Be an empowered employee, your mental health matters: Part 1

Today is World Mental Health Day and the theme for this year is Mental Health at Work. I was going to start writing this article by first highlighting the role an employer plays in the mental health of their employees from an organisational culture, policy and systems perspective.

I have worked in places where it was the norm to start be at work before 8pm and only leave the office to go home after 9pm. I know what it’s like to be time-broke because your life literally revolves around work - if you are not at home or at work, you are on your way to one of those two places. Being time-broke is when you don’t have time for the critical things that matter to you and for you, like rest, family and even self-care.

I know what it’s like to leave work to go home at 4am, only to be back work again at 8am the very same morning to meet a target. Borrowing the dramatic vocabulary of a person whose story resembled mine – 'I was more familiar with how long my son was because I left when he was sleeping and only got home after his bedtime.' I loved my job because of the impact at scale and also the stories of change in communities. This, however, didn’t stop me from

• developing a chronic condition that left a permanent scar on my throat,
• experiencing my first retrenchment by a supervisor who didn’t know my track record who put my name up on the first group to be retrenched, and
• developing a chronic condition led me to be on steroids for sometime to help my body 'stay awake.'

This is a story for another day, but I remember doing crazy things to try and jump start my body because I didn’t get why it was not functioning the way it was supposed to:

• I was sleeping for 16 hours in a day and waking up tired as if I had only slept for two hours.
• I was on sick leave for 4 months taking steroids and wondering if I would end up growing a beard from taking them.
• I have fainted at two different workplaces after being told to keep working even when I was sick. I no longer work at those workplaces, but they are still going on years after I have left and my sacrifice only a distant faded shadow in the memory of a few that remember me.

I share my story to give context to why I say let’s be empowered employees. I cannot blame anyone except myself, because I gave my employer the power to override a sick leave letter from the doctor and keep working. I gave my employer the power to determine how much of my time I invested in the job even after working hours.

Yes, I was paid well, but the price was high. In some instances the working conditions will compromise your health but you will stay because, there is no choice. Today I want to put it to you that the employee has to be empowered to protect their wellbeing. As an employee you have to decide whether you want the job or be a statistic. In the last few weeks two young promising professional ladies became a sensation and were trending online not because of some hack, meme or any of that. They had experienced death by suicide.

The common cause of demise in these two ladies was being overworked for long periods of time, with no room to take rest even after working hours. This is where the employer comes in. It’s sad that long working hours with no rest can be normalised. The same way there are marketing plans, targets and all, time and resources must be allocated for employee wellness. An organisational culture must be adopted to balance Return On Investment and the wellbeing of an employee.

Systems and policies must support good mental health in the workplaces e.g. leave day tracking with mandatory explanations why a person is failing to go on leave, open door policies that create opportunities for people to speak up when they feel overworked and also when their mental health is at risk. All this being done within reason.

I embrace my workplace experiences because they are my lived experiences. Mine. I have first hand knowledge of the mental anguish of long working hours, cancer scares, body shutdowns, burn out and all that. It takes everyone doing their part for good mental health to be one of the KPIs in the workplace. Employees must be empowered by the employer or they must empower themselves to speak up for their mental health. The life is yours. The health is yours. Sometimes it means planning an exit strategy because of a toxic environment. Do it. Plan your way out whilst you keep working to put food on the table and make sure you have a money for rent and food.

Let’s normalise good mental health-oriented systems and policies.

INTRODUCING #EmployeeStories Series.

What was your mental health at work experience? You can inbox your story for anonymous posting. You can also submit your story via the link below. Only send what you want to share and indicate whether you want to be a known author or you prefer to be anonymous.

**We will only take factual stories that have no intention to defame an organisation. We want to raise awareness.

https://forms.gle/rD4BVR9qgi3cRiyY9

Happy #WorldMentalHealthDay. #EmpoweredEmployee #MentalHealthAtWork #EmployeeWellness #EmployeesStories #LovenessNleya