HR Happy Hour 484 – Addressing Mental Health in the Workplace

This week we were joined by Lindsay Mastrogiovanni from Paychex to talk about May – Mental Health Awareness Month and the latest results from a recent Paychex survey surrounding a huge gap between what employers perceive is going on with their people versus what is actually going on with mental health in the workplace.  We talked about the importance of opening up dialogue and having those tough conversations surrounding mental health.  We also discussed ways to find resources that can help and how employers will have to make adjustments as the workplace changes and evolves post-COVID.  In closing, we talked about ways HR leaders can find help if they are finding adjustment difficult.

Thank you for listening! Be sure to subscribe to the HR Happy Hour wherever you get your podcasts.

Transcript follows:

Steve 0:00
Hi everyone, this is Steve Boese. Before we get to today’s show, I want to thank our friends at Paychex, one of the leading providers of HR, payroll, retirement and Insurance Solutions for businesses of all sizes. More than half of business owners with 10 to 500 employees say the availability of the COVID-19 vaccine is causing them to start or start planning their return to the workplace. If you’re thinking about instituting a vaccination policy, download Paychex latest ebook, managing COVID-19 vaccinations and return to work to learn about key considerations for developing your policy, as well as important health and safety measures for establishing a safe and productive return to work. Go to payx.me slash ebook dash vaccines to download your copy of the ebook today. Thanks so much for listening and enjoy the HR Happy Hour Show.

Steve 0:53
Welcome to the HR Happy Hour Show with Steve and Trish. Trish, what is your favorite line from a book or a movie or a TV show?

Trish 1:04
You always shock me. I don’t know why I’m always surprised? Oh, what is my favorite line? That’s a great question.

Steve 1:10
Of course it is. I pondered over that question for several moments prior to asking. You’re stumped.

Trish 1:16
Well, it’s bad because the first thing that popped in my mind is ‘I’m your Huckleberry’ just because I love Tombstone. And I just watched Tombstone and I just went to the place in Colorado where Doc Holliday died. So I guess that’s my answer.

Steve 1:24
Tombstone trivia there, okay.

Trish 1:37
It seems I would say honestly, any quote from Tombstone right now it would be a good one. So all right. I don’t know. I think that probably wouldn’t be my normal answer. But

Steve 1:46
I’ve got two. Empire Strikes Back when Luke asked Yoda, what’s in the cave, and Yoda says ‘only what you take with you’. That’s my one favorite line. And my other one is Casablanca when Rick says, ‘The Germans wore gray, you wore blue.’ Boom, how about that one?

Trish 2:07
Little random but good.

Steve 2:09
And he also said to ask our guys, the Germans leave.

Trish 2:12
That’s a great question though, you stumped me.

Steve 2:17
I hope our guest has a better answer than you, Trish. But, we’ll see.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 2:21
This is incredibly difficult for me because I am a giant movie and TV show fan.

Steve 2:28
I’m going to stop you Lindsay. So we need to introduce you. So folks know who you who this is?

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 2:33
That would be good probably, this random voice.

Steve 2:35
That now we are here to talk. We’re gonna have some fun with the movie lines, of course. But this is a mental health, it’s mental health month, the month of May. We’re here to talk about mental health in the workplace and talk about some results from a recent survey from our friends at Paychex to help us with that conversation, is Lindsey Mastrogiovanni from Paychex. She’s an HR coach with over 10 years experience in HR operations, management and consulting. She’s passionate about leveraging partnerships, technology and situational analyses to drive employee success in an ever changing business landscape. She is a humanistic leader who believes in bettering communities through small business and individual success. She’s a champion of passion, intuition and optimism. I like that in the business world. In her role as an HR coach, she is responsible for providing guidance and support to more than 70 that’s a lot Paychex HR professionals throughout the United States who advise clients on a wide range of business and HR issues. Lindsay, welcome to the HR Happy Hour Show.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 3:39
Thank you. Glad to be here.

