Faced with high levels of worker stress, anxiety and burnout as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many companies pledged that employee mental health would become a top priority.
Firms promised manager training to ensure bosses were more empathetic toward employee struggles. Some offered more mental health benefits, such as improved insurance coverage and employee assistance programs that offer free therapy sessions.
Despite the increased attention, however, the stigma of mental illness persists, preventing many with bipolar disorder, clinical depression and other maladies from feeling safe enough to be open with employers about their diagnoses and seek out workplace supports that they’re legally allowed.
“The vast majority of the corporations, the businesses that are saying, ‘Oh, we care, mental health is important,’ I just don’t believe it,” said Claudia Sahm, a 46-year-old former Federal Reserve economist who was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2011 and advocates for healthy workplace environments. “Because until you actually put [in] the money and the resources and the training, it’s just words.”
By Denise Guerra, & Samantha Masunaga