My Whole Self Day 2025
11th March marks My Whole Self Day, brought to us by Mental Health First Aid England®. My Whole Self Day is a campaign for change in workplace culture. The aim to create workplace cultures where people have the safety and freedom to choose which parts of their identity, they share at work including background, gender, sexual orientation, religion, health, and mental health.
All workers should be able to be their authentic selves at work without fear of judgement, in order to feel psychologically safe. When a person does not have the fear of being judged for who they are, they can thrive within their teams and drive positive mental wellbeing and performance.
As an employer, if you want the best performance out of your workers, it all starts with your employee’s wellbeing, both physically and mentally. I encourage you all to learn about your workers, understand who they are and what makes them who they are, and embrace that so that they can reach their full potential and excel. When you know your staff, you are able to recognise when something may not be right, and address situations before they can escalate into things such as burnout or even a mental health crisis.
I can comfortably say that my manager knows me and the rest of our team. We are all close and are constantly supporting each other through the good times and the bad, be that work issues or something more personal, privately or as a team. Having open discussions on topics is done with ease and familiarity, and our out of work activities are not “strictly business” such as our most recent trip to Monopoly Lifesized!
Being in an environment where I can fully be myself – a pansexual female who has struggled with mental health, and with potential autism - makes such a difference. I enjoy coming to work, I enjoy everyone’s company, and considering just how much of our lives we spend at work, shouldn’t we all be able to be happy in the place for 8 hours a day!
As 1st Step’s Mental Health First Aider, I am available to all internal staff and contractors for anything, completely judgement free. Having worked for businesses where inclusion, wellbeing or psychological safety wasn’t as much of a priority, it is refreshing to now work for a business that genuinely cares about their workers, and to also be the person who is assisting in fostering this mindset.
MHFA England has a wealth of free tools and resources that can assist managers in becoming the best managers that they can be for their team. https://mhfaengland.org/my-whole-self/
