A 20-YEAR-OLD shop worker is sure his request for time out to aid his mental health will get a positive reaction from his managers. 

Tamir, not his real name or that on his name badge, began working at a major supermarket this week, and is eager to learn about the company’s pastoral policies on wellbeing and the availability of on-site counselling.  

He said: “I asked my floor manager Emma, not her real name, if there was a form for when you need a mental health day, but she just laughed.  

“I explained the statistics to her, how 1 in 6.8 people experience workplace-related mental health problems and how it has been proven that companies who support their staff with these issues benefit from higher employee retention. 

“At that point she called another section manager over, and they laughed too. I’m starting to suspect they don’t have a staff mental health day at all.” 

Line manager Emma said: “Tamir is here to work. The company cares as much about his wellbeing as we care about this tin of baked beans. Less, because we can sell the beans. 

“I’m not completely unsympathetic though. I showed him the room where staff go for a little cry when things get too much. You have to choose between a cry break or a dinner break though.”