RUOK Day is nearly here. And it's not OK.

When you think about it, we are all pretty good at doing things that make ourselves feel good. Acceptance, belonging and being on trend are all part of that - everybody likes to feel like we're at the cutting edge and not missing out on anything. FOMO's a thing, y'know?

Unfortunately though, this can be a bad thing too, because our FOMO means we embrace things and jump on the bandwagon without actually knowing or fully understanding what it is we're throwing our weight behind. And RUOK day is most definitely one of the biggest bandwagons going around.

Mental Health is a 'thing' and it absolutely does deserve to be talked about, acknowledged and worked through, but here's the thing - if you need one day a year where you wear a yellow shirt, eat a fancy iced cupcake at a staff morning tea and generally prance about feeling like you're at the top of your game, then I am sorry to tell you but you are doing it completely wrong.

RUOK day no doubt sought to raise awareness of mental health issues that affect every single person in the working universe, but we've kind of lost the plot with it and now it's just another thing we do to make ourselves feel good and tick the box. For those of us who acknowledge and actually support our teams with whatever mental health related issues or challenges, every day is RUOK day - just without the cake. And better still, every day is an opportunity for every single person on your team to make the decision to let you in and see if you can help them with their own situation. To me, that is the best awareness of mental health there can possibly be.