A worker, formal or informal, activists, volunteers may be overwhelmed by work. For this reason bernapasbaik.id, a digital media platform conduct a zoom meeting through reflective discussion with a psychologist at 19.00 – 21.30 on Monday, (26/5). The faciltators were Lia Rahmadiani and Riris Ramadani, with 20 participants from all over Indonesia. The program aims to understand the work pressures that affect mental health, to find ways for self-care collectively and to provide safe space for workers, volunteers, activists, and anyone for that matter. In the zoom room, participants share stories, reflect, give mutual supports and maintain trust.

The session opens with a manager telling a story about his/her dilemma, there are many reasons that trigger his/her stress – i.e. new director requires new adaptation as each person has different leadership styles. Many expectations may not fit in the office situation, then there is stress, that may infect workers. There is a need to quickly minimise the stress, i.e. by consulting a psychologist.

A participant tells a story as an unprotected vulnerable worker, when there are so many male colleagues who harass this worker – not physical but through nasty words and talks about impolite dresses. People may not be aware of the danger (of verbal abuse and sexual harassment). Mental health has effects on work. Many male workers do not care aboout vulnerable (female) workers and when there is trauma, it takes a while to address the trauma, and many opt to resign from work.

Victims may not speak up when they experience violence in work place due to fear, so the question is do colleagues protect victims or do they not care at all? Wrok places should facilitate safe spaces for vulnerable workers. There is a need for action when a person speaks up.

Companies or organisations need to have safe spaces for workers - regulations, Standard Operating Procedure o protect vulnerable worker. There should be regulation to workers’ complains and to issue sanctions. On their art, workers must be confident to speak up, it should work both ways in order to create safe spaces. Nobody wants to have (recurrent) violence in their work place, that would claim many victims. Do not disregard when victims speak up, because that would cause pain. So colleagues must show empathy and act in order to prevent the same mistakes to happen.

Victims may say, “It is alright.” Yet victims feel anger, uncomfortable, and disappointed, and if victims stay at the work place, they would be extra vigilant, watching other people’s gestures. At work place, a person must be genuine asking how other people are doing, has empathy in organisation. As not all people understand gender, protection and prevention of violence can be practiced at work places.

After the discussion, participants receive materials on companies’roles in maintaining staff’s mental health – emotional, psychological, and social – which may affect how staff think, feel and act. So what is mental health? It is awareness about the potential that a person has, ability to deal with pressures, ability to work productively, ability to play roles in social or communal settings. Positive view about mental health suggests that community become more aware, as more online services are available, as education in social media are more available, stigma reduces, and more online help. Negative view about mental health is abstract, private issues, lack of religious attendance, lack of thankfulness, and self-diagnose.

The presenter then shows mental health data and facts from latest research that suggest 17% of companies in Indonesia pay attention to mental staff health air. Source: Indonesia Employee Health Benefits Prevalence Report 2023 published by konsultan human resource Mercer Marsh Benefits (MMB) Indonesia (Sindo News, 07 May 2023)
Data and study suggest that staff with good mental health have higher productivity compared to those with mental health problems. They tend to have the confidence to express their opinion, to think rationally, to focus better, and to make decision. (Source https://indonesiare.co.id/id/article/mental-health-awareness-di-lingkungan-kerja)

How to know Mental Health Problems

As Human Resource (HR), we observe the following in staff: appearance, behaviour, discipline, presence, performance, health claim.
When a job does not fit with potentials and other competence that a person has, work overload, non-flexible work hours, unclear work objective, work pressures (too high targets), no carrier path, no objective assessment (unfair), expenditure greater than income. There are a number of issues with regards to relations – i.e. conflicts with coworkers or superiors, families, seniors, bullying, unhealthy relations (sexual relations with other staff, same sex), unhealthy competition amongst staff, gossip, slander, and so on.
The presente also provides information on mental health issues in companies: lack of company attention to mental health, non-conducive work culture, lack of space for staff to express themselves, office politics, and non-ideal work environment. There is a need for information dissemination on regulation and policies, work-related information (training, orientasi re. job description, working instruction), education on mental health, mental health problem prevention, ways to identify and address mental health issues, anger management, work stress, and work competition prevention.
There is a need for a flexible company policy, i.e. work hour, work location [hybrid), company regulation re. work-life balance. The comany needs to also appreciate staff, facilitate comfortable work environment, i.e. air conditioning room, enough space to work, lighting, Employee Assistance Program: assistance program for employees to address personal and work issues, and psychological counselling.
The psychologist answers a participant’s question about how to prevent another person’s story to not get into our private life? Lia Rahmadiani answers that often the listener may inadvertantly draws energy from the person telling a story. She suggest tips to prevent that from happening.
Some useful tips:

1. By maintaining a distance – when we listen, one must be sure that there is a boundary, that it is not my problem.
2. Bubble light – pray and imagine that we are in an impenetrable bubble that protects us from bad energy.
3. Take a bath using salt water so that other people’s energy does not absorb our own energy.
4. We are aware that we are there only to listen, we are observers, not people who solve problems.
5. When not fit, we can reject (by saying can we talk later).