The Importance of Psychological Safety in a Mental Health Crisis
A Personal Account of When Being Able to Speak Out Matters
A Human Workplace is honored to welcome guest writer Nancy Kasvosve to the Make Work More Human Blog. Nancy’s compelling story of her mental health crisis and the role psychological safety at work played in her experience and healing is important for us all to learn from right now. How we work together matters for our work, yes, and also for every individual contributing to the work as well! We can make a difference for each other. -A Human Workplace
2022 was a pretty trying year for me. After kicking it off with my usual energy and ambition, I hit a breaking point three months into the year when I had a mental breakdown. Since then, I have been working my way to a new normal. Thankfully, I was not diagnosed with burnout, but I was going down that path and it is only by the quick action that I took that I am on a path to recovery.
I decided to share my story publicly in this article and received an overwhelmingly positive response to speaking out about mental health. People shared in public and private messages how much the story touched them, how they saw themselves in the experience, and how sharing my story gave them the courage to reflect on their own situation and do something about it.
However, amongst all these replies, I noticed a type of response that got me thinking.
A lot of people cited how “brave” I was to speak out, both when I reached out for help and shared publicly. While I recognize there is a specific kind of courage in taking action, there is an important part of this story that people often miss. I spoke out because I have the psychological safety in my workplace to do so. And unfortunately, this is a privilege that a lot of people do not have.
Psychological Safety - What Is It?
Psychological safety is the ability to show up and be yourself without fear of negative consequences to self-image, status, or career. It is knowing with certainty that you will not be punished or humiliated for sharing your ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes.
Psychological safety is a concept that has only grown in importance, especially during the pandemic. According to a McKinsey study, when employees feel comfortable asking for help, sharing suggestions informally, or challenging the status quo without fear of negative social consequences, organizations are more likely to innovate quickly, unlock the benefits of diversity, and adapt well to change—all capabilities that have been vital during the COVID-19 crisis; and the demand for these capabilities will only rise in the future.
Feeling psychologically safe in my work environment is the biggest reason I spoke up, and this played out in two ways.
My Experience Within A Safe Environment
Before I even admitted to myself that something was wrong, I started talking to my close friends and coworkers, many of whom I know from our company women’s network, Philips Women Lead (PWL). These friends are the ones who gently led me on the path of acceptance by listening to me and giving me space to vent and ugly cry my way to acceptance that I was going through something more serious than just odd tiredness. Additionally, they shared back their own past experiences of burnout, which helped me see more clearly what was happening and made me feel less alone. I am super grateful to have had this kind of support system. PWL continues to be a safe space for women and a huge part of our inclusion journey.
The second piece of my experience of psychological safety was my manager’s actions. I give so much credit to my manager for how she has cultivated radical honesty and vulnerability in our team. I wrote a piece a while back on my experience of COVID and how one of the times, half my meeting with her was just me crying over the fear sitting in my heart about being so far away from my family in Zimbabwe. I will never forget the empathy she treated me with in that situation, and I have always felt there is space for me to show up as myself on my team. It was a natural action to reach out to her when my dam broke, and she took swift action to reorganize the team to cover my work and connected me to resources in the company. Sadly, over the last few months of talking about this topic, I have learned many managers aren’t like her.
The Impacts of Speaking Up
Since I went public with my story, I have talked to a lot of people about their situations and one of the biggest reasons people remain silent about their struggles is not feeling like they will be heard by the people they report to. A study published in Forbes in 2020 found that half of the respondents (54%) said they felt uncomfortable talking to their managers and supervisors about mental health. And even worse is that 30% of respondents feared that discussing their mental health could lead to being fired or furloughed, and 29% thought discussing their issues could cost them a promotion.
Even more, I have encountered people who had been speaking up to no avail and some ended up burning out before any action was taken to support them. Being in an environment where you feel seen and heard is an extremely important part of psychological safety. While it is everyone’s responsibility to create this, it is incumbent on leaders to cultivate this environment and model this behavior. I watch my manager do this every day and I am grateful to continue to have her support in my healing journey.
The Bottom Line
My experience has taught me that as difficult and courageous as it was to seek help for my situation, speaking out must be met with a safe, supportive, and enabling environment where you believe and feel that you can be heard. Additionally, managers and supervisors are responsible for leading the way in cultivating this environment. My heart goes out to everyone who is struggling and feels like they cannot speak out in their environment. I hope they find support in other ways, and I hope more than just training on psychological safety, organizations really work to cultivate healthy environments for speaking out and hold their leaders accountable for leading the way.
Read More on This Topic:
Tips for Thriving Without Psychological Safety at Work: https://www.happify.com/hd/4-tips-for-thriving-without-psychological-safety-at-work/
4 Steps to Boost Psychological Safety at Your Workplace: https://hbr.org/2021/06/4-steps-to-boost-psychological-safety-at-your-workplace
How to cope with a psychologically unsafe workplace: https://blog.jostle.me/blog/how-to-cope-with-a-psychologically-unsafe-workplace
Psychological safety and the critical role of leadership development: https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/psychological-safety-and-the-critical-role-of-leadership-development
More Than Half Of Employees Are Afraid To Discuss Their Mental Health With Their Boss, New Data Shows: https://www.forbes.com/sites/markmurphy/2020/08/07/more-than-half-of-employees-are-afraid-to-discuss-their-mental-health-with-their-boss-new-data-shows/?sh=734af3c3694a
Original Post
This blog was originally written on Nancy’s LinkedIn. To read the article, you can find it there or connect with her here.
