Page 14 - BusinessWest September 4, 2023

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14 SEPTEMBER 4, 2023
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BusinessWest
Critical Conversations
Companies Are Getting Serious About Their Employees’ Mental Wellness
BY JOSEPH BEDNAR
[email protected]
It’s easy to tell when someone is struggling with asthma, Krista Mazzuca said.
“If I come to work with bad asthma, you see me breathing hard. My supervisor says, ‘hey, Krista, take a minute,’” said Maz- zuca, first vice president of Human Resources at PeoplesBank.
But mental distress, she noted, can be tougher to spot.
“It’s important for managers in an organization to understand how mental health impacts their employees. If I’m stressed out, you have to know how to recognize that, too, and say, ‘hey, you look stressed. Maybe take a walk. Maybe take tomorrow off.’”
Shana Hendrikse agrees. As senior advisor at Giombetti Associ- ates, a Wilbraham-based consulting firm that specializes in building high-performance companies, she said employees’ mental wellness is a key factor in that effort, and one more companies are becoming aware of.