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The New Age of Mental Health In The Workplace
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Oct 26, 2022
On today's episode, we discuss mental health in the workplace. In the past, chances are, company’s did little or nothing to address mental health. We talk about how far companies have come and yet how much further they need to go. We even give you tips on how to make your space more inclusive #mentalhealth #workplace #healthyhabits #inclusivityintheworkspace
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0:01
hello everyone Karen Glasser here and welcome to minding your mental health I'm here with my co-host and Son Rob
0:08
Glasser hey Rob hey we talk about the topics that shape mental health today we teach the
0:15
importance of inclusion and share why we should be kind so whether you are here live or on replay we love you let us
0:23
know that you're here and tell us where you are tuning in from in the chat so our topic today is the new age of
0:30
mental health in the workplace that is a pretty big topic so Rob
0:36
yeah it is where do you want to start with this um well this is
0:42
first off probably a very big topic because it is ever changing and never
0:47
ever actually unfortunately solved yet but we're getting a little better so
0:53
first off from indominus.com which is actually a medical AI company uh one of
0:59
the writers wrote a little article or a Blog on stigma in the workplace so we're
1:05
going to start out from the beginning way way back when now we can't go too far back because obviously there was a
1:10
time when nobody really knew anything and if you did have something wrong you were a witch or a wizard and right up in
1:16
there right so that was just that but since the time of you know medical
1:21
science we now know something called mental health mental health is obviously just
1:26
like physical health but instead of being healthy for your body it's healthy for your brain right so since then we
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have had a lot of I'd say Downs not necessarily UPS mostly Downs
1:39
and that starts with the word stigma and they described it in a few different terms so stigma could be not along with
1:45
the individual to communicate when they're having a bad day it could be labeling individuals with a
1:51
mental health difficulty or other or it could be questioning whether or not that individual is actually having a problem
1:58
or maybe they're just trying to get out of doing a really hard task right it's
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fair to say that a lot of times that is the case right but more often than not if you do have a problem or difficulty I
2:11
I like difficulty you know me I don't like to work challenge or challenge right right
2:16
um so most of the time the stigma is are you really doing it or are you faking it
2:22
and sadly it's not really surprising people think that because throughout history throughout government throughout
2:29
culture a lot of times that happens you can blame TV or movies I mean how many
2:34
times have you watched a show where someone pretended to have a thing just to get out of something right and it kind of became a uh what do you call it
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a cliche a a meme so to speak right right so the fact that many people don't
2:48
believe is problem number one now the other problem is the severity now
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one of the examples severity wise would be schizophrenia that is on the higher end of a severe problem
3:02
um on the lower end would be somebody who maybe just has a little bit of off a
3:07
little bit off day you know it doesn't doesn't feel right right is there a difference physically yes but when you
3:15
get down to the actual mental health not really because both people while they show different have the same difficulty
3:23
they have a hard time doing something that 98 of the population does too right
3:31
the next problem here and this is just something that whether it's America or
3:36
elsewhere but the rising cost now this is interesting to me because apparently it actually costs more to not take care
3:43
of it than it does to take care of it um health conditions cost the economy
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200 billion every year that's actually according to not me one of the people that we talk about the uh who the World
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Health Organization reported that an estimated 12 billion working days are lost because
4:02
people don't take care of things the way that should be taken care of now we're not talking the person with the
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difficulty we're talking about the people around that don't are not understanding what's going on right
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they're not understanding exactly what's going on correct so just a few statistics here employees with untreated
4:19
conditions use non-psychiatric Health Services three times more than those who
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do get treated 62 percent of missed work days are caused by a condition of some sort uh
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mental illness is the single greatest cause of worker disability and turnover rates are higher for those who might
4:39
suffer from something like depression who are 20 to 40 percent more likely to become unemployed due to that or
4:45
somewhere related so again um it's not too surprising now
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personally we're looking at the past and how I used to work it kind of makes sense because I look back at my track
4:57
record and until I started working from home it wasn't the hottest track record from work but looking at it from this
5:03
perspective it actually makes more sense right and I don't know why it's right you know why exactly
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um so um how do you provide a culture of psychological safety that's their next
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part so the key points understand the mental health benefits offered and know how to
5:24
access it's easy for the person to know what's happening because it's happening to them
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you would know personal I know personal whatever right right it might be easy for those around that person if you talk
5:39
about it again it's the if however if you don't
5:44
know where to find the resource or if you don't know that the resource is there correct that's the problem so the
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first thing that they want to say is make it easy you know what is it keep it simple stupid the the you know the kiss
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yes um make it so blatantly out there that
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if it's needed and again I don't mean that insulting with anybody not just a general you know right right right
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make it so easy that if you if you have a hard time looking for it
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it's still there you know and that might be on the side of the business right and
