Being a fun but hectic recruitment agency, we mean it when we say that we understand the importance of keeping your mental health in check. If you have dealt with some of our consultants, you would totally understand!

So, whether you're job hunting, seeking a new employee for your company, recruiting for a client, or even just working day in and day out from 9 to 5, it can be hard. Because let's face it, life is stressful and, not to mention bloody exhausting. Especially when it gets to this time of the year when you're counting down the days until you can turn on that holiday auto email reply and say "sayonara".

So, this year we decided we wanted to embrace last week's World Mental Health Day; go ahead and check out our blog post on the topic. To support the day, JDP hosted a week-long challenge to get the positive juices flowing in the office and to change things up a bit.

Our team was tasked with completing as many of the recommended well-being activities as they possibly could, which involved practising mental health exercises, getting active, and doing fun things … you get the gist. To track everyone's progress, we kept a record of the team's progress on a mental health leader board … and found out the hardest part wasn't completing the activities but stopping ourselves from cheating.

What did the team think about us embracing World Mental Health Day?

Our Social Media & Content Specialist said, "I'm quite active and social, so I found time to do Touch Rugby, PT with everyone in the office, caught up with some friends and checked how they were; I even managed to get some meditation in."

While one of our marketing troopers said, "I think they were great tasks to do. I loved the feeling of achievement while adding to the board."

Our Managing Partner here at JDP had a slightly different opinion. "There were too many activities. I'd have preferred a game of frisbee down at the park or a team lunch," before asking, "what were the activities again?".

We also asked the team if they felt the day was necessary to celebrate in the office:

"100%; 2022 has been stressful af. I think it's always good to try new things and get out of your comfort zone, the activities might have seemed like a lot at the start, but once you do a couple of them, it didn't feel like there was much to do. It made me want to do it more! Though being a Social Media & Content Specialist, I couldn't do the "restrict social media" activity as it's my job, lol."

One of our superstar recruiters said, "mental health is important when you work with humans for a living. We deal with not only our own stress and day-to-day strife but, on top of that, the 20-30 candidates we're talking to at any given point in time and the 10-15 clients we're working with. We have a lot on our plate! When we have so much in the air, it's borderline impossible to 'shut off', so embracing the day was beneficial for me. I find getting outside and walking my dog saves me!"

"I took some time for myself. I took the week off Instagram and spent time with my dog in the office. It was good because he has a disability and people all took turns coming over — dogs provide a good excuse for breaks."

To sum up, World Mental Health Day is a worthwhile cause that we’ll continue to support in this office and will certainly do again next year … but maybe with fewer activities next time.