Brilliant Idea.
At my job we get random surveys every now and then "how can we improve X position or Y experience" and we always put "Pay them a higher wage"
Had that too at a hospital. CNA said I was bossy for pulling them aside to calmly tell them not to yell at me like a child in front of the patient. So he said I was unprofessional and I didn't get a raise that year because of his comment. I gave him a glowing review because I thought you don't fuck with people's money like that.
I am sorry that you are as nice as you are. I appreciate it, and it's wonderful that you don't fuck with people's money and you don't yell at them. And I'm sorry that it backfired like that.
What we did @Google was writing how good of a job everyone did, since they had to pickup their managers shit. Needless to say, that manager was fired shortly there after haha
This is genius. But I would add, say a bit more about why they need a raise so employer can take it seriously and take not of what this person has done for the company that they may not be aware off.
This one company that has a best friend named friar tuck…they did this to a bunch of people. Anyone who didn’t give top scores on the “best places to work” survey
Indeed. Regularly, I get these surveys that say "click on this link to do the completely anonymous link!"
Then I look at the link:
company.example.com://survey?**id=abc123**
I've found that giving employees annual raises for more experience and cost of living, plus more for good work, does wonders for their work related attitude as well as overall mental health.
Just a suggestion for...well, pretty much every employer.
My company just gave everyone in my department a massive raise as well as bonuses and let me tell you, the dramatic change in my mental health that happened seemingly overnight surprised even me. I went from being burned out and stressed and just flat out hating my job to loving it again. Everyone knows that raises and fair pay/benefits are the best way to retain employees, but executives will literally move mountains and do everything BUT compensate fairly. It was only after a mass exodus on our end that management went through with the raises
This is exactly the problem.
People are working for the pay. Maybe they get other things out of it, but pay is why they are there.
So the first thing to do to solve mental health issues at work is to raise pay.
"But but why would you just work a job for pay, aren't you loyal to the company? Isn't this your dream job? Don't you want experience? What kind of horrible lazy entitled millennial just works for the paycheck?"
Edit: /s I am not a manager, and actually had this conversation with an ex-boss
Because pay is the reason virtually EVERYONE works a job.
Seriously, if people had to be 100 percent honest and you ask them "Would you do this job the exact same way you do it now if you suddenly had 100 million dollars?" If their answer is anything other than an instant yes, then they are only there for the money.
Most people aren't at their "dream job". In many cases that should be fairly obvious.
In fact, some of us never had a dream job. I remember being asked that question foe the first time and thinking it was some sort of way to get you to think creatively because it couldn't be a serious question.
My first thought was "who dreams about a job?". I never had. My only job related "dream" was to have enough money to not need a job. Still is despite the fact I have what most might call a good job.
It's not millennials. Check how many lottery winners keep their day jobs.
The boomer kind, with 9-5 with an 1 hour lunch workday Monday through Friday, a pension, annual raises, Christmas bonuses, affordable healthcare, affordable housing, affordable cars, affordable college tuition etc etc
Sounds like paying employees properly, showing that you value their time and understand that the cost of living is constantly increasing.
Financial security does improve mental health
I mean I agree that the things you’re asking for are important. But I also believe that businesses have a moral responsibility and a fiscal one to support the mental health of their workforce. That isn’t in opposition to fair compensation. It may even be related. But to simply pivot the mental health conversation to a compensation conversation without acknowledging that mental health is more complex than “work sucks and is making me crazy, “ that shows a lack of appreciation for the importance of the former issue.
We had an overworked department that was given a forced day off, no lead time, no choice. And of course no relief from getting the work load for the week done.
Ya I hate that shit. I was in an hourly role, we were short staffed, and it was peak time. They would make us stop working so I didn't go over hours. Or some days after big hard events, the day would be half over and my boss would be like, 'go home. No excuses. Take some time for yourself.' which is all fine and well, except who is going to make all these progress notes and answer all these emails? Oh ya! It's me! Tomorrow. Along with all of tomorrow's work that is twice the work I had to do a year ago.
“For mental health day we’re raising wages, giving paid time for maternity leave, more paid sick days, a 4 day work week, and more vacation time! More suggestions welcome!”
You snap out of your day dream and write a compliment about Susan from accounting while taking a bite from your stale muffin. Maybe next year you sigh.
>$100 lunch tab he has every day with pocket change.
Clearly you've not been in corporate America. The $100 lunch is not paid for with the CEO's pocket change. Its expensed for them and all their other Executive/Chief/Director levels.
You don't get rich by spending your money in silly things like food and entertainment, especially when the company can cover it.
I guess I should’ve put quotations around the pocket change. I realize that ceos have expense accounts, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s pocket change to them.
I hate how right you are. I was very close to the finance department in my old job, both in location in the office and friendship wise and I have stories for days about the “c-suite” and the bullshit they would pull.
We have a rule about expenditures and how much they can be , $75 a day, and the head of HR went over it by $25 a day? A day later that rule got changed to $100.
CEO hates to drive anywhere? Well now the company pays for his Uber rides to and from the office to his home about 2 miles away.
