12/03/2018

How To Talk To Your Boss About Mental Health

One in four people suffer a mental disorder at some point in their life

Any decent workplace wants to handle the mental health of its employees kindly and effectively, whether out of compassion or pure self-interest. One in four people suffer a mental disorder at some point in their life and, left unchecked, mental illness can be a huge drain on a productive workforce.

On some level, it’s obvious how to deal with mental health at work: Be supportive, take it seriously, provide accommodations. Those are good rules of thumb, but they’re banalities. Knowing how to best handle a specific situation will likely require more nuanced guidance.

Consider the conflicts for everyone involved: Employers have to balance looking after employees with respecting their privacy. Managers often have no way of determining the severity of mental illness or the level of support required. Employees, even the ones who confidently talk about mental health in the abstract, might feel more comfortable creating an excuse rather than saying they need a day off for managing their depression.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Quartz at Work.