To the Editor:
Higher-ed headlines are dominated by student mental health. Faculty and staff continue to be neglected (“2 Ways to Support Students’ Mental Health”, The Chronicle, June 18). At many colleges, ethics and empathy are lacking around employee disclosure of mental-health issues and reasonable accommodations. HR personnel and leadership need to correct their wrong perception that a mental-health disclosure yields incompetence. More so, requests for formal accommodations need to cease being scrutinized, judged, questioned, and/or rejected.
Here are three things HR personnel and leadership need to keep top of mind while handling faculty and staff mental-health disclosures:
Manager Disclosure: Leadership should meet the employee with an open mind and heart. Managers should grant permissions that don’t impact the integrity of the work, or the immediate team. Have frequent check-ins with the employee and set a timeframe where if a continuation of support is needed, share the appropriate resources for formal requests. Don’t take this disclosure as an invitation to share your own mental-health journey. It’s not welcome or appropriate.
Reasonable Accommodations: The U.S Department of Labor details an employee’s right to reasonable accommodations; adjustments for qualified employees to perform their job with additional support. Employees must submit medical documentation for formal accommodations. All reasonable requests should be granted without question if it doesn’t cause undue harm to an organization. HR personnel and leadership shouldn’t act as the medical-care team for any employee; vetoing based on organizational principle rather than legitimacy.
Professionalism: Employees who disclose their mental-health challenges — and request support — are vulnerable. Unlike with a broken arm, their ailments aren’t necessarily visible but that doesn’t mean they aren’t hurting. And there isn’t always a concrete end date as to when they’ll be “better.” Additionally, it can be anxiety provoking to sign disclosures giving college employees permission to discuss their conditions. It can be equally uncomfortable to share updates with managers. In short, there is unearned trust placed in many individuals to work through these situations, many times without the employee involved in the conversation. Unfortunately, lapses in professionalism, discretion, and compliance often result in breached trust between the college and employee. Results include formal complaints, lawsuits, bad press, and the loss of talent.
Adhering to these recommendations, colleges can be a more welcoming environment for talented humans who just need extra support to do their jobs well.
Kerry O’Grady
Director of Teaching Excellence
Columbia Business School
New York
