Breaking the Stigma with Mandy Basham

"We're whole people bringing ourselves to work and mental health is a key component for that."

Navigating Mental Health

In this episode, we dive into the delicate yet crucial topic of mental health at work. Mandy shares her observations on what’s broken in supporting employees, including the lack of understanding, trust issues, and the persistent stigma surrounding mental health. We discuss how these challenges can create barriers to open dialogue and support within organizations.

Tease Key Insights

• We explore the importance of recognizing that employees bring their whole selves to work, and how personal challenges can impact their professional lives.

• Mandy emphasizes the critical role of trust between employees and employers, and how vulnerability-based trust can foster a supportive environment.

• Actionable steps organizations can take to address mental health, including creating wellness committees, providing resources, and training managers to recognize signs of distress.

• Mandy shares her experiences in various industries, highlighting the need for a consistent, persistent presence in supporting employees’ mental health.

  
  

Why this Matters?

Building trust and empathy in the workplace is essential for effectively addressing mental health issues. By fostering an environment where employees feel safe and supported, organizations can encourage open dialogue about mental health struggles. This, in turn, leads to a more engaged and productive workforce. As leaders prioritize mental health and create a culture of understanding, they not only support their employees but also contribute to the overall success of the organization.

Listen Now

As we record this episode during Mental Health Awareness Month, it’s a timely reminder of the importance of prioritizing mental health in our workplaces.

I invite you to listen to this episode and reflect on how you can contribute to a culture that supports mental well-being. Together, we can create environments where everyone feels empowered to thrive.

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Mandy Basham

Human Resources Manager

With 18 years in Human Resources, Mandy is driven by a genuine passion for helping people grow and making sure everyone has a seat—and a voice—at the table. She is deeply passionate about employee wellness and mental health and strives to foster work environments where individuals feel supported, engaged, and empowered.  Her goal is always to strike the right balance between company objectives and employee needs, keeping engagement high and partnerships strong. Whether it’s leading strategic HR initiatives or simply checking in with a team member, she believes in showing up with purpose and heart. Mandy’s HR experience spans across industries such as healthcare, logistics, IT Staffing and currently within the construction industry as the HR Manager at Stevens Construction Corp. in Madison, WI.

Full Episode

Megan:

Hello and welcome to Culture Conversations, the podcast where we explore the people side of work. I'm your host, Megan Robinson. For years, I've found myself deep in discussions about workplace engagement with industry experts. Now I get to share this wisdom with all leaders, new and experienced, on their journeys to build cultures that maximize potential. We spend so much of our lives at work. Let's make it a place where our teams can grow and succeed. Hello and welcome to Culture Conversations. My name is Megan Robinson. I'm so excited to have Mandy Basham with me today. We're going to have a really fun conversation about some of those practical and really great important lessons that we're learning and what's happening right now when we approach mental health at work. I know mental health is a really delicate topic. It's a challenging one. Anyone in HR knows that it's something that comes up either very overtly or very subtly, but it's something that really we all have to deal with and navigate no matter your role, no matter your position, no matter your department. We're whole people bringing ourselves to work and mental health is a key component for that. So I wanna introduce Mandy Basham first. She has 18 years of human resources experience and she's driven by a genuine passion for helping people grow and make sure that everyone has a seat and a voice at the table. She's deeply passionate about employee wellness and mental health and strives to foster work environments where individuals feel supported, engaged, empowered. Her goal is always to strive for the right balance between company objectives and employee needs. Keeping that engagement high and that partnership strong, whether it's leading strategic HR initiatives or simply checking in with team members, she really believes in showing up with a purpose and heart. Mandy's HR experience spans across industries such as healthcare, logistics, IT staffing, and she's currently in the construction industry as an HR manager at Stevens Construction Corporation in Madison, Wisconsin. Thank you so much for joining me, Mandy.

Mandy:

Thank you for having me. I'm excited to talk with you about my experience with mental health.

Megan:

I love it. Even just reading that bio and seeing that you really start to see how caring for people and bringing that to the forefront and that blend between professional and personal lives is something that you've obviously navigated a lot in your career. And I will even say has done so successfully. Yeah. So I'll say in your experience, what have you really observed is broken when it comes to supporting employees with mental health?

