Mental health awareness is at large. And so it should be. Especially for men.
We all know that men struggle more than women to talk about how they feel and it’s having a huge impact on business performance.
Work is the second biggest trigger point for male depression behind relationship breakdown. Yet if you Google ‘support for men in business’, you’ll find pages of programmes geared up towards supporting woman, but nothing for the men.
Men are much less likely to seek help in the workplace. Why? Because the organisational culture doesn’t support it.
In fact, within most organisational cultures, it’s actively discouraged.
When men are struggling at work, they don’t show up with the same ‘conventional’ low vibe emotions, so feelings of depression and anxiety can be harder to spot.
Our research shows that men don’t come forward and seek help at work because they:
- Struggle with emotional literacy – Feel unable to find the words to help them explain how they feel. This can give rise to unhelpful and unhealthy coping strategies that are sometimes labelled ‘toxic masculinity.’
- Need permission to talk – There’s no dedicated time or safe space within the workplace that gives men permission to share how they’re feeling.
- Are stuck in a masculine identity – Fearing what people will think if they step away from the conditioned and ingrained ‘norms’ of masculinity.
- Are lacking male role models – That not only show up to work being real with their emotions, but are also OK with that.
- Feel they don’t have the right to ask for help – On paper they appear to ‘have it all’, but are conflicted with the shame around not feeling good.
- Believe emotion = weakness – Being emotional is seen by many men as being ‘weak’, which is one of their biggest shame triggers.