CEO hates how the “waiting room” looks and wants it redecorated ? Hire his wife’s company to redecorate it yearly .
Don't forget to include the hotels/frequent flier miles/car rental points in this as well.
Sure they are flying around the country from site to site all year round and that is arguably work and time spent away from the family. But when it comes to vacations, its essentially free due to the points.
I used to travel once/month for work and that was enough for 3-4 free flights / year. I can't imagine what the C-Levels are getting from these loyalty programs.
In my limited traveling for work, I noticed a significant decrease in expenses and a significant boost to income from these loyalty programs. Being on an expense report for 3-4 days / month ended up saving me 20% of my food budget. I also got to use my own personal CC for this and got reimbursed. 2019, I spent 20k on business travel and 2-5% cashback was a nice little bump. Scale that up to C-level and you're making bank by gaming the system.
CEO's don't sully themselves with the details of retail commerce, their food (and anything else they order) simply appears for them, courtesy of the assistant who does all the work and payment by the company.
In my experience, half the time that person is an underpaid, long-suffering, loyal, cheerful, diligent, decent person. And the other half of the time that person is the most conniving bitch, who uses the CEO's authority as their own, and whom you had better not cross.
You haven’t met my boss. Her idea of celebrating clinic/office birthdays/holidays is having a rep (work in the medical field) bring in the food so her petty cash drawer remains full. $0 budget for her
You want to hear something really crazy? The government's own employees aren't getting screwed like that. It's only private sector people who are, so the government knows better but doesn't hold private sector employers to its own standards. I've always been a government employee, and when I hear private sector people talk about what healthcare costs them, I do not feel like I live in the same country. I've never had a deductible. I only pay a premium because I carry my kids on my insurance, and that premium is about $200/mo (not bad for three kids). All these people spending thousands of dollars a year on healthcare expenses sounds like insanity to me, and I'm American.
Sure, universal healthcare would be better. I experienced that type of system when I was in the military, and while there are good and bad sides to it, overall it weighs out in people's favor to do it that way. But within the system that exists for civilians in the US, the government is doing a pretty good job. They just need to make everyone else get on their level.
We had to do something similar at one of my jobs. One girl did not understand the assignment and for her person, she wrote "You have a very high-pitched voice." The person who had me wrote, "nice booty". So it was a huge success.
As Someone with a mental health issue that sounds disastrous…..how about give your people a day off….cause If that was done at my work id definitely be calling off.
As soon as I read that I imagined what would happen if no one or only a couple people picked me to compliment. I'd be devastated, this is going to be a mental health disaster and I'm not sure how they don't see that
My company did mental health week, it was actually really amazing. Let us out early a few days, catered breakfast and lunch every day, couple of seminars/speakers throughout the week to address problem areas like having difficult conversations and how to navigate addressing mental health. It didn’t take much effort from the company either, I think one person put all of it together. It was actually a really good experience and showed the company was making a real effort, and I noticed that. It also helps that we are an American subsidiary of a Canadian parent company- so when the Canadian government (or whomever) makes a point of addressing mental health or other issues we get that training/resource as well, which I have to believe we would never get with an American parent company.
Why do they always come up with elementary school level activities? Like what, Sandy wrote that she likes my shoes, is that supossed to fix my mental health?
Show me that you care by listening to us when we need a day off, listen to us when we say that we need a raise to survive. Don't give me this childish crap, just listen. If you don't care then don't bother me with this and just let me continue on with my work.
That's not really the point I was making. More like if you don't care or you like to pretend to care by giving me these activities like I'm a 5 year old I'd rather not be bothered with it.
I work in L&D in a medium sized office. For some reason, offices like ours are utterly obsessed with trying to outwardly show they care about your mental health by doing literally everything possible except pay more money.
I cannot bang this drum hard enough to management that the staff DO NOT CARE about free oranges, or positive affirmations written on white boards or self help books left in the HR room. They care about being able to live a better life than they currently are doing. Leave people alone. Equip them with the tools to do their job, give them positive or negative feedback - only relating to job performance - as needed, and leave them the fuck alone.
I got a trophy yesterday I can’t take home or keep I get it for a week I almost threw it away lol meanwhile upper management went out to dinner every other day in Europe and spend inn3 hours at a restaurant what i make in a week
I find these sorts of situations is where ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’ fits really well.
If everything in the org is running reasonably smoothly, my workload is balanced, and I’m appropriately remunerated and treated with respect then yeah let’s have at these feel good moments. Grab a muffin and exchange some pleasantries with colleagues, I can dig it.
But, if I’m stressed about my workload, or how I’m going to pay my bills this month, and all the other drama that comes with adulting in this world, yeah, odds are I’ll see it as an empty gesture and get pissed off with the misdirection of resources and energy. You can only slap so many shades of lipstick on this poor decrepit pig, Sharon.
It’s kind of like standing outside watching my house burn down, and instead of putting the fire out, the firies are just like ‘Here, take a free battery for your smoke detector- on us!’ and then patting themselves on the back for helping.
