Work Culture- Prioritizing Mental Health- Week 2

Wrapping up my second week at AARP, I have noticed more about the work culture and how people interact with each other during meetings. I noticed that mental health was a top priority for everyone and was not a taboo topic to talk about and bring up. Many of the individual meetings I have with my supervisors always entail the questions of “what is your workload?” and “how are you feeling?”; this is then followed by “let us know when it becomes too much or if you need a break.” From day one, this was always emphasized. However, I see now how prioritizing mental health and breaks is something valued highly by everyone at AARP.

Dionne Polite, who is State Manager and one of my supervisors, was overseeing Jeff Johnson’s role, which is State Director, while he was on vacation. She had to attend double the meetings but each one that she did, she always mentioned taking the vacation days. Jeff Johnson gave everyone in the state this coming Friday off for the Juneteenth observation on Saturday. Dionne reminded everyone that this Friday, there were no meetings or work to be done.

It was interesting to see how the higher-ups care for mental health. About half of the meetings I attended this week emphasized taking days off and taking care of yourself. Dionne held individual meetings with each of her employees to ensure they were taking days off from work to relax. They were paid and are a couple days to weeks off every couple of months. There is one Associate State Director (ASD) who overworks herself constantly, especially during the holiday season. In team meetings this week, the ASD and others were very open about their experiences and how they had to learn to take the breaks and enjoy the days off from stress. It was nice to see how honest they were about burnout and how they learned to address it. 

I really appreciate how the way they care for mental health is not just for show. They walk the walk and that was something I was fearful of when looking for an internship. Will I be burned out? Will I have a giant workload that gets overwhelming? I’m glad to say my fears have vanished; I am glad to have the opportunity to work and learn as much as I can without becoming overwhelmed as the work I’m doing is starting to pick up.