Steve 3:41
All right. So you had a line. You were ready, you raring to go.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 3:44
Oh, my gosh, let’s hear it. Okay, well, you know, after that introduction, that’s gonna like,

Steve 3:53
Don’t tell me it’s Tombstone, I hope.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 3:55
Well, I have like a Game of Thrones line in my head. But the Game of Thrones fan, I just re watched it again for the second time and it’s in the one of the big battle episodes. Sansa has a pretty good comeback to Ramsey Bolin, and it’s escaping me right now. I think she says something about he says they’re loyal beasts about his dog. And she says they were but now they’re starving. And that’s like one of my favorite lines. And that’s cool. And I probably have some more inspirational ones too. But they’re just that was just such a good comeback. That just brings in my head.

Steve 4:31
That stuff.

Steve 4:31
Good stuff. All right. Well, Lindsey, welcome to the show. Good to have you. We’re here to talk about mental health. Maybe we should start with that. I know the folks that Paychex have done some recent research around mental health in the workplace. And maybe we’ll start off with that maybe share a little bit about that research and maybe a couple of the maybe the top line findings that are that are interesting and things we can we can talk about a little bit more detail.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 4:56
Sure. I think we can really start talking about kind of where we’re at right now. And some of the findings that we did come up with in a study was that the just surrounding the huge gap and what employers perceive is actually going on with their people in mental health in the workplace versus what their employees actual experience is. The biggest thing that I would say to this and kind of understanding where your employees are at versus the employer side of it is just to open up that dialogue and ask, I think it’s something that employers often don’t think about is just like, ask what’s going on and outside of the work day, you know, what do you need? And how could we help you?

Steve 5:41
Yeah, Lindsay, I think that’s really important. And I think it’s often difficult to start that conversation now. Right, that’s one of the things Trish and I have done some mental health themed episodes this year, we focused on it quite a bit more maybe than in years past. And one of the things we found in research and just talking with folks about it is it can be almost like, I don’t know if taboo is the right word, or Yeah, just we’re reluctant to talk about it in the workplace, is that consistent with either what the research suggested Lindsay, or maybe what you’re even hearing, you know, when you talk to your HR professionals that you support?

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 6:16
For sure, I think a lot of business leaders, business owners, managers are very reluctant to have that conversation, because it’s kind of scary. And it also can be kind of a Pandora’s Box situation, if they’re not equipped to handle the answer. You know, coming out of COVID, we’re really faced with a shift, I think, previous to COVID, you know, there was the sense of understanding the work life balance. And we thought of that as like a teeter totter or a pendulum, right, like it was kind of on a spectrum. And now, it’s like, the teeter totter broke, there is no spectrum, like, we’re in a giant bowl of work life soup.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 7:00
And, you know, we’re kind of experiencing all of it all at once. So we really have to look at things like benefits and having mental health support in the workplace in a very different light. And that’s not going to be a one size fits all solution for either, you know, individual employees, or for your workplace. And then depending on your industry, you’re looking at three different situations, you’re looking at employees that have been there this whole time, throughout COVID. And within that group of people you have, you know, people who are either their work was scaled back, and maybe they have less wages than before, they’re not used to this new level of work that they actually have to do, or your industry could have gone the other way where you are booming, and you like don’t know what to do. My husband, for example, he’s a store manager for local grocery store, chain, regional grocery chain. And you can imagine working in the grocery industry, he’s never been more busy. So it’s, you know, I think a lot of times, because of the unemployment rates and those kinds of issues, we focus on that and we forget about the impact of overwork, which is also a very real thing right now, you know, so we’ve got it looking at that situation, what do we do with the employees that have been here all along.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 8:17
And then you’ve got the ones who have been out completely, and now they have to re enter the workforce. So that means things like retraining, and you know, you’ve got the ones who have just had to reprioritize and maybe take on new jobs or new responsibilities. So within each of those situations, there’s different things we have to do to really treat that and, you know, approaching that conversation of what do you need, you have to expect a lot of different answers and be prepared to actually offer the solutions.