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and and I think it's important I mean this is so important what you're saying and I I'd love to ask our viewers if I
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know we have viewers on live today and even if you're later on on a replay
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um if you work in the workplace what is going on for you if you have some mental
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health challenges or difficulties or you know somebody who does and works with
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you how's your work doing are they taking care of you are they doing what needs to be done I'm we are both of us
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very curious we're going to be giving you some names of companies that are doing it right uh but right now we're curious about you let us know from
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wherever the aspect is at are you working remote because of that are you working in the office so tell us what
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you think so Rob let's keep going on this one all right well actually that's a good sideway segue because the next four points are actually specifically
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what the business should do so the first one is proactive manager support hmm as much as or as little as people
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know it really is their obligation to do so if you are in control of a group of people
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you should know better generally again I'm not naming names I can think of
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Plenty but generally speaking if you want to be in the position of taking over the managerial
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you should know something and if you don't know something read it you know look look up the
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resources and right you know if you go to the websites it's there provide adequate health insurance and resources
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again from the manager standpoint if you're gonna do it don't just do the regular health insurance it's not the
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same anymore it's different health insurance give the people what you need even if it means asking what it is they
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might need now again you don't want you know and again we're talking to Victoria about this one time they can't really
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dive into you and make you say things but if you are comfortable already or if
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the manager has the general questions going of what is it you think you and your family need you can probably write
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down a couple things that you would need in your health insurance that isn't too um
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uh yeah um deep dive into your personal life awareness of language very important
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negative terms triggering terms whatever you want to call it make sure you're
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speaking right now this is the one part that I would say is not as bad I don't think I've really seen recently people
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using inappropriate words except for the occasional something on TV or the whatever
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so as far as well wait Rob why do you think that is do you think that that we
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as a civilization we as a culture are starting to become more in tune and we
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won't put up I think it's just luck I don't know if there's any pre you know thing I don't think people really know
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the difference I'm not saying it doesn't happen because I've seen it right and it does you know you're like really
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um but of the things that we're talking about I rarely see it now again I really only focus on the people I talk to you
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for personal reasons but still you would assume that you would see more and you
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don't so but but again they should have a dictionary of terms
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and not to use just make the mental health dictionary and be like don't use these words
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you know and then lastly recognize signs of emotional distress whether you are overworked we talked about burnout
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before whether you are tired whether you are just having one of those days we've
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had those all the time look for it but your team members your manager should
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also have an idea now again I'm not telling the managers to go out of their way to make you feel weird but if you're
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the manager and one of your people might be you know maybe a little more tired you know pull them inside just be like
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hey do you want anything do you need something what do you want to do don't make it obvious but do the appropriate
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Common Sense thing it's kind of like you know when when I'm at home and you know if Chris is having a bad day I'm not
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going to go out of mode and make it sound where it all just be like hey do you need something or hey right you know whatever before I go upstairs and that's
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it so just make it simple and easy and if they say no we're good I just need something people know let people know
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that you care right so the bottom line for them on every dollar invested
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according to the Center for workplace mental health in treating depression anxiety there's a four dollar return for
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the economy what that equals out to is why you might be spending 150 billion over the next 15 years you'll be
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actually getting 400 billion back for the economy because you are taking care of wow services that people need so you
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do spend a little bit but as you've told me before you've got to spend a little bit to make a little bit yes you do it
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goes for that as well now moving from historical CNBC uh wrote down a few things that
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some places do and like you said we'll talk about a few names in a little bit