Mandy:

Yeah, I mean, that's a great question. And I think some of it is the lack of understanding with mental health. through, you know, even with employees, with the company, you know, you mentioned it's, you know, kind of balancing it and companies are like, you know, come to work, do your job, but bring your whole self where your whole self involves mental health. And we all have stuff outside of work. Like we're not just who we are at work. We all have things going on and it affects us differently. And it's hard to come to work and turn that off. You're struggling with something at home. And you come to work, it's not so easy to turn that off. And that's not something that people think about all the time, especially if you're in a good place in life and you don't have something going on, like, you don't get it. Like, why can't you just focus? So I think it's this, it can be a lack of understanding, maybe it's a lack of it being top of mind of how it affects people. And we, you and I could have the same thing going on, but you can handle it one way and I can handle it another. Like I could be crumpled on the floor and you're working. So I just, I really think that can be a broken aspect of it is just that compassion and that understanding that, hey, it's going to impact people in different ways. Also, I think it can be with employees. I've seen that lack of trust, or they're unsure if they should trust, the employee should trust their employer. More so like, you know, like, hey, you're my employer, can I trust you with these personal issues? Are you really here to help me? Like, what's your motivation? So I've seen just a little bit of skepticism with it. as an HR professional trying to go in and help, they're kind of like, well, what's your angle? Some people are very open and other people are not. You know, I think the other thing I see a lot is stigma. There's still a lot of stigma with mental health and talking about it and, you know, making it okay and asking for help. It's just definitely something that people still struggle with and that we need to make more common, make it okay for people to talk about.

Megan:

I love those three huge buckets of what's broken with it. I know, interestingly enough, we're recording this in May, and I think it's Mental Health Awareness Month. So I love that we timed that perfectly, but that stigma is real strong and particularly in certain industries. I feel like some are more open with talking about it. It's almost an industry by industry.

Mandy:

Absolutely. Absolutely. And like you said, I've been in different industries, you know, from healthcare to logistics to IT consulting and now construction, and I've seen it. It's across all industries. I've seen employees that are struggling with mental health. You know, I think specifically construction was kind of a wake-up call for me as I didn't know a whole lot about it, but in the construction industry, like, it's very much like The thought is like you need to be tough and you just go on and you keep going and you don't ask for help. You know, and so that especially makes it hard in the construction industry is like, how do we break through to these employees and it's okay to ask for help. You know, that doesn't mean anything less, but that's a huge hurdle that we do have within the industry.

Megan:

What I love is that it starts to feed into the other point you made, which is about, I put it into the bucket of empathy, right? That understanding, that awareness, that being open to someone's different perspective and experiences. And that's not talked about, that's not thought of, that's not even the awareness for people. So when you start combining a gruff and tough attitude, with a lack of empathy, emotional intelligence, and the stigma on top of it, you really make it borderline impossible to bring this up as a topic of work.

Mandy:

Yeah, it's tough, you know, and it takes a lot of time, a lot of, you know, intention, being purposeful, getting out there, getting in front of them, letting them know who we are. Like, I am lucky enough to have an amazing team surrounding me, Um, that's all about this and all for this, but really letting them know, like, hey, we are people too. And we're here and we care and we understand those things that go on outside of work and we want to help.

Megan:

Do you think that you're seeing kind of this mental health or mental health awareness being pushed more from the employer of saying, hey, we know mental health is something we need to talk about it and encouraging that? Or are you seeing it more come from the employees?

Mandy:

I think a lot of companies, a lot of employers are realizing that, hey, this is a big thing. This is not something we can ignore. This is real, and it's affecting our employees. But I also think part of that is driven by what's going on with their employees. And some of their employees are willing to open up. Ours especially is knowing what's going on with our employees, actually getting to know them and having that pulse, getting out in the field, with them so we know what's going on so we can come back and say, hey, this is what we're seeing. This is what we're hearing. This is what our employees are struggling with. How can we make it better? I do think there's just a lot more information out there on mental health and how it's impacting and resources. So I do think it's something that companies are taking more seriously and wanting to take action.