Trish 8:46
Yeah, I am so glad that you mentioned those different sort of categories of workers, if you will, because, you know, it resonated to me when you were kind of talking about, you know, we might not be able to understand how to help. I’d love to hear your perspective on maybe what are some of, you know, the ways that people can get into being helpful, because I think, in my experience, both in HR, and then even after, and just working with HR leaders, you know, we’ve always tried to really keep working life separate, which kind of goes back to you talking about the teeter totter of work life balance, right, it was, they both existed, they co existed, but it was quite separate. Now that it’s kind of together now with all of these different sort of categories of where people might fall along the line of being comfortable in their own mental health situation, if you will. If you are a leader, a supervisor, a business owner, maybe what are some of the ways that you can start thinking about this differently than because if you’re in the situation where you don’t know what’s available right now, how can you start becoming aware yourself before you even have these conversations?

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 9:51
Yeah, it’s a great question because I think it does start with leadership always. Um, you know, we can provide different benefits programs but and we’ll talk about that as an option or something you can do. But in order to actually have effective benefits programs, you need people and leaders who understand it, and who are willing to work with the employees so that they can utilize them appropriately. So I think the first thing that you can do as an employer business owner, you know, however you’re leading your organization, is to reevaluate how I’ve historically managed things like attendance, performance issues, even behavioral issues. I think, you know, first off, openly communicating what your expectations are, is incredibly important. Because, you know, it would be easy for us to say, Well, you know, everybody is, you know, most of us are suffering because of COVID. And it’s a lot weighing on our minds, and we’re bringing our families into our workplace. So we are going to do whatever it takes for our employees to be comfortable at work. But in reality, we still have to have boundaries, right, it’s still work, it’s still, you know, we have an expectation for what needs to be done. So that expectation needs to be clearly communicated, and set.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 11:10
And then from there it is, you know, understanding that maybe what attendance looked like before that was acceptable is not going to be the standard any longer. Maybe we have, you know, reevaluating your attendance policies, seeing if there’s some leeway or some changes and how an employee needs to communicate when or if they are out. Looking at different policies. As far as requiring different doctor’s notes, a lot of those are now could now be defunct, depending on the reason for an absence. So things just as simple as starting it, looking at your policies and reevaluating them and making a determination for what do you want your workplace to look like? And what expectation Will you set? And what kind of culture? Are you able or willing to kind of reinvent or re establish? Because it’s gonna be different, no matter what it has to be like, we have no choice. Even if we, you know, there’s different regulations we have to meet.

Steve 12:14
I think it’s really interesting. I was just talking to someone earlier today, and they were expressing how like that organization, they’re working with that. We’re going back to everybody back in the office. Yeah, five days a week, everything just like it used to be like, like, like, this whole last year plus never really happened, you know? And I was thinking to myself, boy, that seems to be a risky strategy, right? Well, not right? Yeah. Cuz it’s just like, nothing’s changed, really, we haven’t really learned anything. And we haven’t figured out how to take advantage right of some of the changes, right, in the last year. But it also it also assumes that, as you’re sort of saying, like, it just assumes that everyone’s gonna forget and be fine with it. And we know that’s not true, right? We know that this is probably the most stressful time period for. I mean, I can’t think of one I can’t think of a time where, in general, just you weren’t feeling more stressed, or more anxious, or more concerned, inside of working outside of work, I can’t imagine. And so you can’t ignore that.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 13:19
Yeah, and even if the work environment remain the same, you have to acknowledge that people’s lives are completely different, we might be going back to work, but schools aren’t all completely open everywhere, people’s childcare situations have changed. So that necessitates some type of acknowledgement in the workforce, and how are we going to handle that, and, you know, if you don’t address those types of things, you will see things like a lot of turnover, or a lot of leave, and a lot of having to handle ADA situations, if you are not actively working through with your employees, and you know, seeing what they need and how to help them. And, you know, working through those ADA situations, now you’re stuck, where you, you know, you really don’t have as much leeway to be able to help your employee because they’re not at the can actively be at work. So I think, you know, coming up with those situations ahead of time, and being proactive about those solutions is really important. I also, you know, aside from the the attendance piece in the kind of like dealing with that, I struggle a lot and I’ve had a lot of conversations recently surrounding toxic positivity, and, um, just generational treatment in general in the workplace. I think, you know, previous good, you know, quote, good things, I’m putting up my little, quote, good things to do in the workplace. You know, we have pizza on Fridays, and we do jean days, like, that’s not gonna fly anymore. Yeah, like those. We have been having sweatpant days for six months are likely. Jean days are not going to be cool anymore. So.

