Published in Campaign Brief (2018) — In 2018 we released our first Creative Industry Mental Health Report, we did so because we wanted to learn more about the challenges our colleagues and friends in the creative and industries faced.

We didn’t really know what to expect when we sent out our first survey but we were blown away with the very personal nature of the responses.

People shared with us their fears, concerns and aspirations for better workplaces and a healthier
balance of working life.

In 2019 we have been amazed by the level of engagement from around the world.

Over 1,400 people from 55 countries completed our survey and shared with us their lived experiences.
Personal stories, anecdotes and insights into both the tech and creative industries that have seen someareas of improvement, whilst sadly, some continuing behaviours and environments that are in great need
of improvement.

We were appalled to read about workplace cultures of bullying, harassment, discrimination, poor working
practices — cultures where threats were common.

But also this year were heartened to read of the many workplaces who are making significant
moves to address the mental health of their teams by embracing focussed ideas and efforts for the
betterment of their mental and physical health.

In this year’s report you’ll find insights from freelancers, employees, business owners,
students and job seekers.

One of our goals for the report this year was to learn from our colleagues and share the ways in which
they look after their own mental health and that of their team. So we asked for reference material and
tips. From those we have compiled a comprehensive list of things to do, learn, share, read and listen
to — in the hope that they help you make better decisions, create better work place cultures and
improve yours, and your colleagues mental health.

I’m sure as you read through the insights and responses in this report, you’ll form your own
insights and please do so, and ensure they help you form ideas of improvement and transformation
in your workplace, and in our industry as a whole.

We found the following key insights were common threads that went a long way to impacting our mental
health in our industry — some in a good way, others, not so.

Poor leadership
Running as a common thread through most of the responses, irrespective of country of origin, was
the impact of poor leadership and its contribution to workplace cultures that accepted poor
behaviours, prejudice and a lack of flexibility and professionalism.

Providing better training, or training at all, for our industry leaders to improve their understanding,
open their eyes and minds we believe will go a long way to improving our workplaces. We’d go as far
as suggesting an industry-wide accreditation of professional certification in this area.

Suggested training:
- Diversity and inclusion awareness
- Better conversations in difficult times
- Adaptive leadership
- Managing change
- Leading for high performance
- Empathy

Old models
Many of the negative issues faced by employees, freelancers and job-seekers in the face of interviews
or client relationships, were remnants of the tech, and more so, the creative industry of years gone by.
Being a slave to timesheets, jumping when a client says ‘yes’, and (as a client) treating your creative or
tech firm as just yet ‘just another supplier’ (instead of a partner) goes a long way to create stressful
situations and misaligned, unprofessional working arrangements between consultant and client.

Re-imagining our default business models, not accepting the status-quo and seeking innovation
opportunities will see the end of this old-model behaviour.

Loneliness
As our industry sprawls like the suburbs, we see more and more people working in smaller, and
smaller teams. Freelancing — the Gig Economy — is thriving as we are choosing to work in more
flexible, agile and dispersed teams around the world. Isolated from HQ, but more importantly,
from our people — our families.

We don’t believe there is an app that will solve these issues — but, better care and support from industry
associations, and peak bodies will go a long way to include, nourish and support those who work alone.
We found that loneliness was a common feeling, particularly among freelancers and business owners.
We also saw that many businesses are trying to foster positive cultures where they support their
teams either in an official capacity (with practices and policies around good mental health) or unofficial
capacity, where they have regular social catch-ups and more.

Even though there are still very toxic cultures out there (many respondents told us about yelling,
bullying, blame cultures which drive people to despair), some organisations are pushing
positive change.

Thank you to the many individuals and organisations that reached out to us following the release of our
report to offer help and support.

But mostly we want to thank those brave people who took the time to share their fears, pain points
and to also inspire us with the great things that are happening out there.

We hope this report inspires, provides reflection and empathy, and where necessary, change for the better.

—
Karina Dea.
General Manager & Head of Research at Tank.

Download the report below