You belong
May is also Mental Health Awareness Month. And I’ve decided to start sharing some stories as an advocate and voice to raise awareness for mental health, especially in the workplace.
I will start with a letter which is a good reminder of the importance of making people feel they belong. Several years ago, some coworkers have written me letters during my farewell party. I honestly have not read all of them at the time, as it was a bittersweet departure and the first few letters I tried to read made me cry. A few weeks ago, I decided to finally read all of them. While most still made me cry again as I reminisce my time there, one of them made me realize that I made an impact to someone by making him feel that he belong.
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Part of improving the quality culture, I was into doing different activities not just with my QA team but also the whole department and inter-department including other QA teams, Devs, Product, and others roles to improve team spirit and product knowledge. Because to me, camaraderie makes it easier for people to work together and helps with mental health and having a fun working environment which then helps them produce better results. Though I was criticized by other leaders, I kept doing it no matter how hurt I was and how it even affected my performance review, because the benefit showed, my own manager and peers supported me, and my team and many others were happy. And that’s what’s important. And seeing this letter from a Dev, makes me glad I never stopped til the end no matter the criticism and makes me happy that I somehow made this person feel that he belong by including him in those team activities.
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