Mental Health Crisis at Work? “What Should I Do??”

I was at an event yesterday in Minneapolis called Twin Cities Work and Wellness. Our very own JC Lippold represented Cadre on the panel. It was outstanding. But about halfway through the event yesterday, an individual raised their hand and asked a question the panel and said, if somebody is really struggling and you can noticeably tell that they're going through a mental health crisis at work or otherwise, what should you do? And I'm going to tell you what you shouldn't do. What you shouldn't do is penalize somebody if somebody is noticeably struggling.

I just want to make sure that we're all on the same page. If somebody's coming to work every day and not doing well, I'm a firm believer that there is something going on in their lives that has nothing to do with work. The very first thing you should do is just the exact same thing you should do with any of your family, your kids, your relatives, your cousins, your brothers. Ask them, are you okay? What we typically do is if somebody is struggling or having a tough time at work, the very first thing we do is maybe we, you know, go through a verbal warning, a written warning, a performance improvement plan, and we try to penalize the individual for obvious things that are happening outside of the work.

I am not saying somebody doesn't have to do their job. That, that, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is show some empathy and compassion. That is step one. Step two, ask if they need support. Ask if they need extra help. Ask those things. Let's, let's use number five is work performance. The very first thing is show up as a human for another human and ask them, are you okay? Is there something I can do to help you support you? Have you used Cadre? Have you reached out to team? Have you called the helpline?

Have you done all those things? We can get to performance, but let's use performance, maybe like step six. And that is a fundamental problem with organizations, and that's a fundamental problem with management, leadership, etc. When people are struggling, it's like, we want to pile on for work performance. And there's no worse feeling in the world than already feeling like, and then having somebody question your performance. So if somebody's coming to work and they're consistently coming to work and they're not delivering, the very first thing you do is ask, are you okay?

Is there something I can help? What support do you need? Is everything okay at home? Ask those questions first. Before we start jumping into written warnings, verbal warning, performance improvement plans, etc. I promise you. When leaders understand that the number one thing that individuals truly want from other leaders is to escalate their life, not escalate their checkbook and pocketbook, you realize real quickly what people actually want. People remember leaders that are not transactional. They'll remember leaders that help change their life.

Keep that in your back pocket as you deal with mental health issues throughout your organization. Lead with empathy, lead with compassion, lead with trust and, and. And allow individuals to understand that they're human. Okay, Have a wonderful, wonderful day, y'all. Peace.