Our company has a therapist

Why we’re tackling the stigma surrounding mental health head-on, and you should too.

There are two times in my life that I’ve spoken to someone professionally about personal challenges I’ve faced; in 2004 and in 2013. Both have been to do with relationships, and both times I’ve managed to work through the problems faced and felt so much better as a result. My focus at work improved. I generally felt happier. I’ve never regretted opening up and talking about such things.

With that admission out of the way, let me now tell you a little about ribot, a company I’d co-founded with my brother some 9 years ago. I’ll come back to the point above later on. Bear with me.

Okay. Let me be frank. ribot is a services company. It sells the time of its staff so that they can research, design and build digital products for other companies. We tend not to retain too much IP, and our reputation is only as good as the people we employ. People are central to the success of our business, much more so than if we were selling a product.

Given this, it’s vital that ribots are able to function effectively at work. But it’s also naive to think that even if everything within ribot were perfect (which it isn’t!) — i.e that everyone had full satisfaction in their work; that the company allowed each person to reach a constant state of flow every day; or that the company was always a watertight, meaningful cultural fit for the individual — that ribots would be able to function effectively.

This post is as much about the ongoing stigma surrounding mental health as it is about the rise of the emotionally-intelligent, principle-led organisation.

To reach this conclusion simply ignores the fact that although people spend most of their day within the company’s walls, that they also have a life outside of it. That they might also have personal challenges, unexpected misfortune or be simply troubled in some way.

And so to assume that each ribot can rationally leave these issues at the door and come through into the studio each day to perform the tasks required of them, to manage the natural stresses that come with having a full-time job, to think that they can separate home life from work life, well, it’s just simply misguided. It’s wrong to ask that of people. And even in the absurd situation where we were to ask, I’d be very surprised to find anyone who could do that with any degree of consistency.

So being mindful of this reality, is there anything we as a company can do to alleviate some of the problems that people may be facing? Ones we don’t know about. Ones that even they might not yet be aware of? Well, I think there is…

Life-coach. Counsellor. Therapist. Call it what you will. We’ve decided to hire one.

For four days a month, people are given the opportunity to discuss matters with this person in an entirely confidential setting. These issues may be personal or they may be work-related, but ribot will never know the contents of these discussions. We don’t need to. I just know that opening up, confronting and potentially overcoming any of the things that might be on one’s mind will do that person a wealth of good. The company, I expect, will benefit as a result.

‘People’ is one of our values, and our mission is to help everyday people live simpler, more fulfilling lives. We often talk of how our work might benefit people who use the digital products we create, but why can’t this mission also apply to our own people? We don’t pay the most in the industry, but we believe that people will be far more attracted to a culture that’s genuinely empathic, caring and listens, than one that just offers the highest salaries.

We’ve only just put this idea into action, but most people have signed up and attended sessions. Though we had to tread sensitively about how we communicated the idea to begin with, my public and private discussions with members of the team suggest that they’ve already so much they want to talk about. They can already see the benefit. They seem lighter, excited even, by this new opportunity to talk candidly about anything.

Mental health isn’t an issue for the sick, the socially-ostracised or the troubled. It’s more simple than that. Mental health is an issue for anyone with a brain.

I’ll be the first to admit that this is a fairly uncommon step for a company to take. But I strongly believe that all forward-thinking companies that aim to put people first will eventually consider adopting some interpretation of this approach as part of their company culture.

This post is as much about the ongoing stigma surrounding mental health as it is about the rise of the emotionally-intelligent, principle-led organisation. Mental health isn’t an issue for the sick, the socially-ostracised or the troubled. It’s more simple than that. Mental health is an issue for anyone with a brain.

And to be clear, it’s not something we’re going to shout about going forward; “Free counselling sessions” won’t appear as part of our benefits package any time soon. However, I’m confident that with time, along with the changes being made elsewhere, the effects on company wellbeing will come through in our work. That our output will do all the important talking on our behalf, leaving all the other conversations to take place safely behind closed doors.