Megan:

I will say for me personally, I had a team member that was struggling and it was one of those moments where I saw her and I'm like, we're not okay in this moment. And I saw the work performance decline for a couple weeks, which was unusual, but you know, we all have our ups and downs. That's totally fine. got on a phone call with her and I was just like, wow, what's going on? I mean, and it's someone that's very guarded, very introvert, not forthcoming with a lot of information. Her mother passed away. I mean, and it was just this whole, I mean, and there was a lot more to the story. It was a very complex story, but it was like, I would have never gotten that information. I would have never had her opened up. I would have never built One, I built the trust along the way, right? That trust angle is so critical. I love that you infused that trust component in mental health because we have to have that trust foundation. But what I thought was interesting, one, we had that connection and I was able to be there for her in a way that is definitely sliding past that professional personal relationship and bringing a whole person to work. But also interestingly, I noticed her work product improved after. And I wasn't expecting it, right? We are gonna give them more grace. You're gonna give someone a little bit more opportunity with that. But I did notice a difference. And reflecting on it now, I don't know if it's because I gave more grace in the work product or was it because that she had more freedom and more comfortability after kind of letting that go and having that openness and dialogue and talking about to actually improve performance.

Mandy:

I would think it's both, you know, like knowing you have an employer that's understanding and giving you grace is like a big weight off your shoulders, like to understand like, hey, my employer knows I'm human and I'm going through something. But I think another aspect that you said that's so important that I've experienced is you ask, you know your employees well enough to know, hey, something's off. And you took the time to ask and care as a person, you know, you're building that trust, because sometimes what I've noticed is people don't know who to go to, but they don't know who to talk to. They don't know who they can unload this on or ask for help. So, you know, you took that first step. which is huge, because I've had so many employees where I'm like, hey, what's going on? We're noticing X, Y, Z, or hey, you seem off today. And sometimes it's like I said, they don't know who to talk to. They don't know if they can tell us what's going on. There's been so many times where we're like, well, why didn't you let us know? We could have given you time off. We would have given you these resources. And it's just they're not comfortable. It doesn't cross their mind. But it goes so far, just taking the time to ask them what is going on. and checking in. Like I said, people, we give resources to people all the time that are like, I don't know where to turn. I need to talk to someone. Could you help me find a therapist? Or, you know, my wife is going through XYZ. And so it's just having, having someone to turn to. I think it's huge.

Megan:

And I'll ask, and this might be too complex of a question, because there's that stigma and you're trying to overcome the stigma, do you see warning signs or kind of these trails of when you know you have this kind of mental health issues at your organization that you need to start pushing it and bring it more to the forefront? How do you know?

Mandy:

Yeah, great question. Anyway, I think it's different for everyone. But like I said, if you really take the time to get to know your people, we see it in things like attendance. Like, hey, all of a sudden, this person's calling off every other day. Or, hey, their attendance has really dipped the past few weeks, and this is unlike them. Or their attitude at work, it's completely changed. Like, they're really happy, go lucky, and all of a sudden, they're very quiet, and they don't want to talk, and they're irritated. You know, there's just, there's subtle signs, you know, are they angry? Are they not, you know, is their work product, like you said, not what it usually is? There's definitely telltale signs that if you really know your people and you pay attention, you can see that.

Megan:

Okay, it's looking for that change or that shift.

Mandy:

Yeah. Yeah, you know, I think that's been the biggest for us. I mean, we do have some employees who are lucky enough that will just come to us and be like, hey, I'm having this issue. But other times it's really us, you know, myself and my team are phenomenal because we'll all be like, hey, you know, my HR generalist will come to me and be like, hey, I've noticed so-and-so's attendance is going down and this is not like them and I don't want to just Discipline them because I think something's going on. Can I have a conversation? I'm like, yes, please do that. Which I think is great.

Megan:

I feel like it's just layering on that and you keep touching on that trust element. If you haven't built the trust between team members and managers, and I was actually looking at the DDI report on leadership development for 2025. I'll probably put that in the show notes because it's a fabulous report. And just the focus on trust, on how trust is deteriorating at such rapid levels within organizations, between managers, at all levels. But I'll say the biggest gap is not just from an employee to employer, but it's the employee to their direct manager. And that trust factor has been just disappearing so rapidly. And I think to your point, it's bringing these mental health issues into new light, because they're not getting addressed, because they're not getting acknowledged, or I don't even want to say dealt with, but handled in any sort of way, which is compassionate, which then feeds into to the stigma.

