CHAPTER 19
Offering the Mental Health Benefits BIPOC Employees Need
by Andrea Holman and Joe Grasso
“I am not OK. But I know I have to be. And I will be. But I’m not OK.”
One of us (Andrea) shared these conflicted yet honest sentiments with a colleague after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery began to receive increased media attention in April 2020. The feeling I called “not OK” was actually psychological distress. I was nervous, mentally fatigued, and continually distracted by the pain of another racially motivated murder and the fear that this could happen to someone I loved. While I was not directly connected to Ahmaud Arbery, the tragedy felt personal due to a psychological phenomenon called shared racial fate.
Managing my distress was further complicated ...
Get HBR Guide to Better Mental Health at Work (HBR Guide Series) now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
