Members of our team may at times work on difficult topics in testing environments, and thus endure forms of uncertainty and suffering that affect our interviewees, our personal networks, and ourselves. Synaps is eager to offer all staff optimal working conditions, and will do its utmost to support employees during challenging times. 

This policy lays out our commitment to doing all we can to preserve our staff’s mental health, within our limitations as a small organization. It is also an invitation to all colleagues to seek support if and when they feel the need for it. Indeed, we believe that mental health is a critical and often overlooked issue in the field of research: If not sufficiently attuned to both our own mental health and that of our interlocutors, we risk doing harm to ourselves and others. 

Importantly, this policy does not attempt to differentiate between mental health concerns that are strictly personal and others that relate more specifically to work. Synaps does not regard one as more valid than the other, nor do we believe that what happens inside and outside the office can be truly separated. Whatever the source of a certain mental health issue, this policy aims to guide staff in developing the best possible response. 

Mental health describes, broadly, a person’s state of psychological and emotional well-being. 

This vast spectrum includes mental disorders, namely problems that durably affect a person’s feelings, thinking, or mood in ways that interfere with their ability to function on a daily basis, notably at work. It is important to note that these particular problems suffer from intense social stigma, which makes them extremely difficult to acknowledge in the workplace. This policy aspires to help lift that taboo, while promoting mental health in general. 

Synaps is committed to ensuring, through preventive measures, working conditions that contribute to good mental health. These measures include a formal code of conduct and anti-harassment policy, respect for staff’s free time, fulfilling forms of employment, decent compensation, ample learning opportunities, and a culture based on open communication.

Remedial measures hinge above all on sound and structured communication. Indeed, good communication around mental health concerns will ultimately determine Synaps’ ability to provide adequate support. It is crucial to understand, in that respect, that communication is a shared responsibility: It cannot happen without the active, voluntary involvement of all parties. 

What is communication about? Staff who incur mental health problems are invited to raise them proactively, so that solutions can be explored. Colleagues who notice behaviors suggestive of mental health problems should encourage peers to raise them accordingly. When managers are apprised of mental health problems, they must listen, express their appreciation, offer support, and focus on implementing this policy, per the actions detailed below. 

What is communication not about? Because mental health calls for competence and privacy, managers and colleagues shall refrain from improvising diagnoses or counsel; these are the preserve of qualified mental health professionals. Likewise, they must refrain from projecting any personal experiences or biases onto others. They must also refrain from any form of judgment or gossip, restricting communication to the facts and people relevant to implementing this policy. 

Our limitations stem from modest financial means and restricted financial flexibility. Indeed, the contracts we sign generally do not include budget lines that could support expenses related to mental health, such as subsidized therapy. Nor can Synaps afford to pay full compensation for reduced work, beyond short-term arrangements. 

Moreover, reducing the workload of one colleague, within a small team, will inevitably increase the pressure on other colleagues, at the risk of affecting their own mental health were this situation to last. It may also prove deeply demoralizing, by creating a sense of inequity. Any solution must therefore factor in these collective effects.

Such limitations, however, only make more compelling the case for open, proactive communication, to ensure that we tackle developing problems as quickly, efficiently, and fairly as possible. 

As part of an accommodation (see below) Synaps may provide justified and time-bound financial support toward therapy.  

Managers go through this policy in person with their new hires, and organize a private discussion about mental health with another colleague willing to talk about it from a personal experience. 

Managers, as part of their responsibilities, commit to raising their own awareness when it comes to mental health. In particular, they are strongly encouraged to read the reference books in Synaps’ library and to learn about self-care in the professional context, for instance through manuals designed for rescue teams or aid workers. 

Managers make sure that Synaps will host, at least once a year, a group discussion about mental health, involving an external participant sharing their personal experience. This speaker may be a mental health professional. Weekly huddles should also serve, occasionally, the purpose of having an open discussion pertaining to mental health. Particularly in the event of an incident affecting all staff, the huddle may function temporarily as an informal support group, per the guidelines below. 

Discussion topics may include specific reactions and emotions that require particular attention: notably grief, fear, humiliation, shame, guilt, powerlessness, rumination, anger, and anxiety. For example, when fieldwork provokes intense reactions or emotions like these, it may be necessary to process them quickly and in the professional context, and not just on our own. 

