I work for a smallish 200 person development company who have been pushing Mental Health lately. Some of the managers were sharing their own stories. It seemed like there was some training going around with the upper management.
I struggle with burnout and that was a topic that was talked about. It seemed encouraging. But I also understand that there are some conflicts of interest between what is best for me vs the company.
So I brought up that I was struggling with burnout during my review process. Turns out a couple of weeks later I was told that I should answer the question “Why I love working at [Company]?” that finding the love would help solve my burnout. That made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck. Whatever response I would be in the HR system.
Obviously, I could have pushed forward more and found out what happened, but I just want to work and get paid, I am in a good place right now, and I don’t “Love” my company, but I don’t think I will find another company that I will also “Love”.
I think it is time to stand on business, mask (autism) up, and boundary up.
My company will be getting a wonderful love letter in response to “Why I love working at [Company]?”. I hate to lie, but I like to eat, and changing jobs is a pain. I’m worried I might be too proud to keep this up for too long. But we will see.
As a takeaway, if you are in a company deciding to be more open about Mental Health, make sure you are not putting your people in a position where they self-report themselves. You are just weeding out the dumb honest employees from your company. The rest of the employees will turn into yes people.
I hope this helps some people.
That’s horrible but not unheard off.
My company was very open about mental health, we had open talks between workers, and all was good. But at some point, I think an undesired critical mass of people with mental disorders (from autism and adhd, to burn out and depression) was reached and suddenly talking about it was no longer OK. It was “bringing the mood down”.
Managers started cutting down on opening up too much to colleagues. Disciplinary action was applied to people who didn’t comply, disguised as “performance improvement plans” to “improve their communication”. Complaining about this publicly led to more PIPs, and eventually firings. 3 of the most vocal people about mental health were fired because “they didn’t fit the company culture”. Now the company offers free therapy which you are invited to use in private.
So yeah. Companies only care about mental health to a point.
