I assumed my role at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, in August 2019. Since my first day on the job, we’ve collectively walked through a global pandemic, political unease around the globe, devastating natural disasters, and—amidst all of it—a push to return to what was normal five years ago.
It can be daunting to process when you stop and survey all we have witnessed and felt the weight of. Add in personal tragedy and you immediately begin to understand why conversations around mental health are increasingly important in the workplace.
It is easy to give a vague recap and advocate for mental health on a wholesale level, but I don’t want to do that here. I want to share my personal journey with mental health and how my institution is working to foster a culture of mental health awareness.
Uncharted Territory
Within the past year, my husband and I have gone through uncharted territory as we have navigated a cancer diagnosis for a parent, the unexpected loss of a brother to addiction, other deaths in our family, and a job change. Any one of these events can be heavy and hard, but when you throw all three into the same year, it is overwhelming to the point that we felt unmoored in the storm of our lives.
We couldn’t have navigated this without the support of family, friends, our faith community, and our University of Tennessee Facilities Services family. As my mother-in-law was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in October 2023, we were shocked. A co-worker and friend mentioned that I might want to contact our institution’s Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to see what resources were available to me as a staff member and spouse facing something we never expected and didn’t know how to process. Thanks to this suggestion, I was quickly connected with opportunities for counseling that worked with my concerns and my schedule.
In fact, according to Calm’s 2024 Voice of the Workplace Report, 61 percent of employees surveyed have felt down, depressed, or hopeless recently. A staggering 81 percent of employees say they’ve struggled with nervousness, anxiousness, and stress.
Seeking out these resources allowed me to process and talk through the uncertainty and fear without pouring my emotions back into my husband, who had concerns of his own to work through. Those visits had tapered off as my mother-in-law settled into her treatment routine.
In June of this year, I found myself in need of those services once again when my husband’s brother unexpectedly succumbed to his addiction and died of an overdose. Because I had already been empowered to utilize mental health services through the university, I had no hesitation in requesting counseling services to navigate the grief and anger that felt thick and unending during that season.
Having endured a really tough 13 months, I’m especially thankful to work at an institution that has readily available resources for those who recognize a need to seek counseling. While I’m very open about my story, there are many on my team and yours who suffer in silence.
In fact, according to Calm’s 2024 Voice of the Workplace Report, 61 percent of employees surveyed have felt down, depressed, or hopeless recently. A staggering 81 percent of employees say they’ve struggled with nervousness, anxiousness, and stress.
When asked about managerial practices, only 36 percent of those surveyed report they have a manager who allows for mental health breaks throughout the day. The numbers dip lower from there. A mere 32 percent of employees surveyed report that their managers openly discuss and share their own mental health experiences, and a stark 29 percent of the surveyed say a manager has referred them to mental health benefits/resources when needed.
Supportive Conversations
Nearly one-third of surveyed managers cited feelings of awkwardness or ineffectiveness as the reason they don’t have supportive conversations with their direct reports. What can we learn from this?
As managers, it is time we get comfortable with these conversations. It can be tough to be vulnerable, but the impact can be life-changing for someone on your team. Bridging the knowledge gap and creating opportunities to talk about mental health is worth the time and effort for your team.
So, where do we start?
- Talk with your institution’s human resources team to ensure a solid understanding of the support available to your employees. The more confident you are in your knowledge of what is offered, the easier it will be to become a champion for mental health within your facilities management team.
Create opportunities for candid conversation. You have to carve out time to talk about these things. Whether it is at a pre-shift safety meeting or in a departmental virtual meeting, open discussion about mental health and available resources will help plant the information in the minds of your team members. They’ll be more likely to remember where to get help when tough times hit.- Be present. The more available you are to your team, the more you’ll pick up on cues that they may need mental health resources. Simply spending time with your team can help them feel comfortable having hard conversations with you and will present you with more opportunities to share as you work to cultivate a positive culture around mental health.
- Reduce overwork, wherever possible. We all know that facilities management is a 24/7 operation, but mental health begins to suffer when employees experience prolonged overwork or a blurring between work-life boundaries. Employees who feel pressure to work beyond their limits are more likely to experience stress and burnout. Fostering a culture of mental health requires a commitment to examine where the old way of doing things is no longer working. While many on your team may feel a sense of pride attached to the number of overtime hours they’ve worked and the lack of vacation days used, this isn’t the case for everyone. Encourage your teams to take their leave time.
- Remember that mental health isn’t one size fits all. Men and women approach mental health in different ways and need different resources. Consider how you may include women in conversations about mental health by giving them a space to share safely.
As someone who grew up in a household where my mother and brother both live with mental illness, I fully recognize the importance of mental health. This is one reason I am adamant about staying on top of my own. If we were to sit down over coffee so I could tell you even a portion of my story, you’d likely walk away thinking the heaviness and hard things I’ve walked through are the exception, but I’d argue that there are more of us with similar stories than you’d think.
We’re your communications managers, HVAC specialists, service aides, and landscapers. We’re your friends and colleagues, and we need you to speak up and share so we feel safe doing so. Creating a culture of mental health begins with you. Lead well, and you’ll be surprised by what you learn and how you’ll change lives.
Sam Ledford is communications manager at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She can be reached at [email protected].
