Among employees with lived experience of mental illness, 43% cite a supportive supervisor as the key variable for thriving at work.
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Have you ever had to choose between reaching for your goals and showing up as your true self? An estimated 59.3 million U.S. adults report having lived with mental illness, but many never share that reality with their peers or supervisors at work. The fear of judgment or of undermined opportunities breeds suffering in silence. Individuals with lived experience are constantly weighing the risk of disclosure because they know it can impact a supervisor’s view of their potential and keep them from receiving promotions to more responsible and rewarding roles.
Living in a glass house
I am not guessing what this tension feels like — I lived it. While working at a large Silicon Valley engineering firm with undisclosed schizophrenia, I felt I was living in a glass house — fearful that if people saw evidence of my illness, it could shatter my career — and too afraid to challenge the stigma entrenched in the status quo. In fact, when my illness flared up after four years of “hiding it” on the job, that promising career did shatter. I had to resign, forfeit my graduate school admission, and retreat to a psychiatric hospital. As I languished for years, I believed no one should have to endure such a life-crushing blow. If my workplace had openly offered support for its workers with mental illness, my life might have taken a very different path.
Today, I serve as a co-founder and executive at a mental health nonprofit and appreciate the opportunities I have had to improve lives through my meaningful career. A key to my professional growth has been that my employer supports me to live and work openly with my diagnosis — as a strength.
Leadership starts with support
If you’re an executive, you can empower your workforce with such lived experience by committing to making your workplace a zone of belonging and by broadcasting that promise frequently. According to the Workers with Severe Mental Illness Survey, 43% of respondents said the leading determinant of success and growth in the workplace is having a supportive supervisor. That starts with you.
As a leader working to shift culture, be sure to include effective education. Immerse yourself in learning led by people with lived experience, and expose your management team to such contact education. As studies show, this format is effective at reducing stigma, which is essential for team-building.
Also, include education on the unique ways people with different brains experience and interact in their professional worlds. Managers need training to recognize and nurture their workers’ neurodistinct strengths and evolving health needs.
The power of flexible scheduling
As an employer, it’s important to offer accommodations that enable your employees with mental illness experience to stay productive. Often, employers worry that those adjustments will be onerous or expensive, but by far the most highly requested accommodation is free: flexibility in scheduling. In fact, 89% of individuals living with severe mental illness said flexibility is essential for thriving.
In a supportive environment, teammates with lived experience will have the freedom to leverage their strengths and build reputations as valuable and reliable contributors. Make room for these employees to share examples of how their neurodivergence and handling of adversity have unlocked vital qualities — attention to detail, creative problem-solving, fierce compassion, and deep empathy. Sharing lessons learned from lived experience helps to form common ground and mutual support throughout teams.
I have seen firsthand that meaningful, ambitious careers are possible while living with mental illness, but employees should not have to choose between protecting their privacy and getting the support they need. Leaders can change that equation by creating workplaces where disclosure is met not with diminished expectations, but with trust, flexibility, and opportunity.
