He also argued that while some
people “can park their non-work related issues (relationships, children, finances, etc) at the door, some people can’t compartmentalise in this way”. One participant noted: “We’ve accepted our work can bleed into our home life, but not the other way round.”
FILLING UP
Anxiety exists within all of us and can be a positive driver. It can get a person fired up for a company presentation, for example, and it can help someone perform, but if it lingers it can become a pathway to mental illness. We all hold many forms of stess in our
“stress container”, Holman said, “but we don’t know how big it is. You hear people saying they’ve the weight of the world on their shoulders, and that’s when the container overflows. If it builds up, you get ‘emotional snapping’. You feel overwhelmed, but all your boss did was ask if you could stay an
compulsive disorders (OCD) or even psychosis. There are solutions, which might seem obvious but, in today’s modern workplace, they’re not al- ways achievable. Among the solutions, there’s regular exercise, because the brain behaves as a muscle. Talking is also important – “as human beings, we need to offload”, Holman said. Diet and getting enough sleep play a part, as can medication. From a business perspective, prac- tices cited by the participants included meeting up in groups for walking, hiking and even swimming.
GOOD FOR BUSINESS Talking about mental health in the workplace makes good business sense, according to Holman. “Look after your staff, and they look after clients.” He urged the group to ensure companies signed up to the “Time to Change Employer Pledge” devised by Time to Change, which campaigns to end
YOUR DUTY-OF-CARE IS CHANGING. YOU NOW NEED TO CONSIDER BOTH THE PHYSICAL AND MENTAL RISKS FACING YOUR EMPLOYEES
extra five minutes. You snap, and they think you’re a reacting irrationally to a perfectly rational request. But do they understand the impact of the request on the other stresses of life?. ‘The straw that broke the camel’s back’ is an important saying here.” Within the workplace, it’s important fellow workers can spot these kinds of signs. The MHFA one-day “cham- pion” course does not train people to become counsellors, but helps people to recognise the signs and behaviours of mental health challenges in others, before it leads to a mental illness, such as depression or anxiety disorders. “Depression manifests itself in people through a loss of purpose, a lack of energy and negativity. Depressed people internalise things, and can’t see the pos- itive for others. They have a persistently sad mood,” Holman said. Other effects can be self-harm, which includes excessive drinking. At the most extreme, anxiety can lead to obsessive
buyingbusinesstravel.com
mental health discrimination (
time-to-change.org.uk). There seems to be more awareness of mental health. At the Business Travel Show this year, Travel and Transport Statesman promoted wellbeing on its stand across five dedicated areas: physical, mental, intellectual, social and occupational. During the show, the TMC teamed up with Miriam Akhtar, a practitioner of Positive Psychology, who – alongside UK head of marketing Josh Gunn – took to the stage to share tips on “building mental resilience and wellbeing”.
Our group ended the day agreeing our eyes had been opened to a topic that we’d known little about, but we acknowledged its importance. Personally, I left feeling more like an advocate than a “champion”. As Holman said: “Let’s look after our own people. We’re not counsellors, but supporters of mental health. If we could ‘brand’ it, the slogan would be, ‘It’s OK not to be OK’.”
676 million
people globally suffer from mental illness
people with long-term mental health problems lose their jobs every year in the UK
5,668 300K
the number of suicides in Great Britain in 2016
(75% of which were males) 2019 MARCH/APRIL 31
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