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and some of these I think we've talked about before personally or on other shows but I figure for those who might
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have missed those episodes let's give you a few um a few things first off
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give your employees their time back make well-being the priority whether it means
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switching up your workload whether it means switching up your days of the week whether it means taking an extra 20
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minutes a break give the employees the time to as my calendar in front of me
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says recharge Grant yourself the recharge that you need and again people
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are going to go well that's gonna go away from my whatever okay seriously an extra 20 minutes is not going to kill
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you from losing money at your business I will tell you now I may not know the numbers but I can tell you a happy and
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and uh not uh depressed employee makes a
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much better employee so it does fare out agreed like we said If You're Gonna you
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know spend money to make money take a few minutes to add more time right to the long run agree now this one's called
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pay your employees to use vacation days um a company called PWC recently made
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headlines for offering 250 vacation bonus who take for employees who take 40
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consecutive hours of vacation for uh once per quarter so you actually get a total of 100 or a thousand per year wow
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again not everybody can do that if you're a small business I get that but you know companies like we're going to
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talk about Google who make billions of dollars they could probably spare to do that now we're not going to talk about
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what they do because they do things that are hilariously funny but it works but paying your employees to use vacation I
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mean it's a weird concept but it is a weird concept but I'm sure that in your
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research you've found that a lot of people just don't take their vacation they just don't do it and they for one
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reason or another yeah whatever the reason is they don't do it and somebody must have told them that when you keep
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working that that just shows what a great employee you are you know no you really need to take your time off it's
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so important the reason why you're given the time off is because it's important so agreed there you go all right next up
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provide the on-demand resource now it's like I hate love that word on demand it's like TV is on demand music's on
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demand but that's what it means on demand is literally to you now obviously the biggest one that we've spoken of
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teletherapy right we've also talked about uh the meditation apps as well right right providing it is easy now
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this is one that I would now I think the people I know they have it anyway so they already know this resource however
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I would say 90 of the world or business-wise maybe doesn't or maybe doesn't have how to implement it right
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so right agree it takes you five minutes you go on online you check it out you
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see what works I believe correct me if I'm wrong but as a business I think you can get a discount or deal if you're
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using it for your company right as an example um Kaiser health care one of the
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perks that they give you is the Calm app and and it's free and for those who are
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not on Kaiser you have to pay for it so they have taken the step the positive
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step forward and saying okay we are going to give you access to something that's going to help your mental health now whether you take advantage of of it
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or not is obviously up to you or whether you even know so I think that's one
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thing check with the companies you work with they may have some of these things that they're offering that maybe they
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forgot to let you know there you go extend the mental health quality fit to the household this is one
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you would think would be obvious but apparently it's not um I know we've talked about other
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companies before that if the and actually uh there was a company who's uh the owner his their kid has a condition
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and because of that they decided let's give all my employees kids and other uh
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you know spouses their mental health benefits so in her case it was because of personal but
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it's the right idea you know right you shouldn't necessarily have to have it happen to you to do that but if you can
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and most people can I mean every business I can think of has the money to do it extend it out now if they don't
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need it fine whatever cool but again this is one of those conversations you have one-on-one with your people say hey
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you know I know you told me that your your spouse has something I know you told me you know maybe you're a kid or
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you know pets some some companies would be like if you have animals at home that are kind of your service they'll kind of
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help you with the vet bills maybe it depends on who you are but it just all it takes is two minutes of saying hey I
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know you told me this is going on at home would this in your insurance maybe help sure you care exactly show that you