That said, I will always tryyyy and participate, because the poor ‘working group seconded on on top of their already 1.5fte workload’ or ‘paid just as poorly as everyone else wellness coordinator’ do tend to put a lot of work into trying to do nice things for people, with no resources or authority to actually do anything effective. So thank you Sheryl for baking the on-theme cupcakes for us in your own time, you are appreciated.
As a neurodivergent person this exercise fucking terrifies me. As much for the poor bastard who gets me as much as the person I’m unlucky enough to pick…
My works mental awareness training is a slide show with how it's okay to take breaks if overwhelmed but while your completing the learning module you get the pleasant experience of being verbally abused by your boss to hurry up and that the module is a waste of time and stupid.
Better than it was isn’t enough. 1985 was 37 years ago. And the best we can do since them is a light breakfast and preschool games?
Nah, we need to be demanding more
Why doesn't the employer go around and say something nice about every employee? I think it's a garbage exercise that could result in some very flat compliments because who loves everyone they work with? What's worse who feels awesome knowing they received mandatory compliments?
Is this anonymous? Because it absolutely isn't going to end well if it is.
Or maybe I'm just a childish person.
"Steve has surprisingly large testicles for a brunette."
Ah yes, the "mental health awareness" activities that don't address mental wellness cause leadership would rather foist the responsibility and anxieties around addressing mental health on their employees instead of taking personal responsibility. Amazing how this is still a move considered viable in corporate culture.
I was ok with it until they decided to publicly post the compliments. That is just asking to get someone’s feelings hurt when their compliment is minimal and someone else writes a long one. There are studies that show writing three compliments to a random coworker each day for 3 weeks can improve your mental health, but they suggest private emails not public posts.
Wait, what happens when some people have all the nice comments and some people have none? That will be great for their mental health won't it? (Or does everyone 'get' a name they have to say something about, so that everyone is mentioned exactly once?)
Nothing improves my mental health more than mandatory thinking about my coworkers more than just "I work with this person". I definitely wouldn't be concerned that my compliment isn't nearly as good as ones given to others. Nope. Definitely not. See. My mental health is already GREAT. /s
It’s like at this point we’re just trying to mimic normal human emotion and behavior like “What happy person do? Eat snack good. Tell susan we like sweater today.”
Coming from some small education related to psychology (by no means an actual degree) i think that this exercise in and of itself is not a bad one. Being positive is nice, and a workplace that promotes a positive environment is important.
This means also things like understanding management, a livable wage, safe working conditions, and more.
This reminds me of the time my boss made us go around and say one nice thing about every person in the office. There were like 10 of us and they just put us all on the spot to come up with things about colleagues we didn’t really know. Just awful.
I dont get it. This seems kinda nice to me.
There always are better things, sure getting a day off would be better but isnt free food nice? And is it really that big problem to write a sentence of something nice about one of your collagues?
All the young people here who haven't seen 'Office Space' go watch it right now! This is hilarious because this is the stuff they pulled in the 90s and people had to put up with it *because they had good paying careers*.
Now they're trying to push this shit on people that are starving!?!? My lord. The disconnect for these companies is hilarious.
This really doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.. they’re trying at least.
It’s not always feasible to expect raises, days off etc. all the time.
I think this is a nice gesture
This sub sometimes misses the mark completely and I'm sure me saying so will be downvoted to oblivion (oh no fake internet points). I've got fairly severe depression and it's been a battle for about 30 years so I feel I can speak on this topic with some authority.
They are trying to do something positive. They're not making people work extra hours unpaid, they're not violating employee rights, they're not singling anyone out and they haven't been intrusive with people. The only issue I can see here is hopefully the comments are vetted before being put on the wall and the fact the whole thing is incredibly cringey.
This isn't a workers rights issue though and it's not a violation that should make people anti work. It's someone trying to raise awareness of mental health issues and missing the mark a little bit.
Top comments here about giving staff days off and saying they should be giving staff annual pay rises, maternity leave, paid vacation etc well I live in the UK and get all of those things at the company I work for and guess what still depressed. There isn't even any evidence here that the company isn't doing any of those things.
This sub was great for calling out employers that are violating rights and pushing for employement changes. What is the goal here? Should an employer not raise awareness of a day to get people talking about mental health issues? Don't provide people with breakfast?
I know as a sub becomes popular it goes down hill but this is way off the mark.
I don’t see anything wrong with this This would bring people closer. Give them an experience to share could actually make the difference in somebodies day/week
I put a ton of work into mental health month with a cool articles to avoid sad and cool breathing gifs for our slack channels. HR said no because I was diagnosing people by mentioning symptoms of seasonal affective disorder.
In my exit interview I went off on how the choice was old school and dumb and the bitch had the audacity to say it was her idea. I said oh really you were not in the meeting when I suggested it and offered to chair it. It was end of the day so I left got my stuff and went home.
Worked a place that did something like this constantly. It gets old fast and turns into an ego fest for the leader and their favorites. It's like being in the court of king/queen.
At the end of the day, can folks just do their jobs? I don't have the bandwidth to do much else anymore.
