By Cheryl Otto

BC’s Anti-Bullying legislation is not yet a year old and it has been the catalyst for opening up the dialogue around how to address mental health and safety issues in the workplace.  It is encouraging to see so much engagement from employers as well as public support from professional organizations. 

On May 6, 2013 Simon Evans, CEO of BC HRMA, announced that the association is supporting Partners for Mental Health and helping to launch Not Myself Today. The stories on the Not Myself Today website are touching, both in the honesty and despair of some of the writers. While some praised their supervisors for being supportive and understanding of their mental health issues, a number of them felt their supervisor or human resources department were ignorant and uncaring about their situations – particularly those which resulted in bullying or harassment.

Not Myself Today is an excellent website and hopefully it will prompt human resources professionals, managers and supervisors at all levels to ask what they need to know and do to better address mental health issues in their workplace.  To ensure your employees are telling success stories rather than discouraging tales there are a number of strategies to consider, the most important being training and support for respectful workplace behaviours.

How well are your managers and supervisors doing?

Are they equipped to deal empathetically and sensitively with mental health issues? Do they know how to manage and supervise – people, not just functions?  To be truly effective they need to be skilled at:

• showing a genuine interest in and developing a relationship with their employees;
• treating their employees with respect;
• demonstrating fairness and integrity;
• encouraging, motivating and providing constructive feedback on a regular basis;
• looking for opportunities to recognize their employees;
• listening to their employees;
• promoting team work;
• effectively addressing bullying and harassment; and
• asking for HR’s help when they don’t know how to handle an employee situation.

Or are they part of the problem?

We all know that some managers or supervisors get appointed to their roles because they were good functionally, or technically as employees.  However, high performing employees do not necessarily make great managers.  There is a different skill set required and if they have been promoted without learning how to lead and how to build effective relationships with their employees, problems inevitably arise.

The reality is that most organizations, and some of the best managers, will experience negative situations where mental health and safety issues of their employees have not been handled well.

The good news is that strong leadership can be developed with coaching, training, goal setting and by holding managers and supervisors accountable for effective people management. 

Managing with Care

In managing employees with mental health challenges, even more finesse is required.  Sensitivity, empathy and a trusting relationship between the manager/supervisor and the employees are key to successful outcomes.

Do your employees trust their supervisor enough to say “I’m not myself today.  I know you understand and will be patient with me.”? If not, it may be time to get expert advice, support and training that will better equip your organization with the knowledge and people practices that define respectful workplaces.

Cheryl Otto, B.A., LLB, is the Founder and CEO of Ounce of Prevention Solutions  Inc. (oopsolutions.com), a one-stop shop for all things Respectful Workplace. Cheryl has 17 years of legal experience in the area of workplace conflict resolution and assisting organizations in creating and maintaining respectful workplaces. Her specialties include: conflict management, workplace relationship coaching, communication skills, workplace assessments, performance management, mediation, facilitation, policy analysis, education, and investigations.