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you know give you know what um all right ensure the resources are inclusive and create the connection
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between your employees that's kind of the last two I'm going to go over on this one um
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again insurance is freaking hard nobody knows how to do it it's like every year
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it's different I guess and one minute you're like oh it was this much and then it jumps up so I get it insurance is not
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fun or easy for anybody even apparently the doctors who apparently have commercials going I don't know what insurance is either which is kind of
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weird but um look at things that make sense to make
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everybody happy and you know in two sections we're gonna go over we're going to talk about that but it's again all
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these things just take two minutes give yourself a minute to say okay what can I give you that'll make everybody happy
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and if somebody doesn't use it that's fine but just because one person does it doesn't mean the other 10 should be left
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out from it so look at it from the broader right and what you're saying is there should be some things that are
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offered uh that you know yes people can can take one from column A and one come
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from column B oh I do need this no not so much that kind of thing so I think I think that that's a really good way to
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go now this big one that I think should be and this is one of our first opinion pieces here mental health day off now I
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think you've read about this before I know people watching read about this before why should you have one well it's kind
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of like you call you know it's a physical day you don't feel you can't go in why not not go in because of your
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mental health right um again maybe it's part of your insurance plan
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maybe it's part of your scheduling maybe it's like hey every Friday you just stay home if you feel like it I don't know
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how it's gonna work but what do you think I don't know and I I think that with um coming out of the pandemic as we're
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coming out of it right now and so many people that were at home and and working from home and now they're going back into the workforce and you know it's
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different they and I know some companies I know that your wife's company is has gone to a four day 10 hour week and but
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but they allow her to work on Fridays because 10 hours a day doesn't work for her so I I think that that actually
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speaks uh volumes for companies that are listening to their employees and saying I know we need to give you this we want
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to give you this we want to change how we do our work a lot I see I personally would love a 10 hour work day and be
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able to have a next you know like a day that I could call off but not everyone can do that and so I think that as
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employers we need to listen to our employees we need to listen to ourselves our families and things and make those
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decisions accordingly so I think I think yeah all right
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um all right so next one up here ways you can make the building or room
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because again some people work from home more mental friendly um so what would you put or what do you
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put in your office space that makes you feel better I don't know if you can see
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back there but I have a diffuser it's sitting next to my white and over there and I normally have it on
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I think it just shut off um it changes colors and it has lavender uh drops in it and so it literally makes
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my office smell really really good and very soothing and it makes me kind of
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relax and so number one diffuser it doesn't have to be an electric one you can buy those little jars where you put
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drops in it and they've got like bamboos I don't know what they are twig sticks away but yeah and it it disperses the
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aroma so number one go for the senses so the first sense I go to is for is it
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olfactory I think that's what it's called my nose yeah I want to smell it I think you use diffusers as well maybe a
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different kind but that is that's number one I think it really works um the other thing is is that I always
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have music playing except when I'm on a live and music for me soothes the soul
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so I always have a playing low now in an environment in a workspace maybe that's
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not as easy because I guess but yeah earbuds or whatever but
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even as an organization now depending on what your or your space is like some people have those Open Spaces where you
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have your little chairs and your desk and it's completely open you can see everybody everybody can see you you can
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hear everybody everybody can hear you um some people love that because they like the energy and they actually feed
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off the energy right me personally I would rather be locked in my room my little space I don't I get distracted
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probably because of you know my ADD but I get distracted by the noise around so it's my responsibility and my space to
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make it okay and I do that with the diffuser I do that with the music I do that uh personally for myself and by
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having things that make me happy you know I have my little bears my little is that a bearer dog I think it's a dog
