Gopal Mukesh, the owner of Heart Life Insurance, suspected that one of his employees, a case manager, was struggling. She was responsible for document processing, customer service, and chasing doctors’ offices for records.“She was fantastic most days,” Gopal says, and she’d even work late to finish important documents. But there were other days when “she was nowhere to be found and no one could contact her via phone, text, or email. It was strange; she would vanish.”
When she wasn’t available in this way, it meant that the other staff had to work longer hours. Gopal knew something was going on, but he wasn’t sure what. During a regular performance review, he decided to bring it up. “It was a delicate conversation,” he says. He was straightforward about what he was observing and asked her questions about her absences without making assumptions or forcing her to share personal information.
“I said something like, ‘We care about you, and you do a fantastic job; however, sometimes things just seem off. Your attendance is inconsistent, and at times, it’s impossible to get in touch with you. Is everything going OK?’” She confided in him that she had bipolar disorder and was seeing a psychiatrist. She explained that sometimes changes in her medications would lead to mood swings and there were days where she couldn’t function. Hence, the absences.
Gopal knew very little about the disorder. “I knew enough about mental illness to underwrite a life insurance policy . . . but my experience was all secondhand. I didn’t know the first thing about trying to lead or manage[someone with bipolar disorder].” So he did some research. “I read up online as much as I could, and I asked other psychiatrists and counselors about it as we crossed paths professionally.”
Because this employee was excellent at her job, he wanted to make it work. “I gave her leeway to take time off with short notice by just sending me a simple one-line email,” he explains. He was able to manage the workflow
during her absences. “We used project management software that allowed me to assign her tasks to another case manager.
When she was ready to work again, we could just assign the tasks back to her and move on.” He said that her disclosure made it much easier to handle her absences. And looking back over the time she was at the company, she didn’t take any more time off than anyone else on the team. And “she would always make the time up even though I never asked her to,” Gopal says. She eventually left the company to work in a local law firm where she could earn a higher salary. Gopal was sad to see her go, but as he says, “I’d hire her again in a heartbeat.” And, he says, he learned a valuable lesson from the experience: “Mental illness should be treated with the same compassion and grace that we give any other serious disease.”
In a workplace, Gen Z and Apha tend to understand mental health more than early millennials and Gen X. When people don’t understand something, they usually dismiss it. Gen X and early Millennials grew up at a time when few people owned phones, the internet was not there. For such, there was little distraction. Society raised the children back then. You didn’t have graduations at Kindergarten. Not everyone got a medal in sports. Merit was the order of the day. Younger generations are in the workplace submitted to people who are not prone to what affects them. But mental health is here to stay. Early millennials and Gen X (occupants of most executive roles) need to adapt and learn from people people like Gopal.
So what is mental health? Sometimes, our brains can feel sick, just like when we get malaria or a stomachache. A mental health disorder means the brain is not feeling well, making it hard to think, feel happy, or behave like usual. It can make someone feel very sad, scared, angry, or even tired all the time. But just like we go to the doctor for a fever, people can get help from doctors and caring people to feel better!” That is a mental disorder.
Nearly 1 billion people in the world live with a mental health disorder. Discussing mental health in professional settings has long come with stigma. The problem is that when we deliberately avoid addressing mental health at work, that stigma grows. Breaking this cycle often starts by acknowledging the struggles people go through.
Of course, everyone wants to be happier, less stressed, and more confident and productive in their job. We talk about creating a more trusting, psychologically safe, and inclusive space for everyone. Does it happen? Is it lip service? While there are many positives to speaking up at work, doing so can be difficult to navigate—especially for those of us who are new to a job or just beginning our careers.
Every workplace needs to implement programs that address mental health at the core without being manipulated by lazy employees who ride on the tide of mental health as an excuse for not doing what they are mandated to do.
As an employer explore the following:
What is the scope of mental health risks at out company?
What demographics/generations are currently employed? Younger generations are more susceptible to the risks of mental health.
How can we weed out pretenders from genuninely affected folks?
How can we support out staff to prevent mental health disorders?
All the best