Mandy:

Oh my gosh. I know it's a vicious circle, you know, but I do think, you know, I do keep saying trust and it is establishing that trust because I have talked to employees that have come to us, you know, to me and HR, but like, I don't trust my manager. You know, I'm not comfortable going to them with this because of X, Y, Z, or they have examples of when they've done it in the past and it hasn't gone well, or they don't feel like they're listened to. So it's, It is huge and I've always been big on, you know, that vulnerability based trust. Like if I want people to trust me in my position, which is huge, like I need to give them something too. I need to share tidbits about myself and say, Hey, you're going through that. I go through that too. Or this has been my experience or just, you know, out of nowhere being like, Hey, you know, I had a really rough night and this is what happened. Like just trying to let them know, like I'm human too. I have issues. Everybody here does. Um, and it's okay to talk about it.

Megan:

I love the vulnerability based trust. And I want to throw it out there that that's not the only way to build trust because I know there's a lot of people that are not comfortable sharing those personal. And I'll actually say my husband, for example, does not show a lot of any personal information. And he's a complete introvert. And it's amazing. I very rarely get the glimpse of stories of what he's heard, but he's dealt with a lot of very challenging situations and a lot of mental health and a lot of very, very, very typical, terrible situations of people that he's managed and led, but because he was there, because he listened empathetically, because he built those spaces and has that psychological safety around him. And I'll even say feeling listened to doesn't start when you need it to. It's feeling listened to when they have an idea in a meeting, not just because if you're not listening to them professionally, there's no way they're going to feel that you're going to listen to them personally. Yeah. When you start crying. Absolutely right. So I'll ask this because we're getting stuck a lot. What are some of the things that you've found success or you've been able to gain some momentum when addressing? Because there's a lot we can't do with mental health. There's some things we can do. Yeah. How have you found some of that?

Mandy:

So more on the things that we've done that have worked, like talking about. Perfect. Yeah. Yeah, I think, you know, personally, we have, we have done a lot, you know, I think with the success and gaining momentum, you know, with our employees, I think I touched on, it's just, it's that repetition, it's constantly showing up, it's being there, it's meeting the employees where they're at as well. because I've had employees that I'm like, I know something's going on and I'll reach out and they're super open with me and I can give them resources and we can talk through it and what they need. And I've had other employees that I call and I'm like, hey, you know, I know X, Y, and Z is going on and I want to check on you. I'm concerned. And they pretty much almost hang up on me because they are not comfortable. But that doesn't mean I'm going to go away. It doesn't mean I'm going to pester them, but I'm still here. I'm still going to email them resources. We're still going to check in. But it's really meeting them where they're at has been a huge thing. Because like we talked about, everyone is different with how they want to communicate. If they're more introverted, if they want to share, if they don't, it really depends.

Megan:

For a marking term, I coined myself, I call it the consistent, persistent presence. You're consistently there. This is something that we are consistently talking about, whether you need it, whether you don't, and it's persistent. When something happens that you are addressing it, that you continue to beat that drum in a positive, helpful way.

Mandy:

Absolutely. You know, and I've been, I've been in this role for about a year and a half, and I feel like we've made a lot of progress. They already had a wonderful culture when I arrived and very caring, but I feel like specifically with our mental health concerns, we've been able to push through with a lot of. a lot of different ways in the past year and a half. You know, again, it goes with meeting the employees where they're at. But like we have, we created a wellness committee. So we meet and we talk about, you know, what could we do? How could we further this? What are we hearing? And we're also the team and a few others that if there's a crisis, like we are, we are out there, we are in the field, we are all together. So no one's alone. You know, just having that support is amazing. You know, we all are trained, you know, like how can we handle this crisis? What's the best thing? I mean, some of these things are very beyond us too. Like we are not licensed professionals, but like we know enough to get that help. So I think that's been huge. And I would recommend any company to have just a team when there is a crisis or people you can turn to with what do I do next? We also do a day that focuses annually on safety. And this year we focused it all on wellness and mental health focus, which was, it went over very well, but just knowing the need has been huge. So we brought in a speaker to specifically talk about mental health struggles in the construction industry, which went over well. And I know I've talked a lot about resources, but I keep saying, like, give them resources. So I think it's really, I would encourage any company to just have their resources ready when employees, because you never know when that employee is going to say, you know, I'm really struggling today, and I need help, or, you know, I have suicidal thoughts, or you just never know. So, having things like, do you have an employee assistance program and do you have that flyer available? Here in Wisconsin, we have a service that's 2-1-1 that we can give out to employees and it gives them immediate access to local programs and services and mental health crisis. We always have our suicide resources available. Like, what can you do? Partnering with local resources is huge as well. We have found sometimes in the insurance industry that mental health professionals are really hard to get into. And so sometimes we'll have employees and they need it now. So we have gone and partnered with other local resources that maybe are outside of the insurance industry that we can refer them to, that they give discounted costs. Like if someone needs to talk to a therapist today, they can get in. or that's something we could assist them in. So I think that is that has been huge.