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right what do you do how do you how do you say first off decoration so as you can tell I got my favorite thing in the
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background and I always smile when I look at it I'll turn my chair around charity for you know nine hours but you
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know what I mean um I got my stuffed animals I got my books um quiet for me is good so usually it's
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good that I do my videos when I do them because it's usually a time like that um if I needed to we have a white noise
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machine in the bedroom I could always move that in here if I wanted to for the White Noise right um
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usually I would have thought that the dimly light would have been good for my the sensory overload that I get but
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actually it is nice to have a little bit of light coming in right uh but I know with the blinds here and most homes you
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can flip them up if you need to you can open the light up close it up depending on your dark so I don't necessarily need
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the smell per se but yes once in a while I do have a sprayer that sprays off that it's a cinnamon flavor
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um nice and but usually it's the visual so I like to decorate with things that make me smile and you know I have stuff
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like picture pictures and stuff like that and well it's funny you say that I know in a lot of workspaces at least in
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the past uh companies would say you only can have these three things on your desk you can't have any personal items and I
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know that was a huge challenge for a long time because why not why can't you have personal items why can't you have
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those things that surround you and I think that's changed um as as time has gone on had you ever heard that before now you never worked
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in an office environment um but I know people that have worked in uh and they've been told no you can't
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have that candle sitting there and you can't have the little you know character or or a picture of your family you can't
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do that it's not professional so I don't know how you feel about that it's kind of weird I think
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I've never heard of it and probably could I hadn't heard of it because I probably would have been very anti-vat but uh yeah that's kind of
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so if you're listening guys in your office space let us know um what you do whether you work from
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home remotely whether you work in an office space what does if you work in an office space what does your boss allow
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you to do or not to do how are you feeling comfortable in your office space if you work from home let us know in the
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comments what do you put out to make yourself feel calm I'm curious I really am curious so whether you're here you
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know right now and you want to put it in that's okay you don't have to tell us now or later on we'd love to hear from
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you how you set your space I know we have some shout outs right yeah so I found a couple places I wanted
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to run down a few things they do each um first one we talked about before Living Desert which is a zoo right by us
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uh well they called themselves a reserve it's kind of a you know Mom and Pop Zoo because it's much smaller than a regular
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um but their big thing is inclusion via products so they have a bag of sensory items so they have headphones they have
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fidget toys there's a map to tell you if you're having a overload of sound the
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quiet place um they actually have a garden area in the back and if you remember actually
24:12
just go you can walk through the garden and kind of sit down and kind of just you know sit around the plants and the
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butterflies I think it's great I I think that's really great they do this and it's one of the few places that does
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that as far as like a outdoor space not a lot of outdoor spaces can do that so that's pretty cool
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um the second one I love I mean Google never ceases to surprise me um they literally will have a rest space
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like you want to take a nap they have like giant bean bag beds and and whatever and you can just go into the
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dark room and just take a nap and whatever apparently I guess you work there like 24 seconds so people just
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stay there sometimes I don't know but maybe that's not a good thing maybe that's actually not a good thing apparently you live at Google but but
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the thing I love is the games they literally will have ping pong and like a swimming pool and they have like
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football Court they literally have things where like if you're bored you don't want to be working just go outside and play a game of basketball and you're
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done like nobody would do that in their right mind now granted where they are they have that ability I get it but I
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just thought I'd put another because every time I think at Google I'm just like really do you get any work done is that what no I'm just kidding but maybe
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that's why they get work done right I think they would actually think that's exactly why we get work done because it's a it's a very pleasant situation to
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work in I don't maybe too Pleasant I don't know it's too Pleasant all right the third one I found was Starbucks uh
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not too surprising and again I will caveat with not all the time do they work well I've had plenty of times where
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I've tried to talk to them about something and they're just like oh no we can't do that we you know we shut you off but whatever have a good day anyway
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but overall they try to do good stuff and what they do is the finances really
