The idea that we might be our own authentic self at work is one that has its attractions and its own particular horrors. We might like the idea of bringing our whole self to work when our whole self feels comfortable, competent and fulfilled—but it’s a different proposition when that self is ailing, and where challenges to our mental health may unbalance our equilibrium.
A survey of 2000 British workers carried out for mental health anti stigma campaign Time to Change released this week found that only 13 per cent of those polled felt they could talk openly with their colleagues about mental health.
Research published in 2016 by The Mental Health Foundation, Oxford University and Insurance Company Unum found that people had practical reasons for avoiding being open about their mental health at work.
Says Chris O’Sullivan, Head of Workplace Mental Health at The Mental Health Foundation:
“The most commonly cited negative reason was fear of discrimination (46 per cent)—with other reasons such as feeling ashamed to do so (41 per cent), because previous experience of disclosure was negative (27 per cent) and because I’d be unable to continue in role (4 per cent) also cited.”
“45 per cent of respondents in our research indicated that it was none of their employers business, and 14 per cent that it was in the past and no longer relevant. 25 per cent said that they hadn’t disclosed because there wasn’t a clear mechanism for doing so.”
What is interesting is that even though very few of the workers surveyed for Time to Change would choose to discuss their mental health with colleagues at work, very few would discuss other personal topics, either.
30 per cent felt comfortable discussing a relationship break-up; 26 per cent discussing money problems; 20 per cent discussing dating advice, 19 per cent talking to colleagues about religion;18 per cent sex; while only 13 per cent said they’d talk about their mental health, with the topic ranking lowest out of a total of 10 subjects.
This suggests the people of the UK are still keen on maintaining a division between work and personal life despite decades of attempts to erode this line. Work for many is not something into which you throw your whole self; it is the interaction by which you exchange labour for money, nothing more.
*** To be able to speak by choice about your mental health at work requires at least one of two beliefs to be true. One is that your colleagues are fundamentally good people who will not use the things you share against you.
The other is that your employer is fundamentally good and will either use what they know of your mental health to help and support you or will protect you using either law, management or culture from malicious action by your colleagues.
A third belief may also be at work: that you have rights to justice that are enforceable by an outside authority.
Chris O’Sullivan feels people evaluate the situation in their workplace when deciding whether to discuss their mental health: “People need to feel safe talking about mental health at work, whether that’s because they want to, or because they need to.”
“I’d advocate a road safety approach to disclosure—we all remember the message of stop, look, listen—and cross if it’s safe and comfortable to do so.”
Chris would like to see a ‘disclosure premium’ in workplaces, a clear set of benefits to the individual for being open.
“Perhaps that’s because it’s clear the company cares. Perhaps it is because the company enables access to psychological therapies, or private healthcare. Perhaps it’s because mental health is part of diversity and inclusion work and you have access to mentoring and career development.”
“Even still, it can be hard to come forward, and we must realise that it’s a person’s right not to tell.”
For many at work now, none of these things are in place, so we keep quiet until we can be quiet no longer.
*** One of the things that’s so painful about mental ill health or distress is that it breaches our carefully-maintained walls of personal privacy. It makes us feel incontinent, drags what we might like to keep private about how we feel in the world out into the open for all and sundry to observe and pass judgement upon.
Mental ill health breaks the inner sanctum of our thoughts; what is in our head won’t respect the boundaries we have put upon it. No matter how we try to stuff it back into ourselves, it peeks out—like trying to force a rolled sleeping bag back into the compression sack it came in. It is the horror of what is within you no longer being within you but suddenly in the public domain. And, whether we like it or not, the world of work is not always a benign domain.
Those of us who have experienced mental ill health, or who are sympathetic to those who have, can go far in supporting each other but we cannot always make our workplaces safe for our colleagues or even ourselves.
Some workers are more valued than others and precariousness has made the loss of work an active threat in a country where social security protections have been eroded and where to lose our job may be disastrous.
Until the benefits of being open about our mental health are universal and evident, keeping our private life private, despite exhortations to be open, can be a rational act.
