Mental health is a topic that important to me because I have been dealing with depression and anxiety since middle school. I have improved my mental health significantly since then but I do have spouts of bad days and weeks since starting working a demanding job. Mental health should be very important to every company because if their employees have bad mental health it doesn't just affect their personal life but their professional ones as well.

In this video, Mark Bailey discusses how he got help from his manager to deal with his mental help. Mark Bailey was dealing with many personal troubles such as the death of his father which affected his work and time at his place of work. During work, he would have panic attacks and would hide in the bathroom to not let anyone see him during this vulnerable time that affects how his fellow coworkers saw him and could lead to him being shown the door which happens a lot with companies dealing with mental health. One day during a meeting he had to excuse himself because he was having a panic attack, after that meeting his manager took him aside and asked to meet with her privately. He was expecting the worse, him being fired. His manager brought him to the company cafeteria and was going to get tea and asked if he wanted one, after that they had a full conversation not about work but about life, as one human being to another not as a manager to subordinate. This conversation brought him so much relief and better helped with his mental state. With his manager just doing this simple conversation and continuing to talk to him on a regular basis about how she can help him, it helped him not just improve his work state of mind but life in general. After that conversation, he started taking charge in his life, taking on new projects and learning new skills, and became a leader himself. 

The takeaways from Mark Bailey:

Have a conversation: Managers should have a sit-down conversation when they see one of their employees. When they are having this conversation they should be open, and show kindness, empathy, and understanding. This conversation can help jump-start an employee to better their mental health.

Create a safe space: When making a safe space for employees to talk, you should create a quiet space where employees can have a space to debrief and where they can calm down. Bring a therapist to the office once or twice a week to talk to employees to make sure they are in a good mental state. With the therapist, you can create a training program to help employees gain better tools to deal with their mental health. Create a support group to help employees create a space where they can speak and talk to one another and create a supportive environment.

Ask how you can help: Most of all when it comes to mental health, managers should show that they can ask for help from them. Managers need to be open and show they are willing to help them with their mental state.

Questions:

1.) Have you ever been able to feel like you can go to your manager or boss about your mental state? If yes, how well did it go, and was it productive for your mental health?

2.) Since more people are in a virtual world if you work from home how do you help your mental health without the resource you can get from working in the office?

3.) How well is your mental state right now with you working, going to school, and having a personal life too? Do you feel like you have a great mental state to balance these three things or do you think you need help?