Supporting Mental Health in Remote Workers

Checking in on the mental health of your employees can be tricky, especially when they’re working remotely some or all of the time and you’re not seeing them in person. But it’s important to look out for signs that there might be a problem and to set boundaries to help support the mental health of your remote workers in the long-term.

Signs to look out for in remote workers

It’s not as easy as being able to list five thing to look out for. Every employee is different and many signs aren’t obvious to the eye. It might sound simplistic, but you need to actually look and make time to check in with your line reports, especially when working remotely.

When you examine how someone is, broaden your frame of reference. Decline can often be so incremental that the employee might not notice it themselves. So rather than comparing them to yesterday, think back to a time when you know they were functioning well.

However, there are some key signs to look out for that might indicate a problem.

Changes in behaviour

If your employee exhibits a change in behaviour, like turning their camera off in video calls when it used to be switched on or looking dishevelled when they used to be well turned out, this isn’t necessarily indicative of a problem, but it could mean there’s a lack of self-care. Also watch out for the language they use. Repeated use of phrases like ‘my diary is crazy,’ ‘things are manic’ or ‘I can’t get a moment to myself’ is also a tell-tale sign.

Not doing the things they used to enjoy

Perhaps your team member used to go for lunchtime walks, or to a weekly yoga class and now they have work calls over that slot in their calendar. Or maybe they’re consistently working late when they never used to. These are red flags. If they have a hybrid working pattern, then a reluctance to come into the office—aside from genuine reasons like schedule clashes or lengthy commutes—could indicate an underlying worry or problem.

No time to breathe

If someone has to eat lunch on a video call it shows they have too much on. Shared calendars are a nightmare, as people just squeeze meetings into every available slot without asking, but they do mean that you can check how much your employees have on. Have a close look at their calendars – do they have time to eat, for screen breaks, to actually do any work? Make sure they haven’t lost control and their calendar doesn’t own them.

Five top tips for supporting mental health in remote workers

1. Don’t try to ‘cure’ them

Unless you’ve been clinically trained in managing mental health conditions, it’s not your responsibility to ‘cure’ or ‘fix’ them. This can be a huge barrier to managers asking a team member how they are, because they’re terrified they’ll be presented with something that they feel ill-equipped to resolve.

What you should do is care about their wellbeing, listen and give them time. Then help them look at what support might be available and how they might access it.

2. Be proactive

When you ask someone how they are, they’ll usually just reply ‘fine’, which is a reflex response. You need to start asking your team members how they really are. And don’t assume people always really know how they are, as often they aren’t looking for the signs in themselves. Just because they aren’t drowning today, doesn’t mean their heads are fully above water.

If they don’t know, or don’t want to tell you, then you might have to ‘go first’ to set the tone for an open and honest conversation. You might need to tell them that you’re tired, that you find working from home a bit lonely, or you worry about world events. You don’t have to share anything really personal, or that burdens them, but make it clear that it’s okay for them to be honest.

3. Prioritise

If work stress, or an unmanageable workload is contributing to your staff member’s ill health, then you should take action. Help them prioritise their work so it feels more manageable. And do this regularly, as what’s a priority on Monday might not still be on Wednesday.

Employees tend to assume their manager knows everything they’re working on, and so must think they’re able to take on a new request. So, as a manager, you should encourage pushback. Make it okay for them to say, ‘I can’t accommodate Z on top of X and Y’.

The uncomfortable reality is that whatever you do, there will never be enough time, resources, energy or money, especially in the charity sector. So don’t try to do everything at the expense of your employees’ health.

4. Lead by example

In addition to ‘going first’ as mentioned above, you—and your charity—need to model the behaviour you want your employees to follow.

People follow stories, not PowerPoints, so it’s no good just telling them what to do. Set an example for your team to follow: prioritise your time well, be honest about your struggles and set boundaries. If you really want to support mental health in remote workers, then this needs to come from your senior leadership.

5. Examine your organisational culture

Don’t forget that the tone of the organisation is set from the top down. If your CEO has a crazy diary with no respite, then this sends a message to employees. If being busy is a point of pride or badge of importance in your charity, then you need to examine your culture and look at setting up (and enforcing) safer and more sustainable working practises.

Boundaries can be harder to enforce in charities, where people are more willing to sacrifice their personal time, but it should be clear that this should never be at the cost of their mental health.