MENtal Health: Looking after our colleagues
In line with the general increased awareness in the wider world of the importance of mental health and the prevalence of poor mental health, we have been discussing how Atos can improve the wellbeing of employees, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally too.
Looking back over the last month, our (Dis)ability Employee Network Atos Adapt has been raising awareness and sharing our experiences and stories with our colleagues, finding all sorts of ways to ensure that mental health isn’t forgotten when our business lives go crazy as they are wont to do with increasing frequency.
On National Stress Awareness Day, here in the UK, we asked our Mental Health champion to give us a talk on managing stress and they hosted an extra two meditation sessions either side of the day as well; we recorded them so people can go back and listen to them again.
Recently we hosted a webinar for International Men’s Day 2019 with Jonathan Downes from glassfull.org whose mission can be described as "Creating sustainable success through amazing mental health for individuals, organizations and for life" and "Raising the baseline of wellbeing". He showed us how we can apply his Glassfull Grid to improve our wellbeing.
Most recently on #PurpleLightUp day, we asked Molly Watt (www.mollywatt.com) to speak to us about asking for help when we need it. Molly has Usher Syndrome which caused her to be deaf from birth and progressively lose her sight. Feedback we received from the event was:
“I didn't think I'd get much out of that presentation and almost didn't attend. How wrong I was and how glad I am that I attended! ... I forgot she was disabled, cos actually, the way she lives her life, she isn't! I don't think I've found a works presentation more inspiring, informative, enjoyable or reassuring as I found that one!”
Being a very progressive company, employees have a lot of support avenues to use. However, in common with large organizations, it can be hard to keep a consistent message on what support is available not only across one country but globally. Atos Adapt is working with colleagues across the globe to ensure that we only get better and more quickly address the times when we don’t meet our own high standards.
We are committed to being better tomorrow than we were today in supporting people to work, in work and outside work. We would love to hear about your positive experiences and learn about what works for you.
