Mental health is just as important as physical health, especially for remote workers. Mental illness impacts happiness, productivity and team cohesion. It can lead to...

We aim to support our team members and create a healthy and happy workplace, wherever they are. We want everyone to feel appreciated and be treated fairly.

People Ops (HR) is responsible for communicating this policy and overseeing its implementation. We want to make sure that this policy is inclusive in nature and will plan to revise this as our team needs grow.

Mental health issues in the workplace are any conditions that affect employees’ state of mind. These conditions may include mild depression, stress and severe anxiety which may result in burnout and nervous breakdowns. Substance abuse may also perpetuate mental health issues.

Mental health problems manifest in different ways. Some employees may suffer with no physical side effects, while others may experience physical symptoms (e.g. increased blood pressure, lethargy, changes in eating habits.)

Team Members may experience mental health issues for various reasons that an employer cannot control (e.g. hereditary, family conflicts, general health.) But, there are also work-related reasons for mental health problems, including:

Our goal is to recognize and address cases of workplace pressures that contribute to mental health issues especially as we continue to work in remote settings.

We aim to:

Our hope is to in the future provide counseling to any team member who may wish to speak to a counselor for any matter of mental health. In the meantime, you can access some professional help for free here if you live in the U.S. For those of you in Canada access this website to learn more about how you can get connected with a mental health professional.

We want to raise mental health awareness and combat the stigmas associated with them. To do this, we will:

Additionally, we encourage open communication between team members and managers. If team members have a work-related problem, they should speak openly to their managers. Managers are in turn obliged to listen to their team members and should search for a mutually satisfying solution together. We do this each month in our 1:1's between team member and manager. However your manager should always be available for you to reach out to in between those scheduled meetings.

Managers should also proactively identify mental health issues among their team members. If they perceive that a team member is in a state of emotional or psychological distress, they should reach out to them.

Here are some tips on how managers can address an employee who suffers from mental health issues in common situations:

The law protects team members who suffer from medical conditions (e.g. clinical depression) or mental disorders (e.g. schizophrenia.) Consistent with our non-discrimination practices, we will treat all team members fairly and we won’t oblige anyone to disclose their condition or other medical information. Instead, we will attempt to support team members who come to us with mental health issues and establish strategies that apply to everyone.

Also, we will make reasonable accommodations for people with mental disabilities (Working remotely covers this well and allows greater flexibility than a traditional workplace).