Mental health benefits of good work
Good work can also help during periods of poor mental health. During such times, reasonable adjustments to your work may help you to stay at work and recover.
Supporting people with poor mental health to work can help them. It also helps other workers, the community and the economy.
Learn more about mentally healthy work.
How working with poor mental health can feel
At work, telling someone that you're experiencing poor mental health can be hard.
You might feel:
- unsure how others might respond
- a sense of shame
- nervous that your performance has dropped
- unclear about the benefits of telling someone at work
- worry about losing your job or future opportunities
- that some parts of your work are causing or adding to stress
- whether additional support may be available to help you at your work.
Deciding whether to disclose at work
You might be unsure about whether it’s in your best interests to tell someone at work about your mental health. It can be helpful to weigh up the pros and cons.
Everyone's situation is unique. There are common factors that can be useful to consider in making your decision.
These factors include:
- access to additional support
- access to flexibility or reasonable adjustments to help you get better
- if your work performance is impacted
- how people at your work are likely to receive the news
- your work relationships.
Working with poor mental health
Adopt personal support strategies
Developing a workplace wellbeing plan can help you to stay well at work. It will help you identify your personal warning signs and the coping strategies that work for you.
Download Beyond Blue’s personal Wellbeing Action Tool
Learn more about your mental health at work
Make reasonable adjustments
Reasonable adjustments are changes that help you to stay at work or return to work.Workers with poor mental health have anti-discrimination protections. These include an obligation on employers to offer reasonable adjustments.
Learn more about your rights and obligations at work
Examples of reasonable adjustments
- adding flexibility to your working hours
- providing time off for appointments
- making changes to your shifts
- making changes to the location of your work
- adjusting your workspace
- setting goals, reminders and checklists to help manage your time and workload
- reducing your workload or the time you spend on certain tasks
- providing mentoring, coaching or peer support at work
- changing tasks that are stressful or overwhelming
- providing you with training and support.
Clear and regular communication
- meet regularly with your manager
- work with your manager to create realistic goals and clear expectations
- give your manager regular updates on how you’re going
- catch up regularly with someone you trust to talk about things
- ask for adjustments to your role where necessary
- communicate your needs so others know how to support you
- If you’re on a break from work but planning to return, it can help to:
- catch up regularly with your manager to stay connected to work
- let your manager know if you want visits, calls or emails from workmates.
Develop a return-to-work or stay-at-work plan
Sometimes, it may be helpful to work with your manager to develop a plan. This helps to make clear the agreed strategies and actions that can help you. It also outlines what supports are in place to assist you.
Your workplace may have a template you can use. Otherwise, you can download this template, which outlines a basic return-to-work-plan.
You can also download this return-to-work/stay-at-work discussion plan.
It provides discussion points that may be helpful for you and your manager when you're developing a plan.
