Prioritizing Mental Health at Tatari

It’s been over a year since we all started working from home. Needless to say, the combination of the pandemic, working from home, not being able to see all the people we love--just to name the obvious few--have dramatically turned our lives upside down and negatively impacted our overall health and happiness. At Tatari, we have always made health and happiness a priority, and with May as National Mental Health Month, we are bringing mental health awareness to the forefront in a variety of ways. 

• The struggle to sign-off and unplug is real. The lack of physical boundaries has blurred our sense of time as we juggle a different reality of work-life balance (cue your child’s boredom and the doorbell at the same time). To encourage “unplugging,” we are resetting and recharging together. Tatari has instituted a company-wide mandatory day off every month until we’re back in the office.

• “PT-O(n).” We are embracing the concept of PT-O(n) into our work week. We noticed an overwhelming feeling to be constantly “on” when there are so many meetings, and PT-O(n) encourages our employees to carve out time to focus on work without meetings. We’ve also had discussions on how to conduct more productive meetings or different ways of attending. Some great suggestions that came out, include: (1) take good meeting notes so people can refer back; (2) record the meeting if it’s helpful; and/or (3) if a meeting doesn’t require screen sharing, take a walk and call in. 

• Increase resources. We connect Tatarians to different types of resources, including a list of mental health tools and providers supported through our benefit packages. Our latest perk reimburses everyone for an annual subscription to a mindfulness or meditation app of their choice. We believe that meditation and mindfulness can be a very powerful tool with practice. As such, we are hosting a workshop with Jade Heritage, the voice of Calm’s top performing TV ad, where she’ll teach us how to incorporate daily practices that can be used before meetings, and to engage focus but above all increase mental health awareness. And of course, a special shout out to our very own Software Engineer, Nick Below, who has been sharing his own daily meditation exercises in Slack. 

• Break stigma and increase togetherness. We’re turning to each other. We’re passing the mic to Tatarians (Paul Powers and Isti Urban) to welcome mental health dialogue and share their own personal journeys. We will also run a series of Healthy Habit workshops: 7-min workout with Thuy-van Watts (Senior Data Scientist) and Breathing exercises with Therese Diede (Software Engineer). 

• Speak up. As the HR Manager, I have the opportunity to influence the work environment but the same can’t be said since working from home. The loss of casual and social interactions has made me feel the most helpless. I can no longer easily pick up on busy days or if someone is feeling off to suggest a coffee break or a mid-day walk. It’s become a growing responsibility at Tatari to not only support each other but advocate for ourselves. A strong support system is such an important aspect of mental health. To continue creating a supportive environment, we asked everyone to reach out and let us know if they’re having a hard time--we are here to listen, always available to chat and if needed can point you in the right direction for further support. 

We’re incredibly grateful for the level of support our Tatarians have already shown each other. As we grow and our environment continues to change, we’re committed to making sure Tatari has the resources and support our team needs. National Mental Health month serves as another reminder to always set aside space and time for wellbeing.