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they help those who work there with their school they help you with financing with rent
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um you know they'll do family stuff so Starbucks not too surprising they kind of do the general monetary thing on top
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of what they would pay you for that Squarespace the company that does all of that really cool online uh payment I
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used it for you know the bookstore they just have a lot of online resources because that's what they're they're an
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online company Squarespace um couldn't you know I didn't really find much else out there other than
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there was an article from one of the people who runs Squarespace and she just wanted to make it clear that because
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we're an online company we want to give you the online right uh the next one I have up is uh Target
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um and again money insurance schooling you know again I know a lot of people
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who who've worked there and they would not agree with anything I'm saying right now but overall they you know they try
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to do what they're doing and that's that's their way of doing they try to give you better medical they try to give them Family Medical they try to help you
26:57
with your school all that the last one here I think is probably the best one I mean it's probably the biggest company Johnson and Johnson now they pretty much
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own everything from bathroom products to I think food now right they go above and beyond probably because they need to
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because they have that many people but they do mostly the medical and the household so they do a lot of work to
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make sure that not only you have the insurance you need but your family does you need help with
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maybe the mortgage or the rent let me try to give you some money there do you need help with a move let me try to do
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something there again this is kind of wide and not every place might do the same thing but generally as a company
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this is what they are supposed to be or trying to do at all of their yeah you know what I
27:43
find interesting Rob what name is not here and probably one of the biggest Employers in the country is Amazon
27:51
I've heard so many ups and downs on them and I obviously I don't want a bad talk but there's so much negative for them
27:58
I don't know really what they do and don't do I know they do a lot for their people but they also don't do a lot for
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their people so would you suggest for you know for people that are watching whether you
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know they work for somebody or not doesn't make sense if your company is not doing it do you think maybe they
28:15
should just simply like make an appointment with their boss and say hey I was thinking about this one of the
28:20
things that you know I've been reading about is is um you know helping people from mental
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health days or something Have you ever considered doing anything like this and maybe put yourself in that no that's a
28:31
tough one I mean you run the risk of something bad going to happen which is why I don't know if I
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would say do that however if you are in a company and you you know you know that
28:45
they are open to discussion go for it you know I've been in plenty of places where like I knew off the bat
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you could not ask the manager or anything because they didn't care so right I just kept my mouth shut
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um but I'm sure there are people watching who work for places where the bosses are like hey give me your input right in that case have a talk maybe
29:06
maybe get the group together maybe be like hey let's all sit down and have a meeting about what we can do better
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exactly I would like to say do it but it's a very
29:16
Well we'd love to hear from everyone if your company is doing a good job we'll give them a shout out as well let us
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know um this is I mean we feel it's our responsibility to let uh you guys know
29:28
who's doing a good job and who's not or more who's doing a good job we're not going to shame anyone but if you have a
29:34
company you work for or you yourself are the company and you are doing some cool things let us know we'd love to give you
29:40
a shout out put in the comments or send us a message or whatever but we'd love to give you a shout out because this is
29:46
all about mental health guys this is what we're talking about and we we are trying and hopefully giving you
29:51
resources and tools and and tips on how to live a healthier uh mental healthier
29:57
life right a mental health is that even a thing I don't think that's a thing at all I don't think that's a thing so Rob
30:03
I want to bring up our our book that we created um are finding your passion let me make
30:09
sure that this works hold on let's get rid of all right
30:14
um this is an e-book we put together because I know one of the questions that you and I both get asked all the time is you know about passion and what what
30:20
does that mean and how are you supposed to make a living doing what you love and how do you know what you're passionate
30:26
about so we put together the Z book it's free go over to minding your mentalhealth.com I'm gonna put that up
30:33
here and pick up your copy it's free it's an entire you know eight step thing on how to find your passion Rob any last
30:43
minute thoughts um it's a very important topic keep the
30:49
conversation going and hopefully sooner than later we'll come back with a
30:55
remix of this episode and maybe say hey things have changed who knows but it's important to speak up you know be
31:01
careful when you do it but let people know what what should be
31:08
done because if they don't have mental health challenges they maybe just don't know
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yeah there you go maybe it's maybe it's our job to help educate maybe that
31:18
that's my hope that's totally My Hope so guys thank you for joining us today
31:23
we are so happy we know that you have a choice as to where you spend your time you chose to spend it with Rob and I today and we are eternally grateful go
31:31
out give somebody a very very awesome day and we'll see you next time on the
31:37
next minding your mental health goodbye everyone
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