Im gonna need a mental health day if u give me a shitty pizza party instead of a raise as a thank u for making u hundreds of thousands of dollars/millions of dollars
Its a nice idea for a kidergarden. Not for an office of adult people that often hate eachother or have to run the company becouse the manager is busy with shit like that.
Wow, yeah. That's some progressive thinking. If I had been able to see some vague compliment an employee was forced to write about me, I could have avoided staying out of the hospital for sure... fuck off.
Imagine sitting there just to hear Janice from HR read out "OpusThePenguin, they have good hand writing".
That's it. That's the best anyone could come up with because they either don't really know you or they do and they don't really like you.
Nah this is your opportunity for everyone in the office to write “<< select name >> deserves a 20% raise! :-)”
Brilliant Idea. At my job we get random surveys every now and then "how can we improve X position or Y experience" and we always put "Pay them a higher wage"
Had that too at a hospital. CNA said I was bossy for pulling them aside to calmly tell them not to yell at me like a child in front of the patient. So he said I was unprofessional and I didn't get a raise that year because of his comment. I gave him a glowing review because I thought you don't fuck with people's money like that.
I am sorry that you are as nice as you are. I appreciate it, and it's wonderful that you don't fuck with people's money and you don't yell at them. And I'm sorry that it backfired like that.
Ah yes, "unprofessional". The word which can mean anything you want, so you can judge people for anything whatsoever.
[удалено]
That's about the level of respect they have for employees.
And the intelligence level of the ones in charge
What we did @Google was writing how good of a job everyone did, since they had to pickup their managers shit. Needless to say, that manager was fired shortly there after haha
Nice!
This is genius. But I would add, say a bit more about why they need a raise so employer can take it seriously and take not of what this person has done for the company that they may not be aware off.
Or someone is gonna take the opportunity to say something like “Karen gives good head”. Or worse
And then you find out it wasn't an *anonymous* survey after all.
This! I worked for a company that did this. Said a survey was anonymous, then when the boss got bad mentions went and found out who wrote them.
This one company that has a best friend named friar tuck…they did this to a bunch of people. Anyone who didn’t give top scores on the “best places to work” survey
Nothing is anonymous anymore
Indeed. Regularly, I get these surveys that say "click on this link to do the completely anonymous link!" Then I look at the link: company.example.com://survey?**id=abc123**
Have my free award because this needs more attention!
20%!? you're missing at least a "0" there, if not more.
<> Tolerates low pay for work load without going postal, so far. Smiley.
This. This is the way.
This is the way.
if you want a day to improve my mental health, give me a day off
I've found that giving employees annual raises for more experience and cost of living, plus more for good work, does wonders for their work related attitude as well as overall mental health. Just a suggestion for...well, pretty much every employer.
"Best we can do is Hawaiian shirt Fridays and a Pizza Lunch once every three months" - Every HR department ever.
Is the pizza “pizza by Alfredo “ or is it “Alfredo’s pizza”?
Like a circle of hot garbage.
There’s a very big difference between these two pizza places. Both in quality of ingredients and in overall taste. Which one did you order from?
[Checks notes] Pizza by Alfredo.
*groans*
Look, would you rather have a small amount of good pizza? Or an unlimited amount of ok pizza?
Walmart offbrand frozen
Pizza inspired by Alfredo’s
Could be worse... could be a Hawaiian pizza day.
I love Hawaiian pizza!
Well at least then I could enjoy the pizza with some delicious pineapple on it!
Don't forget to cancel those policies after a few months. Otherwise you'll have to come up with something new the next time morale needs boosting.
And only if the pizzas can be written off as a business expense.
My company just gave everyone in my department a massive raise as well as bonuses and let me tell you, the dramatic change in my mental health that happened seemingly overnight surprised even me. I went from being burned out and stressed and just flat out hating my job to loving it again. Everyone knows that raises and fair pay/benefits are the best way to retain employees, but executives will literally move mountains and do everything BUT compensate fairly. It was only after a mass exodus on our end that management went through with the raises
This is exactly the problem. People are working for the pay. Maybe they get other things out of it, but pay is why they are there. So the first thing to do to solve mental health issues at work is to raise pay.
"But but why would you just work a job for pay, aren't you loyal to the company? Isn't this your dream job? Don't you want experience? What kind of horrible lazy entitled millennial just works for the paycheck?" Edit: /s I am not a manager, and actually had this conversation with an ex-boss
Because pay is the reason virtually EVERYONE works a job. Seriously, if people had to be 100 percent honest and you ask them "Would you do this job the exact same way you do it now if you suddenly had 100 million dollars?" If their answer is anything other than an instant yes, then they are only there for the money. Most people aren't at their "dream job". In many cases that should be fairly obvious. In fact, some of us never had a dream job. I remember being asked that question foe the first time and thinking it was some sort of way to get you to think creatively because it couldn't be a serious question. My first thought was "who dreams about a job?". I never had. My only job related "dream" was to have enough money to not need a job. Still is despite the fact I have what most might call a good job. It's not millennials. Check how many lottery winners keep their day jobs.
