Workplace Mental Health - all you need to know (for now) | Tom Oxley | TEDxNorwichED

[Music] what's it like to work where you work school somewhere else busy right everybody being asked to do more with less hands up who gets their work email on a device at home hands up who sleeps in the same room as their that device hands up who who works evenings and weekends just to do more work the next day hands up who who sometimes wakes up in the night thinks about work can't switch off speaks to the phone before their family in the morning ah yeah early signs of stress okay sorry to tell you hands

up who is so busy they they have their breakfast on the toilet no good just my brother-in-law then that's reassuring but but most of the things that I talked about are communists the new norm before we leave the house in the morning our rucksack is is half full it's no surprise then that that the third to half of us will experience some kind of stress anxiety and depression during our working lives those those conditions are common and they are responsible for 30% more absence than anything else including musculoskeletal and physical industry in injury 30% more

and yet we we struggle in which we struggle on CI review workplaces and how they support people or not on mental health and I've interviewed more than 170 people and looked at the information from 15,000 survey respondents and a mental health is complex but this much I know people who have poor mental health they want to be at work on the whole and they struggle in to do that when they're at work they they have difficulty concentrating communicating juggling tasks and they get cranky sometimes with the customers and colleagues but they can't speak up to

their manager the manager doesn't know how to have a conversation the employee doesn't know if the manager is going to support them or stigmatize them or say well we're all stress mate or manage them out of the organization so our employee who wants to be at work doesn't know the support choices can't have a conversation about it they feel significant stigma sometimes from the organization sometimes from themselves and it just rumbles on right they they don't take the time off that they need or if they do they give a different reason for their absence and

here's one of the reasons was because we just don't talk enough about mental health in our workplaces until past breaking point how do we get to this well I thought we were all supposed to be resilient these days in the workplace we are supposed to have brazilians how do you get resilience well you ought to have a good work-life balance that's the first thing okay life life life the field of flowers that I skip through to and from work right if your life's like anything like my life it contains things like separation and grief and

dental bills and add peas that get stuck up your child's nostril and exhaust that fall off your car the day after the MOT but we we soldier on my rucksack now three-quarters full we were taught to and we go into work and when we shouldn't really be there presenteeism it's called and presenteeism costs the workplace 1.8 times that of absenteeism being away but we don't even get that bit right because we go in and we say to our manager I think it might be struggling it might be stress anxiety depression they get then always good

I think well you must go and see your doctor and so we go off to the doctor and we say hi I'm really struggling I'm losing sleep I can't talk to my manager I'm having my breakfast on the toilet and the doctor says well if we're in this country you're going mmm that's interesting I'm gonna sign you off for two weeks it's the first NHS response okay it's well-meaning and I get that and sometimes time time off from from work is a really good thing and seeing our doctor is a good thing but it's not

the first place for that conversation it took an employment lawyer in King's Lynn in Norfolk 28 seconds to be signed off from work having entered the consultation room it's not the first place for that so you leave the surgery with a with a label a diagnosis and you're staring down a packet of pills and daytime television and it's it's really scary I've been there and and if we just so quick to disengage people we need to be having these conversations in the workplace rather than disengaging and let me tell you about disengaging and I know

illustrate the business case for this so I I interviewed somebody called Nick was a senior manager global firm constantly exceeding expectations at appraisal because there are appraisals remember to get more money we have to do more work than we should be doing different point but anyway so Nick Nick's mom died then he had his two or three days compassionate leave and he came back to the organization and he tried to organize himself some flexi time work more during the week have a bit of more time off from fridays and his manager said no on the

basis that and I quote everyone will want it Nick's a good lovely guy a really lovely guy and really did it him but of course you know he was unable to talk to his manager they fell out he went to the doctor he got lots more time off but this was sickness and he disengaged and he never really came back to the organization properly unions go involved cost a lot of money and was entirely avoidable Sally's story Sally is or sell his dad died as she was working for international charity again you get successful manager

and her manager said Sally I don't think you're right I think you need some more time off I think you you know we can do some work from home and a phased return and you might be surprised here that Sally still works for that organization it's still a high flier okay and she's an advocate of the employer so had they had the global firm that Nick worked for acted like the charity it would have saved itself many thousands of pounds okay so what should we do leaders had teachers project managers whoever wherever you lead you

need to talk about mental health in the workplace when you speak other people listen okay the the conversation the positive language it cascades down an organization you don't make more people unwell by speaking about mental health you give them the opportunity to seek help sooner remember Nick remember Sally leaders who talk about mental health universally gain respect same with managers managers you need to talk about mental health in the workplace and you need to train managers train and train them to spot the signs and the symptoms know what to say know when to say it

know where to shut up know when to listen know how to have a human conversation if you're a manager use this rule of thumb be the manager you'd like to have if you were experiencing stress anxiety depression HR an occupational health I can I can pretty much guarantee that your schools and and your workplaces policies on stress anxiety depression or absence and and those sorts of things are probably too long full of jargon self-serving same with the the the absence procedure right they when somebody calls in sick on that first day as a golden conversation

for a dialogue on mental health who's listening who's writing this down where is it going who's offering support and this is the same thing for your people right you've got it you've got it offer support to your people therapy is fantastic stuff but through the NHS it's gonna take you eight weeks three months six lessons of therapy three hundred pounds what's that compared to a great bit of time off in it and that disengaging it's off your therapy the other thing we do with people when they join in a workplace is we teach them how

to lift a box which is great and thank you for that but why don't we talk to them about how to have a conversation with a colleague okay call it when they're struggling okay so if you were out there and you see somebody struggling then say something say how are you my cup of tea if you think you're struggling that you should say something this is not just a a a once and done conversation it's all just a poster on the back of the toilet door it's a camp it's a cultural shift and it takes

time okay but the wonderful thing is that everybody can do this okay what you need is a tray of sandwiches and a packet of post-it notes and a bunch of people who've been off while they've been working for you okay they'll give you all the information that you need okay you could you could partner with a charity like mindful employer if you like you could hire a consultant if you must but you really ought to be listening making adjustments changes and writing this down the Health and Safety Executive expect you to be doing this already

by the way right in the future would be we'll be talking about some of the things that have been mentioned today mindfulness meditation in meetings virtual reality glasses to Train managers reporting on on workplace illness as well as injury little robots that pop up on your screen to ask you how you are psychotherapy through our mobile phone those things are being trialed right now they're just around the corner but here's the thing you're people don't need to throw loads of money of this what they want from you is your commitment that they can speak safely

about mental health I said you all you all have the resources to do this look around you this is what mental health is it's not just the one in 103 we all have mental health all the time the hands up who'd like their employer to do more on mental health right as an employer all you need to do is give your people permission to speak safely and be prepared to listen thank you [Applause] [Music] you