It seems that we have been looking at this in the wrong way...
Although the COVID situation has meant a rethink in terms of enabling us to work from home, the impacts may have been overlooked.
More than half of adults and over two-thirds of young people said that their mental health had gotten worse during the period of lockdown restrictions, from early April to mid-May 2020. Despite this there is an impetus for workers to proactively reach out to their managers if they are struggling.
For some organisations the individual is supposed to be "self-empowered" to arrange contact with their manager and talk through issues yet many people do not feel entitled to seek help, and have difficulty accessing it when they do. 1 in 3 adults and more than 1 in 4 young people did not access support during lockdown because they did not think that they deserved support.
Maybe we need to change our perspective and thoughts during this time. Maybe we should instead of asking how an employee is, we should be asking everyone (no matter whether it is known or disclosed whether they have an existing mental health issue) how the lockdown has affected them?
A quarter of adults and young people who tried to access support were unable to do so. Not feeling comfortable using phone/video call technology has been one of the main barriers to accessing support.
Although working from home has been productive for some, those with responsibilities have been left feeling helpless and sometimes guilty that home responsibilities may interfere with work responsibilities. For those of us that hold a delicate balance between home and work life, this has proved to be tricky.
I rely on a lot of face to face interaction in the way I work and miss the interaction that just walking along to someone's desk to quickly ask a question can bring. I miss the travelling and that alone time with just my thoughts, music or podcasts can bring along with the change of scenery and location.
I think that as managers we should be asking the following:
- We should be asking everyone how the lockdown is/has affected them and not just how they are
- We should explore what the best balance is for work/life for the individual and try our hardest to meet that. For me it is about 2 days working from home and three days in the office
- We should ask whether the employee has everything that they need (in terms of equipment or support) in order to do their job
- We should ask whether there is more that we can do as a manager, as a team, as a department or as an organisation to support everyone and not just those with existing conditions.
- For those with pre-existing mental health conditions we need to consider what "reasonable adjustments" we need to provide above and beyond what we are mandated to do by law