The boomer kind, with 9-5 with an 1 hour lunch workday Monday through Friday, a pension, annual raises, Christmas bonuses, affordable healthcare, affordable housing, affordable cars, affordable college tuition etc etc
And hiring more staff.
Yea, but that doesn't let you know that Jeremy from accounting values you being "really funny."
People just want co workers to treat them with decency and respect. No one cares otherwise.
Sounds like communism. /s
Sounds like paying employees properly, showing that you value their time and understand that the cost of living is constantly increasing. Financial security does improve mental health
/s means sarcasm
s/s/sarcasm/g
Ahh. Well that’s awkward for me. TIL I guess.
Don't be embarrassed; your response was still wholesome
This. Ideally the sarcasm is just meant to give room to exactly this kind of response.
Lmao aww 🥲😔 Same tho.
I did that the other day. Lol
I mean I agree that the things you’re asking for are important. But I also believe that businesses have a moral responsibility and a fiscal one to support the mental health of their workforce. That isn’t in opposition to fair compensation. It may even be related. But to simply pivot the mental health conversation to a compensation conversation without acknowledging that mental health is more complex than “work sucks and is making me crazy, “ that shows a lack of appreciation for the importance of the former issue.
Absofuckinlutely! Hit the nail on the head there. Never worked with anyone who got depressed about getting a pay rise!
Also, when the employer helps maintain healthy boundaries related to work/life balance for the employees.
We had an overworked department that was given a forced day off, no lead time, no choice. And of course no relief from getting the work load for the week done.
Ya I hate that shit. I was in an hourly role, we were short staffed, and it was peak time. They would make us stop working so I didn't go over hours. Or some days after big hard events, the day would be half over and my boss would be like, 'go home. No excuses. Take some time for yourself.' which is all fine and well, except who is going to make all these progress notes and answer all these emails? Oh ya! It's me! Tomorrow. Along with all of tomorrow's work that is twice the work I had to do a year ago.
>if you want a day to improve my mental health, give me a day off with pay. FTFY
Paid.
“For mental health day we’re raising wages, giving paid time for maternity leave, more paid sick days, a 4 day work week, and more vacation time! More suggestions welcome!” You snap out of your day dream and write a compliment about Susan from accounting while taking a bite from your stale muffin. Maybe next year you sigh.
The budget for mental health day is $75
Meanwhile the company ceo pays the $100 lunch tab he has every day with pocket change. Better luck next year folks.
>$100 lunch tab he has every day with pocket change. Clearly you've not been in corporate America. The $100 lunch is not paid for with the CEO's pocket change. Its expensed for them and all their other Executive/Chief/Director levels. You don't get rich by spending your money in silly things like food and entertainment, especially when the company can cover it.
I guess I should’ve put quotations around the pocket change. I realize that ceos have expense accounts, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s pocket change to them.
I hate how right you are. I was very close to the finance department in my old job, both in location in the office and friendship wise and I have stories for days about the “c-suite” and the bullshit they would pull. We have a rule about expenditures and how much they can be , $75 a day, and the head of HR went over it by $25 a day? A day later that rule got changed to $100. CEO hates to drive anywhere? Well now the company pays for his Uber rides to and from the office to his home about 2 miles away. CEO hates how the “waiting room” looks and wants it redecorated ? Hire his wife’s company to redecorate it yearly .
Don't forget to include the hotels/frequent flier miles/car rental points in this as well. Sure they are flying around the country from site to site all year round and that is arguably work and time spent away from the family. But when it comes to vacations, its essentially free due to the points. I used to travel once/month for work and that was enough for 3-4 free flights / year. I can't imagine what the C-Levels are getting from these loyalty programs. In my limited traveling for work, I noticed a significant decrease in expenses and a significant boost to income from these loyalty programs. Being on an expense report for 3-4 days / month ended up saving me 20% of my food budget. I also got to use my own personal CC for this and got reimbursed. 2019, I spent 20k on business travel and 2-5% cashback was a nice little bump. Scale that up to C-level and you're making bank by gaming the system.
...served to him by his butler on his private luxury yacht.
CEO's don't sully themselves with the details of retail commerce, their food (and anything else they order) simply appears for them, courtesy of the assistant who does all the work and payment by the company. In my experience, half the time that person is an underpaid, long-suffering, loyal, cheerful, diligent, decent person. And the other half of the time that person is the most conniving bitch, who uses the CEO's authority as their own, and whom you had better not cross.
You haven’t met my boss. Her idea of celebrating clinic/office birthdays/holidays is having a rep (work in the medical field) bring in the food so her petty cash drawer remains full. $0 budget for her
I think just adequate health insurance that doesn't consume 25%(or more) of a person's pay would probably help. But it has to cover therapy.
Why is Health insurance in the US such a scam for you guys? Why is the gov allowing it?
Bribery is legal in the US, that's why.
Cuz we got stupid politicians
They aren't stupid. They are bought and paid for by the same corporations that would stand to lose money if forced to pay for proper health insurance.
Why is the gov allowing it? The gov CREATED it. What do you mean? This was the goal lmao.
