Demystifying The Myth II
“Demystify the myth”. It sounds very 1970’s — a hippie hollering at a Wall Street investment banker after having imbibed a little something — demystify the myth dude! However, that is not the brand of demystification for which we are here. You might know that individuals with a mental illness are considered People with Disabilities and other Special Needs (PWDSN). Among psychology and psychiatry circles, the list is far more expansive and should you fancy getting into the grit of it, the DSM-V (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5th edition) is a prime start. There are some patchy beliefs within offices seeking to expand their payroll regarding people with mental illness. We shall be demystifying, dudes and dudettes.
Some of The Myths
Some of these beliefs include the “incompetence of PWD’s”. Now, while certain illnesses may complicate the fulfilment of a task, it does not impede the overall completion of said task. So, viewing mentally ill people as volatile or dangerous unfairly characterises them as incompetent. This prejudges them as a liability rather than an asset in the eyes of potential employers. Such misconceptions are what we are referring to as myths and aim to disassemble in today’s article.
1. Liability vs Assets
There are myriads of myth around people living with mental illness and employability. Firstly, is their characterisation of being an inconvenience, burden and liability in a company. Therefore most employers unfairly conclude that their potential new hires may not excel ergo should not be employed.
This discrimination results in societal inequalities due to economic disparity. The barriers to employment such as their underemployment, inadequate promotion opportunities or outright unemployment make it hard to earn a living. The most sinister of these consequences is an inferior education preventing them from building formidable careers, which perpetuates the vicious cycle of workplace prejudice against people with mental illness.
Ultimately, unemployment renders most PWDSN as beggars, denying them the necessary capacity to launch out on their own. Most carry on living in their families of origin their entire lives. Starting with education to employment or entrepreneurship up until retirement, the majority are unable to initiate a career much less upward mobility through their working lives. While most are delayed in their dreams and aspirations as a result of societal barriers, many more are stuck in poorly paying, hard labour, menial jobs as opposed to professional work of their choice.
2. Danger! Do Not Cross
Secondly, as mentioned before, the assumption that PWDSN are violent or dangerous suggest they may cause harm to not only themselves but their colleagues. When they make it past recruitment and their illness become office knowledge -in an environment that holds such a misconception- an exponential increase in facing stigma and discrimination from workmates, aggravating the pre-existing condition is not far behind. See how the vicious cycle keeps coming up? In addition to the uphill task that was finding employment, being open about the struggle with mental health, and the added emotional cost of working in unfavourable conditions wears thin the coping mechanism of a PWDSN.
3. The Boy Who Cried Wolf
Lastly, “young people make up mental health issues to avoid responsibilities”, affectionately said as ni kujifanya (it’s a pretence). A young adult identifying as a PWDSN has a significant amount to deal with on their plate. Making far less than an age-mate 10 years ago, still living with the parents, seeing few chances of starting a career and staring at the reality of wanting to contribute meaningfully to the society with little prospects can paralyse even the most stoic of personalities. Calling this a pretence, only serves to snuff an already weak flame. In the same manner that kids have their parents to help them walk, internships and apprenticeships are meant to ease young PWDSN adults into the world of work. Here they can carve out a career path and pay it forward to the next generation of youth. It’s the circle of work-life.
Job Opportunities
A year and some months into the start of the global pandemic and the effects of COVID-19 have been far-reaching. Loss of livelihoods is one of the consequences of the Coronavirus. The Kenya government’s mitigation strategies call for frequent and abrupt lockdowns which cuts down the hours businesses operate. In response, companies’ efforts in minimising operations in a slowing economy resulted in layoffs. This means that aside from the already large demographic in search of employment, the pool of job-seekers is now much wider.
Job seeking in and of itself is already a full-time job. However, after multiple applications, possibly just as many interviews with no success it begins to take a toll on the applicant. Now, imagine the same feelings of frustration but as an individual dealing with mental health exacerbated by the myths we’ve discussed. Their resilience, though present, is slightly more fragile. Even with the help of medication, a percentage of their psychological and physical effort is consistently devoted to dealing with mental illness.
Gumaywa’s friend in I’m just a vessel (if you haven’t read it, pop over there ASAP), who has Borderline Personality Disorder and was dealing with suicidal ideations, mentioned purpose. A good number of PWDSN are often self-employed and we laud them for having the guts to go the entrepreneurial way. However, in the comfort of a salaried job with allowances and multiple SACCO options, have we considered that PWDSN would like a slice of the formal employment cake? Does purpose mean having to forgo choosing between having an independently run small business or getting employed?
For employers who have no close contact with PWDSN, determining how to be more inclusive may be challenging. You are contending with the perception of risk associated with clients who find out they are being served by an individual dealing with a mental issue. The first instinct is to protect the business from liability. You would hate to get sued by staff or clients. Manage your personnel helps to mitigate said risk. This means creating a team dynamic which will heavily rely on the shared definition of what under-performance is vis-á-vis the illness. It can be difficult to know where to draw the line.
Talk with mental health experts. Have candid conversations with your staff members to discuss what flexibility is needed to work as a team and how to meet the objectives of each party.
Some practical solutions in addition to being accommodating is to read up on mental illness in the workplace. The more one is informed, the better equipped one is. Talk with mental health experts. Have candid conversations with your staff members to discuss what flexibility is needed to work as a team and how to meet the objectives of each party. Also, have emergency contacts, in case one has to reach out for help.
Rethink the one size fits all model of recruitment. Have your human resource department get up to speed with the changing organisational culture. Engage your current employees in making for a seamless transition from onboarding to the everyday work environment. Organise staff sensitisation sessions so the team learns to accept each other. This will foster an atmosphere of openness and honesty among staff members and with the clients.
Creating a favourable work environment for those with a mental illness inadvertently provides a better work environment for all your employees. And happy employees make for happy clients. The first step however, is to decide to care. Once one has made that decision, the sky’s the limit.
Originally published at http://strokesandprose.wordpress.com on July 6, 2021.
