Morra interviews LinkedIn and Headspace CEOs at the HLTH Conference
Mental health at work is holistic and it’s intersectional. It’s holistic because the state of our mind, body, and spirit impacts our mental health. Many of the things that impact our mental health at work are fundamental to being human, and should be fundamental to workplaces. Leadership has a huge role to play here. There’s a connection between the culture and values of our workplace and our mental health, because we know that hooking into values gives us a sense of meaning and purpose. We feel good when we work at a place that we feel good about.
On any given day 15-20% of Americans are at work while managing a diagnosed mental illness, but 100% of us have mental health! Recent Headspace data find four out of 10 U.S. workers report that their job has an extremely negative or somewhat negative impact on their mental health. Employees cite their job as the most significant factor in their mental health, managers hugely impact their employees’ emotions and moods, and workers increasingly expect their employer to play a role in improving mental health.
Yesterday, I had the opportunity to sit down with two CEOs who are champions of culture and community: LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky and Headspace CEO Russell Glass at the HLTH conference, and it left me reflecting on crucial determinants of good mental health at work like feeling understood and aligned with the of value and culture of an organization. These are key to unpacking mental health and key to engagement and happiness at work.
Ryan Roslansky defines culture as “the collective personality of the company. Who we are as a company – and perhaps most importantly, who we ASPIRE to be.” And values are “the principles that guide our day-to-day decision making.”
Mental health is intersectional because it’s impacted by who we are in the world, our own life experience, and the social systems in which we live and work. Workplace mental health is intersectional, and cannot be stripped away from other systemic inequities and failures. Esther Fernandez, who works at the Made of Millions Foundation, notes that too often discussions around mental health at work focus on diagnosable conditions and benefits, but “if there's police brutality happening in the news and you're a person of color, or if it's happening in your city and all you're seeing is mass death, you carry that with you into work.”
Before going on stage with Roslansky and Headspace CEO Russell Glass yesterday, we agreed we couldn’t have a discussion about mental health and work without mentioning the war in Israel and the impact this horrible conflict is having on so many, including us. We bring our whole selves to work, and sometimes we hurt and suffer. Sometimes we feel we don’t belong. The challenge for our workplaces is how hard they try to ease our suffering.
Here are three questions you could use for reflection:
This World Mental Health day, take a minute to reflect on the big stuff, because the world demands it.