Sizing up the working world’s mental health crisis

This is Working Together, a weekly series on equity in the workplace. In honor of Juneteenth, tomorrow I’m going live with two Black female founders closing the racial wealth gap with their pioneering solutions. Join us live at 12PT/3ET here.?

When Alyson Watson launched her mental health services startup Modern Health in 2017, employee mental health was an afterthought. Sure, prominent companies had clunky ways for employees to tap into mental health services, but those services were often not covered by insurance and were hard to access.?

Then the pandemic hit, and Watson watched as the conversation turned. Employees were in crisis and employers had to come up with solutions, like virtual support for caregivers and those with family members suffering from the virus. Now, a year and a half later, Watson sees those solutions becoming a critical part of employers' ability to retain top talent.?

“Mental health has become the fourth pillar of benefits,” she said, adding it to medical, dental and vision. “It is no longer a nice to have, it’s a necessity and our employees should proactively work on their mental health because the way that we work is different.”?

I spoke with Watson about how the pandemic revealed differences in how we work and what managers should keep in mind as they design post-pandemic work life.

Edited excerpts:?

CF: How did the pandemic change the conversation around mental health at work?

AW: The pandemic helped destigmatize mental health because we were all impacted by this thing. It impacts us in different ways, but it was this big event that all of a sudden impacted everyone. That started the conversation among employers of we know that there is this thing happening that's impacting all of our employees and their mental health. So what can we do to support them? And also, how do we make sure that we don't wait until there's this massive disaster and pandemic that impacts our entire workforce to take care of their mental health? How can we proactively take care of them? Mental health is not going to go away.??

What else is driving this shift?

Now this is a top thing that companies talk about and are prioritizing in their board meetings because in order to have a successful business, especially in this world where human capital is the number one asset and it's a war for talent, we have to take care of our employees’ mental health to attract top talent, retain top talent and allow our talent to be productive and ultimately to have a successful business. Once the pandemic hit, people could no longer just sweep all these things under the rug. Yes there is the pandemic, but also ongoing racial injustice also parents who are home right now with kids without childcare, all of these things that opened up a conversation.??

Do all employers see it this way?

We are seeing a polarization happening right now among employers. There are still employers out there who say we build a product and that's all we do and you show up to work to build that product and leave everything else at home. They’re saying, "we understand things are happening out there, but leave it at the door." But most employers are realizing that's unrealistic. We can't tell employees to compartmentalize what's happening in their personal lives.?

That’s because? the way that we work is totally different. Maybe you could tell me to totally forget about what's going on in my personal life if I worked nine to five in an office and didn't have a laptop at home and had to use the dial up Internet, but employers are connected to employees 24/7. We're all tethered to work 24/7. Yes, we can turn it off, but people can access it at any time of the day. Look what's happening with Wall Street and the big banks. Those are the most coveted jobs, but people are saying they’d rather work at a company with a supportive environment where there's psychological safety and people care about me.?

Should companies be worried of swinging too far in the other direction?

Part of creating balance is just the same way that we don’t go into work and talk an entire about our root canal or our physical ailment, the same is true with our mental health. We think at Modern Health there is a spectrum of green to red. The green may be someone who wants to do more to learn about mindfulness and yellow may be anxiety and stress and red is depression or and clinical issues. Green and yellow can play a huge role in how we feel and that is where it gets tricky. Employers need to create a safe space and an environment to turn to those resources.

And how do the best do that?

Connecting with each other as humans is going to play a big role in the future of work. At the end of the day, humans crave authentic connection. It drives human happiness. And the way that you connect with others in an authentic way is by being vulnerable. So in the world that we're in today where we're more connected than ever before, but there's this epidemic of loneliness, why is it happening? We have Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn, all these things that we're connecting on, but how do we create an environment where people can be more vulnerable? And I actually do think that work plays a role in that. If someone comes into a meeting and says, 'I got no sleep last night because I was up with my two young kids and I'm grouchy,' that's normal. It shouldn't be like on these social media outlets, where we put on this facade that everything's going great and this is the best version of myself. We shouldn't have to do that at work. That's not human, and that's not normal.

What should managers keep in mind as many employees start to return to the office?

The challenge with this return to work is there's no one size fits all and we've never done this before. I think the reality is facing and understanding that there's not going to be a silver bullet that works for every employee. There's a lot of anxiety going back into the office. People haven't socialized. So I think there's going to be social anxiety and that's totally normal. A big part of it is just acknowledging and talking about these things and making it okay. Whatever approach we take, just be empathetic to whatever someone may be having anxiety about. But I think at the end of the day, humans crave human connection. Once we get over that hump of seeing each other in the flesh, there's going to be a desire to have some of that human connection back.??

What’s Working

Oh happy May. 56%, or 314,000, of the job gains in May were filled by women. Salaries increased slightly as well, but the unemployment rate continues to be highest for Black women, at 8.2%, and Latinas, at 7.4%. and lowest for White women, at 4.8%. [DiversityInc]

No more all-male boards. The last company in the S&P 500 with an all-male board — Monolithic Power Systems — added its first female director. Investors have been voting against directors of all-male boards for several years and 15 companies have recently increased the representation of female board members. [Bloomberg]?

What’s Not

Merit vs. diversity. After suggesting in an interview that diversity should be secondary to merit in hiring, Snowflake CEO Frank Slootman has apologized. The tech exec has since said — after much pushback online from leaders across the industry — that he does not view merit and diversity as mutually exclusive. [Bloomberg]

Left out, again. Why does NASDAQ’s push to diversify boards not include people with disabilities? In the U.S., the unemployment rate is nearly double for people with disabilities and “leaving people with disabilities out renders the rule unnecessarily under-inclusive—and perhaps reveals unintentional bias,” writes health care lawyer Ted Kennedy Jr. [Fortune]

Who’s Pushing Us Forward?

Call it a crisis. How do we get working mothers back to work? First, we have to acknowledge this crisis for what it is, says TIME'S UP's Tina Tchen. From there, we have to acknowledge the unpaid burden of caregiving that so many working moms face. The good news: Tchen says that, after fighting for this cause for many years, employers are finally starting to take the issue seriously. Check out our full conversation here.

What topics do you want to discuss next time? Let me know in the comments below using #WorkingTogether