Mental Illness still carries the stigma of being deficient in some ways in Montreal and Canadian society at large. This includes perceived deficiencies in intellectual and work related tasks. Many Montrealers and Canadians at large hide their mental illness from their employers fearing they will be fired or not getting the promotion they deserve. Though firing for those reasons are illegal, employers can find ways to work around it without stipulating the reason was due to a mental illness, unless that illness had a direct effect upon the job at hand; most of the time it does not.
Michael Bach is KPMG's National Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and he suffers from depression. There are days that he just feels he cannot bare to sit in a closed room for a board meeting but it has nothing to do with his co-workers or job which he can do just find, it is just the inner turmoil he is experiencing.
Bach is not afraid to let his co-workers know of his illness. Unfortunately that is not true of many Canadians and Montrealers who feel the stigma of mental illness will seriously affect the perception of their coworkers and their employers alike; who will unfairly judge their ability to do the job at hand or to be a good candidate for advancement. A 2011 Canadian study clearly pointed to the fact that many Canadians are reluctant to share their mental illness with their fellow co-workers and bosses in the workplace.
Bach finds by letting his co-workers into his private world, he can triumph over the depression. He says, "As long as we treat this like a dirty little secret, it will be a dirty little secret," He goes on to say that "The most common mistake employees and managers make is pretending mental health issues just aren't there."
His company is not implementing programs to assist their employees who suffer from mental illness.
Montreal based companies and banks such as the Bank of Montreal and Desjardins are looking into ways to relieve stress from the workforce and deal with mental health issues.
Source:
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Health/20120207/mental-health-safe-workplaces-120208/#ixzz1n9FOWVtW
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