Steve 15:00
At

Steve 15:00
I admit to my ignorance, Lindsey, I’ve never heard of that term toxic positivity. So okay, do you mean by that? Because I’m sorry, Trish, I don’t know if you know. I don’t know that.

Trish 15:09
I wrote it down as well. I’m like, I love that!

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 15:14
So you know, it comes from a good place it is, you know, it doesn’t. It’s not just in the workplace, but I think it’s kind of fostered itself in the workplace, where we are offering things that traditionally we think are good things to do. But it’s really just fostering this sense of like, Oh, this is not what I need. I’m not being seen, I’m not being heard. I’m not being acknowledged, um, you know, jean days on Fridays, and even COVID, I think you started to hear kind of this understanding of like, I don’t need jean days, I need an extra three days off, you know, like, so. So acknowledging.

Steve 15:50
I need to leave at three o’clock, because my son’s got a baseball game, or my daughter has soccer game.

Steve 15:54
or

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 15:55
Yes, adding flexibility, like asking for what they really need and or, you know, beyond benefits, it could just be, you know, I’m really struggling at work. And I just need somebody to talk to, can I just have a weekly meeting with you, manager? Can I have a one on one where we can talk about my performance, how I’m doing, how I can improve? What kind of training I can, you know, be in how can I grow? These are all ways to also help your employees that are out of the, you know, it’s no cost to you. It’s development work, and it’s going to benefit some of your employees. So really identifying and being empathetic to employee scenarios, whether it is employee development, focus, or it is a home or personal focus, just really being open, apathetic, honest, those kinds of things will prevent a lot of that.

Trish 16:48
Yeah, right. That’s such a good example, too. I think when you were talking about I did write it down. I love that toxic positivity. I think you’re right. I was also thinking too, you know, I have kids that are in high school, and not working. But when you’re talking about sort of, like we’ve had all this flexibility, and now it’s like, kind of maybe going back, it feels like a takeaway, right? Like jeans doesn’t seem like a big deal. I’m already noticing like at the high school level, even where they’ve had a year at home, with complete flexibility on you know, if they needed to go to a doctor’s appointment, or dental appointment, right? All of a sudden, now they’re back in school, and feeling quite pressured, because the school has gone back without any adjustments, right on back to saying, oh, now you need to note to go to the dentist to get your braces adjusted, for example. And I think you’re right, like, that’s the kind of stuff we’re talking about in the workplace, too. So we’ll have these same students, current students who are entering the workforce, either maybe in fast food or retail right now. They’re already feeling the pressure from a school who has not adapted to kind of a whole year of, of schooling differently. If workplaces don’t do that, for the people, we’re hiring out of college, or if we’re in a in a position to hire High School workers, I think it’s going to change the whole generation. I really do. Because I think they’ve now seen the light, like, whereas maybe you know, the three of us. We never had that flexibility in high school or college. And now, it’s a huge takeaway, I think, for employees of all ages.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 18:17
Yeah. And it’s absolutely a generational focus. I mean, you we already know, you know, we have our boomers exiting the workforce, and now we’ve got Gen Z is entered, right? And turned to the years, right. Right, you do, you do. And it’s there is an appreciation for looking things kind of outside of that, quote, corporate culture, which a lot of Gen X and millennials just kind of get used to, I think millennials took a lot of flack for changing that slightly. But an event like this, that is worldwide is absolutely going to impact how they look at what they’re gonna do for work. And I’ll tell you what, with the market the way it is, right now, the job market, there’s a lot of openings, and people are willing to pay to get people in the door. So if you are not actively providing what you need for your current employees, they’re going to go because everybody needs what they need to do right now from a financial perspective, always, but especially right now. So you know, it’s really worth keeping that talent that you do have and fostering more than just their, you know, work knowledge, but their emotional health, their mental health, in, you know, their eventual work development.

