Mental Health | Xerox: “Every week is a mental health awareness week”

Darren Cassidy, ERG-sponsor extraordinaire (and recent HR Grapevine podcast guest), and President, Western Europe, is in a reflective mood.

“There’s no way that ten or even possibly five years ago I’d be telling people about my vulnerabilities or insecurities or things I’m finding difficult,” he says. “But I’m so glad conversations that I now have – and which others around me also have – are becoming much normalised in our organisation.”

Cassidy is speaking to HR Grapevine as employers up and down the country mark Mental Health Awareness Week. But this is one boss for whom reflection and being vulnerable is now the norm. “I practice transcendental meditation,” he says. “When I can, I aim to do it twice a day for 20 minutes at a time – and it’s something I encourage my team around me to do as well.” He adds: “The mantra-based meditation literally allows me to quieten things down in my mind. My breathing drops right down, and I literally feel like the world is slowing down around me. But I come back into work-mode completely refreshed, with a burst of energy. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”

Cassidy is undoubtedly correct when he says that pre-Covid, even the notion that others copy this activity would have drawn quizzical glances. But at Xerox, he is on a mission to make mental health a daily conversation – not just one for a week at a time, once a year.