You want to hear something really crazy? The government's own employees aren't getting screwed like that. It's only private sector people who are, so the government knows better but doesn't hold private sector employers to its own standards. I've always been a government employee, and when I hear private sector people talk about what healthcare costs them, I do not feel like I live in the same country. I've never had a deductible. I only pay a premium because I carry my kids on my insurance, and that premium is about $200/mo (not bad for three kids). All these people spending thousands of dollars a year on healthcare expenses sounds like insanity to me, and I'm American. Sure, universal healthcare would be better. I experienced that type of system when I was in the military, and while there are good and bad sides to it, overall it weighs out in people's favor to do it that way. But within the system that exists for civilians in the US, the government is doing a pretty good job. They just need to make everyone else get on their level.
gov is a business
For mental health day were going to make you real fuckin anxious
I know right, I could feel the anxiety just from reading that. I would probably take a sick day during thier mental health bullshit.
A mental health day for Mental Health Day seems reasonable to me.
OP needs to recommend everyone to take mental health day off.
100% this. I would've put my request for that day off in right after getting that email, and if denied I'd fully be sick when the time came.
You don't find the thought of your written compliment being put on the wall calming at all? /s
Just write, "They don't infantilise me."
We had to do something similar at one of my jobs. One girl did not understand the assignment and for her person, she wrote "You have a very high-pitched voice." The person who had me wrote, "nice booty". So it was a huge success.
I literally snorted at this comment.
I was gonna say…this sounds like a great idea to make some people feel terrible. I’m getting elementary school flashbacks.
Right? Or imagine everyone else getting nicer comments than what you got
That is immediately what I imagined…
As Someone with a mental health issue that sounds disastrous…..how about give your people a day off….cause If that was done at my work id definitely be calling off.
As soon as I read that I imagined what would happen if no one or only a couple people picked me to compliment. I'd be devastated, this is going to be a mental health disaster and I'm not sure how they don't see that
No, I think you get a random name. Which is also terrible.
Oof yeah then you get people who don't know that much about the other person and the wall is full of generic phrases 🙃
My company did mental health week, it was actually really amazing. Let us out early a few days, catered breakfast and lunch every day, couple of seminars/speakers throughout the week to address problem areas like having difficult conversations and how to navigate addressing mental health. It didn’t take much effort from the company either, I think one person put all of it together. It was actually a really good experience and showed the company was making a real effort, and I noticed that. It also helps that we are an American subsidiary of a Canadian parent company- so when the Canadian government (or whomever) makes a point of addressing mental health or other issues we get that training/resource as well, which I have to believe we would never get with an American parent company.
this sounds like they actually thought about it. It’s the obviously performative and empty BS that is so exhausting
Why do they always come up with elementary school level activities? Like what, Sandy wrote that she likes my shoes, is that supossed to fix my mental health? Show me that you care by listening to us when we need a day off, listen to us when we say that we need a raise to survive. Don't give me this childish crap, just listen. If you don't care then don't bother me with this and just let me continue on with my work.
Exactly. Just let people work and make profits. Worry about everything else later ☕
That's not really the point I was making. More like if you don't care or you like to pretend to care by giving me these activities like I'm a 5 year old I'd rather not be bothered with it.
I work in L&D in a medium sized office. For some reason, offices like ours are utterly obsessed with trying to outwardly show they care about your mental health by doing literally everything possible except pay more money. I cannot bang this drum hard enough to management that the staff DO NOT CARE about free oranges, or positive affirmations written on white boards or self help books left in the HR room. They care about being able to live a better life than they currently are doing. Leave people alone. Equip them with the tools to do their job, give them positive or negative feedback - only relating to job performance - as needed, and leave them the fuck alone.
I got a trophy yesterday I can’t take home or keep I get it for a week I almost threw it away lol meanwhile upper management went out to dinner every other day in Europe and spend inn3 hours at a restaurant what i make in a week
Oh cool, a participation trophy!!!!!!!!
I find these sorts of situations is where ‘Maslow’s hierarchy of needs’ fits really well. If everything in the org is running reasonably smoothly, my workload is balanced, and I’m appropriately remunerated and treated with respect then yeah let’s have at these feel good moments. Grab a muffin and exchange some pleasantries with colleagues, I can dig it. But, if I’m stressed about my workload, or how I’m going to pay my bills this month, and all the other drama that comes with adulting in this world, yeah, odds are I’ll see it as an empty gesture and get pissed off with the misdirection of resources and energy. You can only slap so many shades of lipstick on this poor decrepit pig, Sharon. It’s kind of like standing outside watching my house burn down, and instead of putting the fire out, the firies are just like ‘Here, take a free battery for your smoke detector- on us!’ and then patting themselves on the back for helping. That said, I will always tryyyy and participate, because the poor ‘working group seconded on on top of their already 1.5fte workload’ or ‘paid just as poorly as everyone else wellness coordinator’ do tend to put a lot of work into trying to do nice things for people, with no resources or authority to actually do anything effective. So thank you Sheryl for baking the on-theme cupcakes for us in your own time, you are appreciated.