Steve 19:29
Yeah, so, we’ve talked about this on the show a couple times, and even before the pandemic, you know, we did some things on mental health and mental health in the workplace, and really mental health, just in the community, quite frankly, was a problem that had not been really addressed adequately, for really quite some time. And there’s, there’s some really telling statistics that say, like, you know, 25% of just the general population is struggling with mental health issues at any given time. So the fact that according to this the recent research from Paychex that we’re talking about where 43% of surveyed employees said their mental health is worse now, right? Then pre-COVID. That doesn’t mean they were fine. They just got worse. So this is a this was a fairly significant, I think, not fairly significant problem prior to COVID. And now it’s much worse. And so certainly ignoring it is not the right strategy for a business leader or an HR leader. So I guess that’s a long winded introduction to say, Lindsay, what are some of the things that when you’re doing your work and working with the HR teams that advise all these, you know, 1000s of small businesses around the country around these issues? What are some of the tools, strategies, resources that you would, especially for small and midsize businesses to that may have not ever really addressed this previously in the workplace? What are some of the things you you like to talk with them about or you might recommend that they, they look into to try to, hey, support their employees in a more meaningful way around around these mental health issues?

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 21:04
Well, I’ll start with kind of like a brief list of things you can do, right, that are very tangible, but then I want to bring it out and back up and say, how do you really support these things? So I think a number of easy things. And some of them we’ve kind of touched on just in this conversation are, you know, flexible scheduling options. So if you do have your work from home, people that are still working from home, or maybe now they’re in a hybrid role, being sensitive to that, if you have them coming into the office, understanding that they have new lives after a year, and a new way of working, like you’d mentioned with your son, and doctor’s appointments, like it’s going to be the same thing for workers. So adopting flexible scheduling options, and potentially building up work from home as a is a permanent option. If it worked before, if it worked during COVID, there’s no reason it can’t continue to work. So that kind of goes back to reevaluating your culture to see if that’s going to be a good fit, and appropriately communicating that. So that’s number one, look at your scheduling.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 22:07
I mentioned, you know, doing more one on ones and more individual check ins with your manager establishing that opportunity for the employees to really open up at any level, to talk about their issues, their mental health, and then using that as a jumping point to actually offer these other things that we’re about to talk about. Things like health maintenance programs, the EAP employee assistance programs, that those have always been around. What I have found working with different clients is they all you know, most of them will offer an EAP. But they have no idea what it actually entails. So as an employer, it’s important to not only offer it but be very familiar that know all of the ins and outs of when are they eligible, how are they eligible? Is there a cost is there not a cost? If there is an employee cost, consider reevaluating that within the scope of your next benefit, enrollment period. reevaluate reevaluating how you are investing in your benefits plans overall, is a huge thing. And looking at opportunities for professional development, how are you going to build up your current workforce? And how are you going to hopefully maintain that, that talent where it helps them build your organization to be successful? it so those are kind of that that’s my quick list, right. But that’s easier said than done. You know, just do these things.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 23:30
I think it’s very important that business owners leaders, really take a minute and establish where their expertise truly are, especially with the businesses that we work with, with our you know, small to midsize businesses, you have a lot of people wearing a lot of hats, you know, you’ve got your business owner, who is the doer, they’re the HR person, they’re the accountant. And they’re managing everybody to it’s, I think, going to be incredibly important, especially now and moving forward for business owners to really step back and evaluate where their strengths are in determine where they can invest in their business, so that they have people who can handle these things appropriately. You might be the doer, right? You are the guy who made the best widgets, and you worked your way up, and now you’re the owner of the company. That doesn’t mean that you’re a great manager, and that’s okay. But you need to be able to acknowledge that and determine how you’re going to get a great manager. And if it can’t be you, where’s that going to come from? If you’re where I’m from upstate New York, we have a really big sports following. Yeah, the Bills, go Bills. A lot of things that I see for local companies is previously they invested in a lot of events and cordovan coordination. So maybe they had tickets to the Bills game or you know, maybe they sponsored something and that was kind of a benefit to their employees. As you can imagine, those types of things might not be, you know, sought after anymore. Even if we do reopen stadiums and things can happen, employees may not be as willing to go. If you think that’s the case, reevaluate your budget, and your funding, take that money and put it towards something that’s going to help you run your business and help your employees be more successful. You really have to take a step back and see.

