“Find out trends of where your energy is during the day,” says Thomas Frantz from Salesforce at BDF’s tech conference “Time to Reset? Technology and mental health” held last month.
Lucy Ruck, BDF Taskforce Manager hosted the conference and the day was kicked off by CEO Diane Lightfoot, who set the scene and was joined by Katie O’Brien, Inclusion and Diversity Manager at AngloAmerican, sponsors of the event.
Diane said: “The topic of today’s conference came about when I learned of the tragic rise in workers in the IT industry taking their own lives since COVID began. Without our technical workers many businesses would have ground to a halt entirely. Many of us wouldn’t be here in this visual room today. But the toll it has taken on those we relied on to make those changes and we still rely on is undeniable as we will hear from panellists this afternoon.”
She also highlighted “… our dependence on technology and always-on culture risks taking its toll on all of us, whether it is body dysmorphia, as a result of staring at our own image on screen all day… how is that affecting our mental health?”
Katie acknowledged: “What we’re trying to do [at AngloAmerican] is put mental awareness not as something separate but integrated into the way we operate from day to day and that is certainly the long‑term strategy and what we’re working towards.“
During a session on mental health in the workplace, Sara John from RBS commented:
On a more personal level, I feel now, I am busier than I’ve ever been before! I work from home… My calendar is just back‑to‑back with meetings over the screen and it is just, I lack that commute time where it gives me that space and that head space to think away from the computer. … I do fumble a bit between one meeting and another, as I bring up my next meeting prep. I don’t like that if I’m honest. For a character like me, I prefer to have a little bit more head space, be a little bit more prepared.”
Tom Frantz from Salesforce added: “I started to realise the trend of all my energy is through the day, through written communication or meetings so like after 2.30 p.m., I will not take a meeting. I don’t care who you are. If it is not death, I can’t do it anymore.”
Gabriella Wickes from Experian shared some insights with attendees about their online life: “Establish boundaries, that include conscious decisions about what you read and look at online. Look at how to leverage built‑in controls within technology such as your phone settings, parental controls, activating usage statistics just so you can track how long you spend online each day.”
A sobering point came from R;pple’s founder Alice Hendy who found the suicide prevention tool after the death of her brother: “The biggest kind of challenge that I’m getting back from businesses at the moment is that we’ve already got wellbeing stuff in our organisation, we already do that. R;pple isn’t a wellbeing tool that I’m trying desperately to make people aware of. This is a crisis intervention tool. What support is there for people that are actually making plans and are in total and utter despair and turmoil and who have had enough?”
“I think the conversations need to be pushed from the top, the top down. I think people need to be more open and vulnerable about how they’re feeling. I’m very open. If I sat here and said, ‘I’m fine, everything’s great’, I wouldn’t be practising what I’m preaching here. I struggle every single day and I think I will do for a very long time, if not forever actually. It’s that that opens up that opportunity for conversation.”
Angela Matthews, Head of Policy at BDF, shared findings from some recent research with BDF members on “ping-dread” (notification overload), “We need to live with the technologies that we are endlessly designing and creating. There is an identified and ever emerging desire as human beings to not just survive but ‘to survive with wellbeing’.
“Employers, you need to answer this question in your organisations for your technology and your wellbeing strategies. How are the technologies you use creating healthier, happier working environments for your employees not just to work, but to work with wellbeing?’
We’ll be sharing more findings from the BDF research for Mental health Awareness Week in May 2022.
If you are concerned for a colleague, please go to www.ripplesuicideprevention.com
If you would like to find out about or join the Technology Taskforce, go to businessdisabilityforum.org.uk/networks-and-taskforces/technology-taskforce
If you’re a BDF Member or Partner you can watch a video of the conference at businessdisabilityforum.org.uk/knowledge-hub/resources/conference-time-to-reset-technology-and-mental-health
