Mental Health Awareness Month 2024 - Tracy

16 May 2024

Last week, we caught up with our Learning and Development Manager Vic to chat about what wellbeing means to her, both at work and beyond. As part of our Mental Health Awareness Month series, we’re keeping the conversation going.

Next up, we’re chatting with Tracy, one of our wonderful SmartPAs based in South Africa. Read on to find out what wellbeing means to her!

Q: What are the key factors influencing positive mental health at work?

A. "To have confidence in what you do and be given sufficient time to complete tasks, clear instructions, and timely feedback along with the freedom to ask for assistance when needed. Building relationships with fellow team members and leaders through socialising. And, building people up and making them feel worthy."

Q. How crucial is achieving a good work-life balance to you, and why?

A. "It is the most important of all priorities – if either your personal life or work life is not balanced, the other suffers."

Q. Reflecting on past experiences, what factors negatively impacted your wellbeing in previous roles?

A. "A lack of clear instructions or guidance from leadership on tasks resulting in anger being expressed when tasks were not completed on time or correctly, an office culture of negativity and putting people down when voicing opinions, and a lack of backing from managers."

Q. What elements, within and outside of work, contribute most to your sense of wellbeing?

A. "Acceptance within the team, to have downtime and alone time, meaningful personal contact with people (online meetings with our cameras on or face-to-face), and to be acknowledged for a job well done."

Q. How has your experience at SmartPA supported your wellbeing?

A. "The feeling that we are all part of one big ‘family’ here at SmartPA, and that we are all appreciated for our different skills. We all respect each other. There’s no need to ‘prove’ yourself to everyone, and you can say when you don’t agree with something without being reprimanded. Leaders understand where you are coming from as they have been there themselves, and that SmartPA is leader driven, not boss driven i.e. a leader encourages people to follow them, a boss demands. We also receive in-depth, ongoing training, and everyone is happy to share what they know without the fear that they will lose their position if someone else can do what they can better."

We’ll be sharing more insights from our team over the course of this month, uncovering the importance of wellbeing at work and what it means for our people to thrive. Stay tuned!

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