GitLab Next

Your mental health matters.

Regardless of our location, 2020 has been a challenge. We’ve locked down and socially distanced. We’ve become caretakers and teachers, in addition to the roles and responsibilities we already hold. In an all-remote environment, it can be difficult to identify signals of burnout and distress in both ourselves and others. It is common to turn to work as a distraction to the chaos we feel in our day-to-day lives.

It’s important to remember that struggles with mental health don’t just pop up during times of crisis. When the Covid-19 pandemic passes, the challenges we face won’t simply disappear. And, for many of us, the pandemic has only heightened feelings of anxiety, burnout, and fear that we’ve been experiencing long-term.

This week, we hope you’ll take a deep dive (or, if you’re not ready, just a shallow dip) into what mental health awareness looks like here at GitLab and how you can take care of yourself and your team.

Our goals during this Mental Health Awareness Week, and ongoing L&D initiatives about mental health, are:

• Normalize the discussion about mental health across the GitLab team.
• Increase access to and awareness of existing mental health resources for the GitLab team.
• Understand how our asynchronous culture can contribute to improved mental health for team members, specifically by decreasing the total number of synchronous meetings for team members.
• Increase documentation about mental health management resources in our handbook by collaborating and sharing strategies and tools that work

We’re using a Polly poll in Slack to track progress on these goals. You can participate in the poll here. Information collected from the poll will be anonymous and will be used internally to assess the effectiveness of this and other upcoming initiatives revolving around mental health.

Practicing Gratitude

To kick off the discussion, we’re focusing on gratitude and the role it plays in our overall mental health. Taking a moment to practice gratitude can be a simple and effective strategy to walk away from situations or conversations that are causing us stress, and refocus our attention on joy and gratefulness.

What are you grateful for today? Let us know in the comments of this issue, or, open a merge request on our mental health awareness handbook page and share your thoughts about gratefulness.

Did you know that at GitLab, we have a daily-gratitude channel where team members share experiences, people, and feelings that make them grateful? Consider starring the channel and leaning on your team members there when you need a moment to shift your emotions or focus.

Resources

• Take a moment to review the GitLab PTO policy
• Review our company guidelines around Combating burnout, isolation, and anxiety in the remote workplace