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I'm annoyed by employers pretending to care about happiness and mental health. It's usually something like "here's a link to a free one hour e-course on mindfu
by fleddr 5y ago
I'm annoyed by employers pretending to care about happiness and mental health.
It's usually something like "here's a link to a free one hour e-course on mindfulness". But do take it in your free time. Or the many internal emails from leaders about how they "appreciate" the difficulty of these times.
It's all performative, hollow and cheap.
If you really claim to care or appreciate it, walk the talk. Give people 1K out of the blue, for sticking to their performance despite enormous challenges. That's still really a pathetically low number.
Or...it looks like you're exhausted. Take a few days of on my expense.
Or...we normally produce 500 of whatever unit, given the incredibly hard balancing act of you managing your family at home whilst trying to get work done, we'll temporarily slow it down to 400 of whatever unit.
All of these are just examples of humane and simple signals to tell that you really do care. If you do none of these things, you don't care. So stop pretending.
- mojzu 5y agoI strongly agree, mental health only seems to be a consideration until it has any affect on output. It's now talked about more openly/included in health and safety courses/etc. which at least seems to be a step in the right direction, but good luck asking for deadlines to be pushed back/or time off for mental health because a project is causing burn out. I'm hoping it's a generational thing that 'puritanical work ethic/expectations' are offered as the solution to all problems but usually dismissed as a potential cause of any
- fleddr 5y agoSure, a step in the right direction, but to me it still does not meet the low bar of it really being a consideration. I've always seen things like mindfulness and meditation as fighting a symptom. You first put people into this overworked and anxious state of mind and then offer this "fix", rather then addressing the root cause. When people are struggling with mental health at work, reduce the pressure on output and/or give them more free time. It doesn't solve all problems but it's the most meaningful and direct action an employer can take. If an employer cannot afford that or is simply unwilling, I'm cool with that. As long as they admit it and don't pretend to care with a cheap email. Same with appreciating people. Give them money. Stop making it so complicated. Money talks. Nobody cares about HR points.