Mental Health

The mental health of individuals is extremely vital to the work place environment. Many companies have been overlooking this important fact during recent years; thus, productivity has gone down a great deal. How do I know this? I was once in an office environment and witnessed a division…sublet as it was, but still there.

The Story

Just over three months ago, the resignation letter was submitted to the higher ups. The time was right to move into uncharted territories within life. This was the hardest decision to come to because of the loyalty, friendship, and good managing executed by the bosses. However, the road had been under construction for two years before coming to the conclusion of resignation. There is the hardest part though, and it tore at the psyche…the friendship with the co-workers.

While the responsibility of training, maintaining, and all other things had to be done no matter what, there was one thing that overshadowed all of it, and that was my co-workers mental health. That’s right - someone else was more, equally as important - no matter what.

Witnessed Division

Over the years, before being the supervisor at the place of employment, there was often a division between the workers and management. We all see this as the managers that line the offices around the centralized areas of a work. Okay, it is understandable that supervisors would need privacy from time-to-time, but all of the time? Sorry, but managers/supervisors are not the owners, bookkeepers, or human resources handling THE part of the business. If anything, managers/supervisors should be on the floor teaching, reminding, encourage, mentoring, and engaging their fellow workers WHILE DOING THE SAME JOB.

Disagreement due to education?

It does not matter if a manager/supervisor has gone to college either. College educated or not, every business is different, every person is different, every situation is different. A college education does not mean they are an owner, bookkeeper, or human resources - they just were able to afford it. Besides, college educations (nowadays) do not even matter, unless it is a masters! The automatic differences and work place “rival issues,” start there and usually end up with the college educated - flying the coup. Kind of sucks.

Back to Mental Health and The Story

The impression from years of working in a centralized area allowed different observations to be made and molded. While I realized that sometimes (or all the time), the opinions given were labeled/treated as “aggressive” or “way outside of the box” - they worked. With those two labels though, came the idea of working differently, and being on the floor with my co-workers; doing the same job and handling the other responsibilities.

Being in the centralized location with my co-workers afforded the observations of, what I call, “stress points.” Offices get crazy busy a lot of the time due to individuals calling out, sicknesses, or more work, so watching and being TRULY concerned, helped to avoid communications breakdown, more unnecessary work, and agitated nerves. How? Reminders. Simple. Check it out.

People talk, right? I know I do. I would give my co-workers feedback all the time and let them know it was important to me that they were there. Keep in mind, you were probably the one that trained them! This becomes important to help any co-worker grow with knowledge.

Next, I encouraged mental health days, half days, or whatever was within the PTO standard. Why? Without a rested person, who has a life outside of work, ain’t a thing going to get done. Pfft … nothing.

Talk to each other like a human being! I sure in the world do not know everything or even claim too. I just ask questions. So, that was something encouraged -- ALL THE TIME. Ask. If an answer eluded, I would make sure to say that and go find the dang answer. Simple.

Being on the floor, in the trenches, taking the calls, doing the crappy part no one wants to do builds respect. Let’s face it - most of us start with a certain amount of respect based on titles or positions held; however, when you (like I) realize it is a title and can be taken away (for whatever reason) it is important to have earned that respect. Are there going to be bumps along the way? YES. Then again, why wouldn’t there be bumps? All of us are on the same level, with nothing but a title separating us.

An Ending To Remember

The best thing to remember, or best way to identify all of this simply….
Any office, in any location, under any circumstance, forgets that PEOPLE ARE STILL PEOPLE; life goes beyond the business/work. At the end of the day, people worry about different things. Why should Monday mornings be a pain in the butt? For some people, it is because of how they are treated. This is the plain and under analyzed fact, that is too simple to comprehend. Things are not always complicated. Things become complicated when additional BOUNDARIES are laid down. When you (like I) remove the boundaries, and realize that nothing separates anyone from the other, life has a way of being fun. When it is applied to the work area - oh - lots of fun, while still getting the job done.