The Importance of Mental Health in the Workplace (and how it relates to your I.T.)

The importance of Mental Health in the Workplace (and how it relates to your I.T.)

As somebody prone to anxiety myself, this definitely hits home with me. I ran this company for 10 years by myself, as a one-man band. It really affected my health and well being.

One of our clients is a PEO/Outsourced HR & Payroll Firm. They manage payroll, benefits, etc. I have commented on them in the past because we are big fans and they make our lives better. They did a lunch and learn last week regarding a new Mental Health program for employees.

Some highlights:

1 in 5 adults Nationwide are experiencing mental health conditions – (1 in 4 in Utah)
Anxiety and Depression ranked 3rd and 4th on the list of ADA disability charges filed in 2020
Mental health issues are not always apparent and may be mistaken for performance-related issues
Stress and mental health are commonly coupled together
The pandemic shot these numbers through the roof

The rest of the presentation went on to talk about the importance of culture in the business.

If there is one thing I am most proud of with Vigilant IT – it is our culture. I do believe our people love working here. I also believe we have the best and strongest team that we have ever had.

We have some amazing people here that help our team culture (Thanks Scott! He leads the way with this!)

As I was reviewing the Mental Health in the Workplace presentation notes, I noticed a trend:

The solution to obtaining a solid business workforce culture is eerily similar to your I.T. provider providing your business I.T. services. It takes what I have always called a layered approach. For Culture, they mention the office environment, being Proactive in the workplace, engaging employees, and looking for signs of when they may need help (a lot of people won’t admit it until it’s too late).

As an I.T. provider, we may be providing a host of services – some that may slightly overlap with others, or run side by side – but in ways so that every angle is covered (see image at the bottom of this email).

It’s really interesting to see how a combined/”layered” approach to the company culture is similar to what’s needed these days to provide “layered security” in your I.T. environment.

I am in no way considering I.T. to be as important as mental health. We have recently learned that a boy at my son’s high school took his own life this past week. Nothing ever can ever be compared to this.

But what I would suggest is to look at your I.T. – specifically the “big picture.”

Your I.T. hosts the most valuable part of “the business”. I am not referring to people or employees here, I’m referring to DATA, which is the “Business’s intellectual property”. Whether that is CAD drawings, Patient information, Work orders, and the list goes on and on… If this data were lost or compromised, the business would be adversely affected.

When thinking about Your I.T. big picture:

What do you like about it?
What could be better?
What could make the company more efficient?
More protected and secure?

***Feel free to email me back – and comment to me on your thoughts on those 4 bullet points!***

Our job here at Vigilant IT is to help you get the most out of your I.T. and to help keep your Intellectual Data SAFE. We are YOUR I.T. Department. However – we will not push or force you to do certain things either (your insurance company might, however). We are here to help you with what YOU need. If you don’t know what you need, we are here to educate, investigate, audit, advise, and give recommendations. That doesn’t mean you MUST do what we advise (your insurance company might require certain things, however).

I’ll leave you with my current Desktop wallpaper. I love this cause I will usually choose one of the eight things to think a little extra about each day.

The LastPass Hack Saga Continues

In December I reported a major breach – LastPass. Many people – hundreds of thousands, use LastPass. It is possibly the most popular free password manager on the planet. We like it and have always recommended it in a general sense – if used smartly.

Well news broke this past week that what was revealed in December wasn’t the full truth. It has now become evident that some encrypted passwords were stolen.

I’m not going to get into details here – I’m not the expert on this. I am just passing some very pertinent information. For more details check out:

https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/lastpass-customers-need-to-change-all-of-their-passwords/

If this headline doesn’t sum it up well enough, I don’t know what will: