It's good to talk

On #worldmentalhealthday the best thing we can do is share experiences that resonate with us, to help others. Following one of my posts a couple of weeks ago, some Association for Project Management members contacted me with their lived experiences. Here's one from Jo Roberts :

I was desperately trying to get into contract to design and build a school. The school was a Special Education Needs school and for me, it wasn’t just professional pride in my work at stake. The longer it took to get into contract meant that another cohort of children would be sent out of area to go to school because of their needs. This obviously came at a financial cost to the local authority, but also a personal cost. Not only would those children have to be driven out of the area and back to go to school (anything up to 90 minutes each way) but once they had started at that school out of area, they were extremely unlikely to return to their local area to attend school, such is the settling in period for these children and their families.

The contract should have been easy to get into, but the contractor never quite crossed the t’s and dotted the I’s and kept coming back with additional price and/or scope increases. Another incident at work had massively smashed my confidence and I could feel the beginnings of a downward spiral happen. I knew all my warning signs and triggers and STILL I carried on trying to get this contract signed.

With the beauty of hindsight, I should have taken a couple of days off to re-set my mental health and wellbeing and then resume work, delegating to other colleagues in the meantime. I was not the only one that could do this, but it felt like it at the time. Instead , I persevered until I could do no more and ended up having to take five weeks off work sick to re-set my mental health and wellbeing.

With every drop in confidence I could feel I was passing along the motorway seeing signs for the spiral and unable to slow or turn around. I had missed the turning point where I could have saved myself.

Lesson learned, my health and wellbeing comes ahead of any project or project related activity. No-one on my team got in touch to see how I was, no one talked to me about it on my return. I knew then that I needed to leave that job, that it wasn’t healthy for me.

Eight months later I was able to start afresh in a new role, where I wasn’t having my professional ability called into question and having my confidence bashed at every opportunity. I am now thriving at work and in my personal life, being super aware of how I am feeling and take steps to avoid it.

Thanks Jo Roberts .

If you're a project professional and you'd like some support for your mental health, please visit this page which features our APM mental health toolkit for project managers, which we produced with in collaboration with Mind : www.apm.org.uk/resources/mental-health-toolkit/

#mentalhealth #wellbeing #projectmanagement #projectprofession