The people in our office couldn't remember the last time we'd celebrated World Mental Health Day. Our manager didn't want to get involved, and our CEO asked, "When is world mental health day?" when we brought up the idea of holding an event to show support for our employees and clients.

With Mental Health Awareness Day fast approaching, we felt as though we had to do something to celebrate World Mental Health Day 2024. We didn't want to let another year pass without letting our fellow team members know that we were well aware of the occasion and wouldn't completely ignore it this year, even if management wasn't on board. 

Stella, from marketing, drew up a flier and passed it out to employees in the office, ensuring that remote workers received a copy as well. She planned on collecting employee money to fund an office party at a local restaurant. We would support mental health by talking, unwinding, and playing a game of trivia or two while enjoying delicious food. 

Everyone was excited about Stella's idea, and she raised plenty of funding. Once the restaurant and the food were paid for, she had enough left to order one water bottle per employee from SwagMagic and a few curated snack boxes from SnackMagic as prizes for winning rounds of trivia. 

As Mental Health Awareness week grew closer, we were thrilled at how many people were excited to attend our little off-site gathering. Even a few members of management caught wind of the idea and pitched in a few dollars for extra appetizers and desserts. 

It would be the ideal way to talk about life with one another, holding conversations that didn't involve work. Stella printed up brochures with mental health resources, and we were just about ready to have our event!

Our World Mental Health Day theme was "Come As You Are." We wanted our fellow co-workers to show up in a way they felt the most comfortable, whether it be ripped jeans or a business casual outfit. We would celebrate World Mental Health week in style, just being us. 

Somewhere along the way, upper management found out about our gathering. They were vocal regarding their frustration in being excluded from the festivities. Our CEO advised that we could no longer raise money for this particular event in the office. 

Stella was shocked but took comfort in the fact that the restaurant and food were already paid for. We could have our party without raising any additional funding. Our World Mental Health Day 2024 theme was established, our funding was stalled but relatively complete, and we'd just received a large box of swag from SwagMagic to hand out at the party.

To our surprise, our CEO called an emergency meeting during work hours on the same day as our party. We all received a message that the meeting was mandatory and would run from nine in the morning until three in the afternoon. 

There was plenty of gossip regarding the reasons for calling such a long meeting on a day when we were planning to play mental health games and activities for adults and then go to a relatively large gathering to which no one from the management team was invited. 

Cindy from accounting was confident they would cancel our party and fire all of us, but we knew that we'd done nothing wrong, and that scenario was unlikely, if not impossible. Someone suggested that management maybe planned World Mental Health Day activities to play with us, as they'd come across a mental health games and activities PDF, printed out and left on one of the meeting room tables. 

In the end, we nixed the idea that they wanted to test out mental health activities for groups, and the overall consensus was that we were concerned that we might be in trouble. We'd set out to show that mental health activities for teens and adults were important to us, but maybe we'd gone too far, and management was upset that we'd take matters into our own hands. Stella was nervous.

The day of the meeting and our after-work party finally rolled around. We all arrived at the office a little anxious that day, primarily Stella, as she was the main organizer of our mental health bash. We grabbed cups of coffee and bottles of water from the break room and filed into the big conference area to find a World Mental Health Day poster on the wall and mental health awareness topics listed on the whiteboard. 

It seemed management was finally taking mental health seriously after all. Still, we were on edge that this long meeting was intended to replace our party and wondered how they would fill seven hours with mental health awareness facts. We all sat quietly, waiting for the meeting to begin, chatter filling the room as the minutes ticked past. 

Finally, at 9:30, the meeting still had yet to start. Right before we stood to leave, the automated lights in the conference room shut off. Music began playing from the boardroom sound system, and balloons fell from somewhere in the rafters. 

Our CEO danced in with a few members from upper management, and they all announced a Mental Health Day Awareness party. 

Our CEO had planned something around World Mental Health Awareness month! She scheduled World Mental Health Day activities for students and staff and prepared a World Mental Health Day speech that left some of us in tears. Her World Mental Health Day social media posts were full of inspirational short mental health quotes, and the only reason none of us saw them is that she shared them on her page.

We were thrilled that she cared so much about supporting us. She had a catered breakfast and lunch, with plenty of mental health resources available, including vouchers for free therapy sessions. We played games, and she even hired a live band and therapy dogs to hang out with during the party!

Our CEO handed out more swag than we could have ordered, including mugs and wristbands with quotes about mental health awareness. She had sweatshirts made with Mental Health Day quotes and beautiful home decor pillows with World Mental Health Day quotes on them. 

She didn't use any famous Mental Health Day quotes, instead pulling sayings she learned during her experience managing mental health. It was a fun and inspiring day, to say the least. 

Our after-work party went as planned, but our CEO and upper management members attended. It was so lovely to have a surprise party from the team to show their unwavering support for our mental health, and our CEO even added seven additional days of vacation each year! 

We had so much fun together as an office, and we all walked away feeling supported, heard, and with more SwagMagic swag than we knew what to do with! We've already begun planning for next year, and we plan to include our customers in a massive, month-long event!