It’s Time to Talk About Mental Health Awareness in the AEC Industry

By Thomas Everett, VICE PRESIDENT, RS&H

Thomas D. Everett, PE, is a former Executive Director of the Federal Highway Administration and current Vice President for RS&H, leading new business growth and strategy development. He can be reached at thomas.everett@rsandh.com.

In the last few years, mental health has become a subject near and dear to me for a few different reasons. If mental health wasn’t on your radar before the COVID-19 pandemic, it became front and center as we as a world dealt with disease and isolation.

But even before the pandemic, things started happening around me that made me make mental health awareness a priority for myself and my employees.

It's All Around Us

A few years ago, I lost a coworker at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) who took their own life. It was a shock to all of us who knew them. There were no tell-tale signs. They appeared happy, fun to be around, and they were a great employee. Not long after that, an employee who worked for me considered taking their own life – fortunately, we were able to intervene – and another employee with PTSD was also struggling at work.

All of these things were happening, and I couldn’t help but think of how ill-equipped I felt as a colleague, supervisor and friend to respond.

I’m an engineer. We like our subjects to be black and white, for our problems to all have clean solutions. But this subject matter is very gray, every situation is different, and there isn’t always a solution or completion point.

Talking about mental health can take us far out of our comfort zones.

I knew I couldn’t be the only one feeling illequipped to respond to people’s mental health challenges. The more I started talking to colleagues, the more of their own stories I heard. Not a single person told me “I never had any of these experiences.” In fact, many told me things beyond what I ever expected.

But we don’t talk enough about the experiences we have. Mental health is not a subject we bring up frequently, often because of the stigma attached to it, yet sharing stories and experiences is one of the most helpful coping mechanisms.

We Have To Start Somewhere

When we started our journey at FHWA to create a mental health awareness plan, all we were trying to do was identify tools for supervisors. I knew we had people suffering, and I knew more people like me didn’t know what to do.

We started providing voluntary opportunities for people to share their stories. We engaged leaders and senior officials in our communications. As they shared their stories, employees appreciated seeing the vulnerability in highly respected leaders. It was really powerful.

When the pandemic hit, everyone started struggling with their mental health. They wanted to talk, and they wanted to have opportunities to get together and share their experiences. Because of the conversation we had already started within FHWA, our employees felt safe discussing the topic. You could see staff leaning on each other for support. Employees greatly appreciated the focus we placed on mental health. I would hear words of appreciation from them regularly. One emailed me and said these efforts saved their life. At that moment, I understood the impact our program was having on our staff.

The Power Of A Mental Health Program

Although it is difficult to quantify the impacts a mental health focus can have within a workplace, there is anecdotal evidence showing it is well worth the time and effort. I recall hearing from one of our hiring officials that we had new FHWA employees who were attracted to our agency because they had heard about our ongoing mental health awareness program.

In a world where everyone is trying to hire and everyone competes for the same group of people, there is a competitive edge to have a program like this.

Of course, there are plenty of questions to answer. How far can we go in our industry, at our companies? How far should we go?

As Nicole Steffen, LMSW, of Steffen Counseling points out, our job as supervisors is not one of a clinician.

However, by understanding the connection we have with others, we can help decrease mental health issues within the workplace. Having simple conversations can develop that connection.

“Having those connections, communication and understanding of your team can be very beneficial for supervisors,” Steffen said. “Supervisors also need to understand themselves, their own biases, and thoughts and mental health, and know when they need to take a break and seek out support.”

“You are a human, too; just because you’re in higher management doesn’t mean you don’t have life situations.”

It’s vital to understand our employees and their personalities, strengths and weaknesses, says Steffen, who advises supervisors to keep up with their employees’ behaviors. If you have a high producer on the team and a couple weeks go by without them working to their usual level, have a conversation and offer help.

“If you have an employee telling you that they’re drowning, that it’s all too much, that they can’t focus, work up a plan with them on how to improve stress levels,” she added.

There is still the stigma around mental health that we must address. When we began our mental health awareness program efforts at FHWA, one of my colleagues asked, “Are you really sure you want to take this on? It might not be great for your career.” My answer was a resounding yes.

We pressed on and did what we felt was right.

How The Private Sector Can Adapt

The private sector has challenges that government agencies do not. For government agencies, the concern around utilization rates and billable hours is not as great an imperative. But telling someone to take six hours of training is a bigger ask at private companies.

There are ways to lessen that burden, from shorter, bitesized training sessions to lunchtime webinars and small group discussions.

For companies to move forward on these objectives, it takes top-level leadership to buy in and support them. That support will flow down and grow as more and more people get involved.

Fortunately, many great resources already exist so companies don’t have to start from scratch. Training programs like First Aid at Work can be used and adapted by human resource departments to fit each company’s needs.

As I mentioned, if we are all competing for the same workforce, this is going to be an important enticement for employees, and that is certainly a reason to move forward. But even if we just want the most out of our employees – if we want them to be happy and do great work – we must keep going, and we must create environments where our employees are not afraid to bring their entire selves to work, where every person feels seen and like they belong.

And we have to go farther. The stigma is ingrained into society and many people don’t want to talk about mental health issues, but they are all around us.

Talking about these things is emotional and exciting, and it’s healthy. Tackling mental health as an industry is not about jumping on a bandwagon or checking a box.

As an industry, we must do this because it’s the right thing to do. When people feel seen, accepted, and safe to be themselves at work, amazing things happen. And that’s just good business.

Call To Action

Talking (and listening) is powerful. I encourage everyone reading this to talk about mental health with their colleagues, as well as their friends and family. Share stories, articles and resources on your social media channels and include #MindfulAEC