Steve 25:25
That’s a great point, I think Lindsay to just to just to consider as a business owner, or leader or even an HR leader, don’t get Don’t be beguiled, if you will, to thinking that everybody is going to be as enthusiastic as you think they should be, or are about things like going back to into workplace, maybe getting on a plane to go visit a client. And traveling again, maybe going to, like you said, even a Bills game, right? Look, I’m a Jets fan. So I think it’s really, really important to understand that everybody’s going to have a different kind of set of circumstances and needs. And it’s very, very, it always was difficult. But I think this is just the last year plus has made it even more important to realize that everybody’s kind of going through something, right. But we’re like, like somebody told me that the analogy was like, the oceans like this is huge storm going on in the ocean. But we’re all in our own little boat. Right? Yeah, impacting that’s all a little bit differently. And it’s important to keep that in mind as we move forward, right? Because it’s still a time of transition and a time where lots of people are still trying to get through things and expecting just everything to go back to the way it was like you were saying, Lindsay, like we used to do this. So we’ll just start doing it again, that’s probably not going to work in most circumstances.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 26:51
Yeah, for sure.

Trish 26:52
I was I was curious kind of along those lines. Lindsey, if you know, whether it was through the results of the survey, or even in conversations of people you coach or work with, you know, you’ve talked a little bit about being the business owner, being the HR leader who, you know, whoever might be in sort of a position of, of having some control over what happens in the way the organization handles things? What if you’re the one that feels like you’re not ready? What if you’re the one who feels incapable? Or maybe you’re having, you know, other factors that your home life that have impacted? You’re not like you’re just not mentally ready to handle all of this? I know, you said like, find another manager, you kind of like touched on a little Is there anything that you’re hearing specifically, or examples, maybe of? What if you are the head of HR, and you’re just not feeling comfortable yet? What might those people do? Where could they turn to maybe get some relief, and some support as they have to be in those leader roles.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 27:52
Right? I’m so glad that you brought that up. I was actually thinking about this earlier today. And it because you know, working in HR, I think I mentioned it, we first started talking like, in an industry like HR, this, we just went nuts, right like this, we have never been more busy. Right. And it is not just busyness. It’s the it’s handling these very sensitive issues and health and whether it’s physical or mental, or whatever it is, and HR is on the front line. So specifically for HR leaders, not only for your employees, but for yourself looking into appropriate types of counseling or things that you can offer in the workplace like mindfulness, emotional intelligence, taking a break, taking vacation, you know, and I even hesitate to say that sometimes because truthfully, sometimes people you know, their whole lives aren’t any better, right? So sometimes work is an escape, really looking into as many different, you know, having a variety of those options is helpful. And if you are that HR leader, tapping on experts who can help you kind of navigate your way so that you can have a partner to be able to assist you in making these kinds of decisions. You know, I think that’s what we do with paychecks like we are, we are a business partner, we are there to help kind of go through these situations with you if you’re unfamiliar with it, or if you’re just stressed and you can’t do it yourself. Any you know, consultancy, just any type of help a support system, establishing that for yourself and for your employees is incredibly important.

Trish 29:37
Yeah, I’m glad you mentioned to talk to your you know your partner if they’re a customer of Paychex, for example, it’s okay to talk to someone and just have a sounding board sometimes and I think too, we as leaders feel like it makes us a less qualified leader. If we do admit that we need a little bit of support or a listening ear, and it’s hard. HR was hard anyway, I I’ll tell you there are many, you know, as you know, as you move up the ranks right up the ladder, it just gets more stressful and you deal with more complex problems and issues. And a good portion of HR is you want to solve things for people and make it better for them. And if you’re feeling like it’s not in a good place, it’s really difficult. You know, I’ve heard a lot of people reference sort of like when you’re on the plane, and they say, like, if the planes crashing, you put your mask on first, right? Well, brothers, it’s a little bit like that. But I think in HR, we tend to try and help everybody else. First. Yeah. And then us. And yeah, so I think it’s a good reminder, I’m so glad that you brought that up on the show, because I think that’s a really important thing that we all as leaders need to be doing for ourselves too.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 30:43
A lot of the research in this study to was also was surrounding community involvement. And, you know, if you, we all work in communities, right, and we all do have somebody in a similar industry, community, whatever it is, for local groups that communicate with you know, there’s a lot of talk right now about these things, you know, and maybe those solutions are more specific to your industry, or they’re more specific to your geographical area. And, you know, leaning on those types of local organizations like SHRM, for instance, local chapters of SHRM, if you’re an HR person is a fantastic place and resource to not only, you know, talk to like minded people, but also have some creative solutions.