Managers shall, on the occasion of staff evaluations, think through whether colleagues present certain vulnerabilities relevant to mental health. These include, but are not restricted to, recent personal tragedies, a deeply unstable local environment, security threats, any form of harassment inside or outside the workplace, an excessive workload, signs of social isolation, and so on. Managers will refrain from overthinking such vulnerabilities, rather focusing on two very practical goals: providing immediate practical assistance where possible, on one hand, and being prepared were colleagues to require assistance later on, on the other. (In the case of harassment within the workplace, refer to our anti-harassment policy.)

In addition, managers will make a point of inviting colleagues who report directly to them to share, privately and in person, what they have seen and heard during difficult assignments, or during stressful experiences related to an unstable, threatening context. 

One manager among others will be appointed to take the lead on mental health. This role entails ensuring that this policy is duly implemented, which will imply regular check-ins with other managers.

Synaps believes in ad hoc support groups that may encompass professionals from other organizations. In some cases, support groups may gain from remaining informal, rather than being labeled as such. For example, Synaps used its weekly huddle as an informal support group during covid lockdowns, giving space for staff to discuss some of the more personal aspects of that experience if they wished to do so. In other cases, it may be advisable on the contrary to give support groups more formality and structure. 

A support group is composed of people who face similarly difficult work conditions, and find value in discussing their experience with peers. Relevant work conditions include, but are not limited to, emotionally difficult research topics, threatening contexts, and unusually stressful responsibilities. 

The basic purpose of a support group is to share experiences: When we put these into words, hear peers share their own related perspectives, and consider a broader range of possible human reactions, we come out better equipped to make sense of and cope with difficulties.

A support group may be set up at any time. Any employee or manager may take this initiative. Synaps may host the discussions and organize logistics, such as convening peers and finding the right facilitator. Setting up a support group doesn’t require any justification: If three or more professionals want to join it, that is a powerful raison d’etre in itself. Likewise, a support group may disband naturally, when participants cease to find value in it. Synaps is eager to learn from all such initiatives, and will seek to understand what worked and what didn’t. 

A support group must remain safe and helpful at all times. Participants commit to honoring each other’s right to speak or stay silent, and to respecting other participants’ personal views and, most importantly, privacy. A facilitator will ensure that participants understand and comply with these basic rules. A successful support group is composed of people who join willingly, and learn to trust each other. Empathy and confidentiality are key. Whatever is said in a meeting stays there. 

In a formal support group, the facilitator must also set a clear agenda in advance. This may involve specifying what will be discussed and how: Will the session center on a broad topic open to a group discussion? Will a guest speaker elaborate on a specific experience? Or will the meeting focus on practical tips? Setting an agenda is essential to making a meeting productive and, ideally, uplifting, by contrast with a disorganized series of testimonies. The facilitator will aim, therefore, to end the session on forward-looking outcomes. That could mean a helpful synthesis, some practical lessons learned, or a goal for the next session. 

Managers will respond immediately when faced with signs of mental health problems—whether they observe those signals themselves, are informed by third parties, or receive a direct request for assistance. Specifically, the manager will:

Initiating such communication may lead, when necessary, to temporary or permanent arrangements relieving staff from specific stressors (for instance, types of work or research topics). 

Mental health problems imply a two-way accommodation. Synaps shall accommodate its staff’s mental health challenges. Synaps will ask in return that staff accommodate its inevitable constraints as an organization, which include staff safety, team cohesion, contractual commitments, and material limitations. Designing a fair, workable accommodation is therefore a shared responsibility. 

Staff seeking accommodation are encouraged to propose solutions. Short-term adjustments might include taking leave days, adjustments to workload, or temporary changes to work hours. However, an accommodation typically implies longer term arrangements, which may include the removal of certain triggers present in the workplace; shifting to a part-time role; a sabbatical leave with a clear handover and resumption strategy; and so on. Any such accommodation may include a plan for communicating such changes to colleagues and clients, to relieve the affected person of any unnecessary stress or embarrassment. 

Accommodations will vary on a case-by-case basis, because mental health issues themselves vary considerably from one person to the next. For example, two individuals may suffer from the same diagnosed mental disorder yet present very different symptoms, specific to each person’s personality and history. 

An accommodation that involves changing a colleague’s status, responsibilities, compensation, or work hours will be formalized in writing, in a signed document stating all parties’ commitments. All information relating to mental health and accommodation will be treated as confidential. Such documentation and information may only be disclosed in the context of legal procedures. 

Synaps commits to seeking a fair, workable accommodation not just with existing staff, but with job applicants suffering from preexisting mental disorders, assuming they volunteer to disclose them. In some cases, a reasonable accommodation may simply prove impossible to achieve. In any event, success will rest on mutual understanding, which in itself will flow from sound, open communication.