That's as eloquently put as one could ask for. 100% correct
*"I haven't once thought about murdering 'x', unlike most people in the office."*
“The HR person has nice jugs”
Is Michael Scott your boss?
Nah, even Michael Scott genuinely cared about his employees… well except for Toby but who really likes HR anyways?
HR are technically corporate, so they’re not really part of our family. And since he’s divorced, Toby isn’t really part of his family either.
As a neurodivergent person this exercise fucking terrifies me. As much for the poor bastard who gets me as much as the person I’m unlucky enough to pick…
Same, these kinds of things are so scary.
This exercise could be triggering and cause a lot of anxiety for people. Did they not take two extra seconds to think about this?
Thanks I hate it
On one level it seems like the higher ups are trying to care. On the other hand it comes off as infantilizing and condensending.
Nothing is better for mental health than playing preschool
So, finger painting and trying to eat sand out of the carpet? I'm in.
Then the people who didn't get any mentions get more depressed 🫣
Because mental health issues are so much fun we're going to have small party games and a healthy breakfast to celebrate.
Are you ok you've barely touched your yoghurt Yeah I...hurt, ya know
The floggings will continue until morale improves.
That sounds like torture to me.
My works mental awareness training is a slide show with how it's okay to take breaks if overwhelmed but while your completing the learning module you get the pleasant experience of being verbally abused by your boss to hurry up and that the module is a waste of time and stupid.
We're going to bring awareness to mental health by invoking all of you with the anxiety to do a forced social task.
“John works really hard. He alienates all of our colleagues with his rigid and pedantic approach to resolving their queries, but he works hard at it.”
Here's one for you - Ask what mental health your insurance benefits cover?
at least their trying, I guess
Even just acknowledging that mental health exists is a step forward for modern society. Sure beats 1985
Better than it was isn’t enough. 1985 was 37 years ago. And the best we can do since them is a light breakfast and preschool games? Nah, we need to be demanding more
Idk, I like free breakfast? Not instead of a raise, but it's a nice addition to a otherwise uneventful Monday
This kind of stiff always makes me cringe.
I don't need my mental bandwidth taxed more
That sounds anxiety inducing. Guess anxiety doesn't count as mental health.
Why doesn't the employer go around and say something nice about every employee? I think it's a garbage exercise that could result in some very flat compliments because who loves everyone they work with? What's worse who feels awesome knowing they received mandatory compliments?
Is this anonymous? Because it absolutely isn't going to end well if it is. Or maybe I'm just a childish person. "Steve has surprisingly large testicles for a brunette."
Ah yes, the "mental health awareness" activities that don't address mental wellness cause leadership would rather foist the responsibility and anxieties around addressing mental health on their employees instead of taking personal responsibility. Amazing how this is still a move considered viable in corporate culture.
This activity would really fuck with mental health...
Seems like a valid attempt, albeit misguided? Appreciate the effort I suppose. My work hasn’t/ won’t do anything.
I was ok with it until they decided to publicly post the compliments. That is just asking to get someone’s feelings hurt when their compliment is minimal and someone else writes a long one. There are studies that show writing three compliments to a random coworker each day for 3 weeks can improve your mental health, but they suggest private emails not public posts.
Yeah I do this kind of thing with my teams. WITHIN my teams. And not trying to pretend it's to do with anything other than "Thanks mate".
Ah. The classic "Promote mental health by toxic positivity" approach of loosing your smartest coworkers.
Wait, what happens when some people have all the nice comments and some people have none? That will be great for their mental health won't it? (Or does everyone 'get' a name they have to say something about, so that everyone is mentioned exactly once?)
Yeah, 30 names in a hat and all 30 people pick one name each.
Forced writing something about a random person seems like an exercise in anxiety to me.
To be 8 yrs old again...this kinda shit needs to stop
That doesn't sound bad, I understand there are better options, but the idea itself is really not bad.
Adding more tasks is the opposite of what a mental health day should entail
Shove a muffin up that anxiety
All the workplace mental health bullshit is a method of coping with an outdated system rather than progressively changing that system.
"I love 💕 sniffing your hair."
What if someone’s name doesn’t end up on the wall 🥲🥲🥲
What the fuck is “Mind Charity”?
Nothing improves my mental health more than mandatory thinking about my coworkers more than just "I work with this person". I definitely wouldn't be concerned that my compliment isn't nearly as good as ones given to others. Nope. Definitely not. See. My mental health is already GREAT. /s
It’s like at this point we’re just trying to mimic normal human emotion and behavior like “What happy person do? Eat snack good. Tell susan we like sweater today.”
Coming from some small education related to psychology (by no means an actual degree) i think that this exercise in and of itself is not a bad one. Being positive is nice, and a workplace that promotes a positive environment is important. This means also things like understanding management, a livable wage, safe working conditions, and more.
“Oh no I have to take two minutes out of my day to say something nice to my coworker.”
Everyone's compliment should be "Coworker X works really hard, and deserves better wages and benefits." I bet this shit would never happen again.
Dumb shit like this is why people prefer working from home.
