Introduction
The recent health-workplace studies show that mental wellness correlates with employee satisfaction, employee productivity and staff retention. When employees feel supported as well as valued, they are more likely to contribute positively to their work tasks and influence the team as a whole to perform better, propelling the work environment to thrive. The Skills Development Corporation assist abled and disabled learners, and therefore recognizes that since depression and anxiety is regarded as a disability, it is our responsibility to create a positively thriving environment.
Good mental health inspires us to do the things we want to do, and ensures we face challenges head on. It is vital to know that our mental health never stays the same, it changes depending on phases we face in our lives. Distress often comes up in mental health conversations, as it’s a word used to describe someone who is not coping, for whatever reason that might exist along the lines of pressure at work or even the beginning of a mental issue like depression. We will explore ways that to help co-workers who show signs of mental illness, one beginning with human responses, ways to show compassion and how support could be shown to create a better environment in the workplace.
Recognizing a mental problem
Mental health problems tend to have different signs and some cross-pollinating signs might not necessarily mean there’s a mental health issue. So no before you start saying Jeff by the Placement department downstairs has a mental issue because he’s always tired and drained, halt as it might be fatigue. Anxiety, panic attacks, eating disorders, dissociation and paranoia are some of the noticeable signs that a co-worker might be undergoing some challenges. Every week we have a foot traffic of over 3000 learners and over 160 employees in our campus. We are always attentive to our environment as
Benefits to improving your mental health include:
- Positive outlook towards yourself as well as others, a positive attitude during your day and a positive outlook towards the potential for co-workers, society and groups at large
- Your thinking capabilities are improved, and decision-making capabilities become enhanced
- You become resilient to the stressful moments and begin to create better relationships in the workspace
- Improved focus, productivity and higher self-asteem
Breaking the stigma at our SDC when it comes to Mental Illness
We have always encouraged open conversations about mental health to reduce misconceptions and judgment surrounding mental health challenges at the workplace. We advise our team members about the importance of routines that will support mental-being such as having all of our departments interact through sporting activities such as soccer tournaments, and healthy social events such as the women’s brunch that we held at our canteen area. We encourage a healthy work life balance and have since seen improvement in our interactions.
In conclusion, we acknowledge that being a company which invests in programmes that create awareness about a healthy mental health as well as a working environment reduces absenteeism which ultimately results in huge savings for the company, yet yielding happy employees that know we care about them. We continue to make a difference at all these levels.
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