Building a safe psychological culture in the workplace

IOD, May 2017

Dr Mike Drayton presented his seminar was presented to the member of the IOD.

Would you notice if a colleague was stressed, anxious or overworked? What would you say or do?

In December 2015, Matsuri Takahashi jumped to her death. She had been working for Dentsu, a Japanese advertising company, for eight months and doing over a hundred hours overtime each month. Her social media messages revealed the escalating pressure she was feeling.

But no one at work noticed. Or if they did, they didn’t do anything about it. Perhaps they just didn’t know what to do or say.

If only Miss Takahashi’s managers had been equipped with the knowledge, skills and confidence to enable them to deal with worsening mental health in a proactive, effective and compassionate way.