The Future is Human

Championing Mental Health in the Workplace

This was written before the sad news of Caroline Flack's death at the weekend. Such a tragic loss reinforces my belief that we must do everything we can to ensure no one feels it necessary to take permanent action from the desperate need to resolve a temporary problem ...

In January the BBC ran a feature on Mental Health in the Workplace and I was put forward for an interview on both Wake Up to Money and the BBC News Channel. I was positioned alongside the Lloyds Bank CEO Antonio Horta-Osorio who took eight weeks off following the financial crisis with stress and anxiety. He returned to work recuperated and well enough to continue to fulfil the never-ending duties of a global group CEO.

Now many of you will know I am not, nor ever have been, a global group CEO. My business, which I run with my business partner and another shareholder, is just 15 people. But our duties are also never-ending. And all three of us know what stress and anxiety feels like.

I am lucky in many ways. I have lived with depression and anxiety since young adulthood. It has gone through various stages of seriousness and impact on my life but today I am pleased to say I manage the balance of chemicals in my brain with exercise and strategies I learnt through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). However, when I was in a particularly dark place during counselling, I did what I felt was the right thing and spoke to my employer to explain my struggles and the impact counselling may or may not have on my day to day working life at that time. I did not get the support I was expecting. Therefore, when I became an employer, I promised myself I would be different.

Emerald is a place of open and honest conversations. I admit that isn’t always as good as it sounds. An apprentice last year was heard to say to another new starter when he arrived late - “just say it’s your mental health that made you late, she forgives that”. However, the open and honest conversation that followed allowed me to address that issue head on as soon as I was made aware of it. Through another open and honest conversation. We share the good stuff and the bad. And that’s what makes us a family.

And that means me sharing my good and bad too. I am writing this on a day I have taken out of the office to recuperate my mental well-being. I am still available on WhatsApp, email, mobile; but I have had to take myself away from the pressure cooker I have been in over the past three months managing a growing, relocating, recruiting business. December 2019 was our best sales month on record; in January 2020 we recruited two new apprentices and are on the hunt for two more; and February saw the finishing touches to our second purpose-built headquarters twice the size of the one we built just five years ago. I need time out before I burn out and, although I was a little afraid about sharing that, I knew I had to.

How much time do we take for ourselves when we own and manage our own organisation? Not enough. In the roles I hold across Coventry & Warwickshire I am extremely keen to make 2020 the year we listen to our human side more. This is my first year attending the annual property show MIPIM where we showcase our incredible region to the rest of the world, with the Local Authorities working collaborative with CWLEP, the Chamber, and in conjunction with the whole of the Midlands. The theme this year is ‘The Future is Human’ and I could not have been happier to read that. What happens at MIPIM may remain a mystery to many (although I will do my best to report back fully!) but we all know we can bring more ‘human’ into our lives for the best possible future.

You can read The Emerald Group’s mental health in the workplace case study at www.mentalhealthatwork.org.uk/case-study/emerald-group-the-firm-that-built-in-mental-wellbeing-from-the-start/

Sarah’s BBC interviews will also be shortly available on the Emerald website www.emerald-group.co.uk