POD Mental Health Awareness Week - 2021

In this article, Gracia Horwitz, POD’s Talent Manager, reflects on a series of events held to mark Mental Health Awareness Week.

Property Management can often be a very demanding, ‘round-the-clock’, and (let’s face it) stressful industry! Prioritizing our employees physical and emotional well-being is essential which led me to decide that for our mental health awareness week I would focus on ways we could support each other more and lift each other up through kindness, positivity, and gratitude. 

Every morning for 5 days I announced a different topic for the day and it was fantastic to see how the whole company got behind the various topics, the activities, the games, the challenges, and the discussions. Not every day will be a perfect day, there will be times of anxiety and stress or times when we wonder if it’s ok not to be ok, but we can protect our mental health together and often just knowing that our colleagues are there for us and that they have our back can pull us through! 

At the same time we also launched a Employee Assistance Program giving our employees 24 hour access to confidential support. My take-away from this year’s MHAW as a Talent Manager and HR Professional is this: The more we build a culture of care, recognition for others, kindness, and gratitude for our fellow colleagues who are in the “trenches” with us every day, the more robust our mental health can be!