Megan:

I heard a couple amazing initiatives that you've put together that I think any organization needs to have ready to go. The first is that kind of reactive step of having those really clear resources, thinking of all the what if situations. And I would say in my career, I've seen a lot of funky situations. I can only imagine what you've seen in your situations. and building up that bank and building up that deck and just having at least a starting point so that you have that quick go-to. I love having that crisis, kind of that crisis plan. I'm seeing more and more of those in organizations and this needs to have the same type of contingency planning and the what-if situations. But I don't want to gloss over at the beginning, you really started identifying different tools for listening. And I think that's so critical of how are you listening to the employees because you are one person. You are one team, and how do you really get the pulse from key influencers across the organization? How do you give people the training so that you're having the listening? How do they know the information of how to escalate the things that they're hearing to make sure that people are just having that skillset in there? Because it's so broken currently, you've really created mitigation strategies to reduce the risk of not hearing or not letting people feel heard, which is really impressive.

Mandy:

Yeah, you know, and I think one thing our company is, has done great at is focusing on this mental health and the training and it is training managers. Like I'm not here, the rest of our wellness committee, like our, you know, this kind of crisis team I'm referring to, we're not there with everybody. So it's like, how do we empower, how do we train these managers that are there with them? Um, so it's very, you know, it's very intentional. It's lots of conversations. It's, um, Yeah, lots of them. And we've done, they've done trainings on these annual, like those safety focused days that we do where we just take the managers and have them sit and learn about mental health and round tables and how they handle it. And then it's us in front of them saying like, hey, here's some scenarios you could come across. Here's some ways to address it. Here's some language you could use. Here's, you know, some scenarios you could practice, but call us. If something happens and you don't know what to do, call me. Reach out to us, we are here for you because we get it. There's some big situations that happen and they're scary and it's like, how do you handle it? So call us, we'll figure it out together.

Megan:

You'll hear all of them and it's not a matter of if it's going to be something you're going to come across, it's a matter of when it comes across. Well, this has been such a pleasure talking with you. I'm so glad that you're able to give something like mental health the attention, the focus, and start really breaking down where we have some opportunities to make some improvements so that our employees are in a better position, that the organizations are stronger because of it. Any last parting words or piece of advice?

Mandy:

Oh, you know, I think it's, hang in there, you know, HR professionals, leaders of companies, like it's so important, you know, and I have heard the feedback, you know, time and, you know, from a few employees, like, oh, we keep talking about mental health. Can we do that? Can we talk about something else? But no, we cannot, because it's not going away. And it's something, if you haven't thought about, I would encourage you to think about. And how are your employees feeling? And how can you get that pulse? And what relationship do you have with them? Because it impacts everybody across all industries. I just feel it's so important to have a plan, to recognize it, and allow employees a space to talk about it and to get the help that they need.

Megan:

Oh, so, so wise. So with those parting words, I love the conversation, the dialogue that needs to happen around it and the ability to listen. So please do stay safe out there. Please be sure to listen to your employees and your team and create those opportunities to get more awareness around the mental health and to practice that. So thank you so much, Mandy, for joining us and for having this important conversation.

Mandy:

Thank you for having me.

Megan:

Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Culture Conversations. I'm your host, Megan Robinson, founder of eLeader Experience, a professional leadership development company. Today, we shared actionable ideas to navigate the evolving workplace landscape, compete for talent, and build cultures that maximize potential. If you're looking to learn more about how to support your organization's leaders, you can learn more about our work at eLeaderExperience.com. Now get out there and contribute positively to your organization's culture with your own conversations.