“No great genius has ever existed without a touch of madness,” said Aristotle, and it is a point worth making that mental illness should not be regarded only as a problem. Indeed, our working lives would be much less rich and interesting without the varied talents that people with mental health problems bring to work.
Even psychopaths, it seems, can utilise their charm and manipulation to great effect. Narcissistic managers are good at driving a business forward, whereas paranoid personalities might notice potential threats. As Mary-Clare Race and Adrian Furnham, both psychologists, rightly suggest in Mental Illness at Work, “it is where the disorder is very strong that problems arise”.
For too long, organisations have denied the presence of mental illness at work and as a result business has suffered – morale, productivity, attendance and staff retention are all affected. This denial also contributes to a climate in which those who suffer from mental illnesses dare not reveal themselves for fear of damaging their career.