October 10- Mental health day. I wanted to write this on that day, however time constraints did not let me do that.
Radio show I usually listen to stated that 500,000 Canadians miss work due to mental health problems. That is a quite large number. The problem I see is that most of them don’t want to talk about it. I have taken first aid on mental health. The knowledge I got from that course I use daily at my life. I encourage every one to take this course in their life time atleast once.
I do have a mixture of employees work for me. Every one comes from different ethnic background. They all adapt to same working conditions differently. As a manager I realize that and i have over the years adapted to their understandings. I now can sense when they come to work with mixed feelings.
One important tool, I gain by doing the course is talk to these people. I can listen to them now, I do understand the difficulty. I understand it is not a disease. One excercise we did was to bring out two people from the class. Rest of them stayed where they were. Instructor asked the two people come back in to the class room and start yelling at the students ear. The students were asked to talk to each other about a family problem. At the same time the person yelling in to their ears saying “Don’t listen to them, They are bad, They are going to kill you”
We realized that is how people live daily. If you don’t live in their shoes, you will not understand. I want to help them. I leave my office open at all times. At any time my employee wants to talk about family issues or any other personal issues, they are welcome to come and take it out. It does help.
Prior to this course, I had hard time listening. I usually give solutions and try to get on with other things. Then I realize the solutions I give may not work for them. Or they already tried that. If I don’t listen fully, how can i give them suggestions?
I also took Leaders as coaches course, where you get exposed to become a coach. I have effectively listened and help three staff. I am sure they are thankful to me. I also understand as a manager, this kind of help will motivate them.
First aid course have given me insight to mental health. Also given me the tools to analyze a person when they show up for work.
Please do realize that we can help and we need to tame our mind to do that. Thanks for reading. Prayers to all those suffer and hope they all get help from some one who cares.
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