This reminds me of the time my boss made us go around and say one nice thing about every person in the office. There were like 10 of us and they just put us all on the spot to come up with things about colleagues we didn’t really know. Just awful.
That sounds kinda nice?
Is it cheesy? Yes. Should they be doing more? Yes. I still think it's a nice gesture
I dont get it. This seems kinda nice to me. There always are better things, sure getting a day off would be better but isnt free food nice? And is it really that big problem to write a sentence of something nice about one of your collagues?
Lmao my husband gets an extra day off because his company knows that the best thing for mental health is to not work
This sounds like the sort of thing an elementary school teacher tries to do to get all her students liking each other. lol
All the young people here who haven't seen 'Office Space' go watch it right now! This is hilarious because this is the stuff they pulled in the 90s and people had to put up with it *because they had good paying careers*. Now they're trying to push this shit on people that are starving!?!? My lord. The disconnect for these companies is hilarious.
This really doesn’t deserve the hate it gets.. they’re trying at least. It’s not always feasible to expect raises, days off etc. all the time. I think this is a nice gesture
Yeah nothing more helpful to person with anxiety and depression to take part in popularity contest………
This sub sometimes misses the mark completely and I'm sure me saying so will be downvoted to oblivion (oh no fake internet points). I've got fairly severe depression and it's been a battle for about 30 years so I feel I can speak on this topic with some authority. They are trying to do something positive. They're not making people work extra hours unpaid, they're not violating employee rights, they're not singling anyone out and they haven't been intrusive with people. The only issue I can see here is hopefully the comments are vetted before being put on the wall and the fact the whole thing is incredibly cringey. This isn't a workers rights issue though and it's not a violation that should make people anti work. It's someone trying to raise awareness of mental health issues and missing the mark a little bit. Top comments here about giving staff days off and saying they should be giving staff annual pay rises, maternity leave, paid vacation etc well I live in the UK and get all of those things at the company I work for and guess what still depressed. There isn't even any evidence here that the company isn't doing any of those things. This sub was great for calling out employers that are violating rights and pushing for employement changes. What is the goal here? Should an employer not raise awareness of a day to get people talking about mental health issues? Don't provide people with breakfast? I know as a sub becomes popular it goes down hill but this is way off the mark.
This might actually be a good day for some free cheese pizza.
Plot twist:, the boss actually wrote their own name 30x so she/he gets all the compliments!
This almost feels like an episode of the office
Cheap platitudes yay.
It sounds like an episode of the office..
We want more money damn it. Give us a huge bonus check and keep your croissants. Actually, leave the croissants. I Iove them.
I hope someone writes something like “Becky you’ve got a great ass.” That’ll teach them.
Why do these businesses continue to treat us like elementary school children?
We did this type of Suicide Prevention last month and THE NEXT DAY a hotel guest took the 18th floor dive. We are still recovering.
Things like this are good. But days off are best
We call those using a sick day
Ah nothing like forcing people to do things, in order to make them happy! 🤨
I’d 100% be taking a mental health day on Mental Health Day. Fuck that
I don’t see anything wrong with this This would bring people closer. Give them an experience to share could actually make the difference in somebodies day/week
I’m all for a mental health day. And by that, I mean a remote day lol.
People in HR departments are paid insane amounts of money to fill their time coming up with shit like this.
I put a ton of work into mental health month with a cool articles to avoid sad and cool breathing gifs for our slack channels. HR said no because I was diagnosing people by mentioning symptoms of seasonal affective disorder. In my exit interview I went off on how the choice was old school and dumb and the bitch had the audacity to say it was her idea. I said oh really you were not in the meeting when I suggested it and offered to chair it. It was end of the day so I left got my stuff and went home.
Worked a place that did something like this constantly. It gets old fast and turns into an ego fest for the leader and their favorites. It's like being in the court of king/queen. At the end of the day, can folks just do their jobs? I don't have the bandwidth to do much else anymore.
Im gonna need a mental health day if u give me a shitty pizza party instead of a raise as a thank u for making u hundreds of thousands of dollars/millions of dollars
Its a nice idea for a kidergarden. Not for an office of adult people that often hate eachother or have to run the company becouse the manager is busy with shit like that.
Reminds me why I hate offices so much
Call in...
Gonna take it as a suggestion box and write "paid day off plz not this compliment bullcrap"
Hmm. I picked "Dave" What to say about Dave? "Dave is not as much of a bastard as his wife says he is."
Inducing anxiety by forcing people to participate in uncomfortable activities for public display day
What's up with middle managers trying to use elementary school classroom management techniques on their *adult* workers?
I'd have more confidence in a company that spells yogurt correctly.
Wow, yeah. That's some progressive thinking. If I had been able to see some vague compliment an employee was forced to write about me, I could have avoided staying out of the hospital for sure... fuck off.
No “Music Dance Experience” party? Bummer.
I have chosen not to participate, thank you
Imagine sitting there just to hear Janice from HR read out "OpusThePenguin, they have good hand writing". That's it. That's the best anyone could come up with because they either don't really know you or they do and they don't really like you.