Steve 31:26
Yeah, I think it’s just great. I’m glad we’re doing this show. We’re just for mental health moms, right. Like we’ve been talking about it a lot this year, it’s important to keep talking about it, even if like, it’s difficult to solve problems as complicated and as deep as mental health, you know, in a half an hour show, but I think just having the conversation, right, and just having an open dialogues, getting the message out, sharing the results of the of this survey, along with some of the advice and recommendations that go along with it, which are really important as well. And just, again, I think every every conversation, no matter how small helps to make this a conversation that’s okay to have, right and one that it makes more people think about it and even just kind of think about your own self too, and whether or not as Trish said, make sure you’re taking care of your own needs as well. I think it’s just I love talking about this. And not that I love that there’s a crisis around mental health. I don’t love that part. But I love that more and more folks are willing to talk about it, willing to address it. Companies like Paychex are diving into the problem and commissioning research to learn more about it to try to help the companies that they work with and the communities that they reside. I think it’s really important conversation, and I’m glad we’re able to have it here.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 32:40
Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much.

Trish 32:43
I would say to Steve, I think that even in the last few months, I mean, for the most part, I think, you know, you and I are we’re good, right? We work together, everything’s good. But there have been days and I remember there was one day where I think you were on a call or something I was doing the WORK BREAK by myself. And I was just that was just today I just everything and finally hit me. And it was a couple months ago. So I’d been like good for like nine months ish, right? And I just went online live and I’m just like this it I can’t. I’m not feeling good today. I don’t know why, like I there’s no rhyme or reason. Nothing’s wrong. It’s just not right. And it was interesting to me that just like putting that out there in the world, which everybody doesn’t have to do publicly. But by sharing that I had so many people contact me privately and say, Hey, here’s a resource I’ve been using that made me feel better. Or here’s a book I read or here’s a podcast, I listened to her song I like, like, people just, it was overwhelming that people will flood you with goodness, that’s true. When you I mean, and I didn’t disclose any like weird wild like crazy. It was just like, Hey, I’m struggling today, today is not a good day, I’m really feeling overwhelmed. I’m struggling. And so I would just say that to be brave, that if you share, even if you’re just sharing with one person, they’re going to probably give you one little thing to try that might improve your mood or might uplift you that you haven’t thought of. And I think that just gets back to your community about that it’s so important that we really just support each other and kind of recognize.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 34:13
Breaking down that facade of perfection, right? authentic. I’m huge about authenticity. And you know, being yourself here in at home. And it’s it This has done anything COVID has done anything. I think it’s helped kind of foster that understanding that we’re all humans, right. And it’s okay if we have an off day and it’s okay if you know the dog barks or your kid runs into the right. Everybody knows my kid at work now. I mean, we’re all happy family.

Steve 34:43
All right, good stuff. Super fun Lindsey Mastrogiovanni, probably the best surname and history of the HR Happy Hour Show. Game of Thrones fan, HR coach your Paychex. Thanks so much. Great to talk to you today. I love the topic. Thanks to the Paychex research As well some other resources around mental health will be in the show notes. Super conversation. Lindsay, thanks so much for joining us today.

Lindsay Mastrogiovanni 35:07
Thank you so much for having me. It’s been great.

Steve 35:09
Awesome. So, for our guest Lindsay, for Trish McFarlane, my name’s Steve Boese. Thank you so much for listening to the HR Happy Hour Show. Thanks to our friends at Paychex, of course. We will see you next time and bye for now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai