wrath of Martin Lewis when he wasn’t happy with the Lifetime ISA ahead of its launch.
Now, I work a lot in the HR and organisational design space. When I’m considering the kinds of people my clients might like to meet to help them launch their product or service be that journalist or otherwise, it prompts a series of questions:
It’s easy to assume that we know who we’re dealing with, but everyone is operating in slightly different circumstances, listens to different people, and has different ideas.?
But we are also all just humans at the end of the day who watch EastEnders, get annoyed by our neighbours, eat too much on holiday, and want to be loved and appreciated. Taking the time to connect and understand each other on a human level is so worthwhile and vital for business, too.
Are you curious to explore taking your product to market but need some guidance about how to be strategic about this? I can help! Message me for a free consultation - [email protected] .
This week I have:
Until next time, take care - and don’t work too hard.
Namaste
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