Mental Illness in the Workplace: Understanding How Managers Respond to their Employees Living with a Mental Illness

Abstract

This present research explores the following research question: How do managers respond to employees who are living with a mental illness? In answering this research question, I explore the challenges mental illnesses pose to managers, how managers successfully and unsuccessfully respond to those challenges, and the potential positive outcomes associated with encountering an employee who is living with a mental health condition. I answer my guiding research question through five in-depth semi-structured interviews and by relying on six structured and targeted narrative interviews that had been conducted for a previous research project. All interviews were conducted with managers across a variety of industries who have experience working with at least one employee who has lived with a mental health condition. Based on the themes that emerge in these interviews, I document the challenges managers face. I also identify several ‘facilitators of success’, defined as behaviours or actions that managers believed had some degree of positive impact on helping an employee living with a mental illness. The insights developed through this research will better inform the research community regarding managers’ experiences working with employees with a mental illness, as well help inform organizations regarding how they can better equip their managers in dealing with employee mental illness.