Episode 111: Money, Mental Health & the Future of Work: Supporting Australian Employees
12th May 2025
In this episode of the Financial Fofu podcast, Trudi Cowan and Sarah Eifermann discuss the intricate relationship between money, mental health, and the future of work. They explore how mental health challenges impact the economy, the importance of workplace culture, and the necessity of supporting employees' financial wellbeing. The conversation also delves into the changes brought about by COVID-19, the need for flexibility in work arrangements, and the critical role of communication in fostering a supportive work environment. Ultimately, they emphasise that investing in employee mental health is not just a moral obligation but a strategic business decision.
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Podcast Transcript Available Here
Trudi Cowan (00:10.586)
Hello everyone and welcome back to the Financial Fofu podcast. And today we are going to be talking about money, mental health and the future of work.
Sarah Eifermann (00:21.198)
Yeah, it's an interesting topic for a lot of people, especially at the moment. So I thought it was a good one to include in our season for today. Yeah, it's an interesting time, cost of living crisis, business pressures, the elections just been, I don't know why that stalls the market, but it does. The impact of Trump.
Trudi Cowan (00:26.275)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (00:30.233)
Yes.
Sarah Eifermann (00:47.182)
on the world and the marketplace and I just think there's a lot going on for everyone all of the time so
Trudi Cowan (00:54.839)
There is. So a really quick stat. Mental health challenges actually cost the Australian economy over $16 billion annually.
Sarah Eifermann (00:59.896)
Mmm.
Sarah Eifermann (01:03.404)
Yeah, I would say it's more than that, but that would maybe be a couple of years old now. Post-COVID, post-COVID has definitely, you know, the unintended consequences of locking, especially Victoria, people into their homes for that long. There's ongoing challenges from, from then, but that, yeah, I would say it's more than 60 billion, but that's a hell of a lot of cash.
Trudi Cowan (01:07.992)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (01:25.37)
There is a lot of cash and I think it's why businesses can't really separate their employees' wellbeing from the health of the business anymore. Like they're interlinked. Maybe it's not your fault, but they're still linked with if your employees are struggling, they're not going to be performing.
Sarah Eifermann (01:34.702)
It's not our fault.
Sarah Eifermann (01:40.129)
No!
Where's the ethical obligation, right, in the work that you offer if there's a potential outcome that equals XYZ? So, and then as you said, what's the true cost of that, which then adds on to the cost of an employee? So, mental health day is not showing up for work, drug, potential drug use, other ones I've seen, I mean, accidents happen in vehicles, but...
Trudi Cowan (01:52.132)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (02:03.631)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (02:09.942)
accidents happening in vehicles because they're not present and attention because they've got mental health issues that are impacting where they're at.
Trudi Cowan (02:10.073)
Yep.
Trudi Cowan (02:14.49)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (02:18.466)
Look, the disengagement can present in different ways. I've seen stories about businesses that have got staff whose members take their one day of annual leave as soon as it's accrued.
Sarah Eifermann (02:29.73)
Yeah. Bye.
Trudi Cowan (02:30.946)
you know, so they work a couple of weeks and then they take a day off and then they work a couple of weeks and then they take another day off and that can have an impact on the business because it's hard to plan for that single day off, especially if it's a sick day that they may be taking and you're only finding out on the morning of that they're going to be away. So, you know, that's really a staff member that's disengaged or maybe struggling with something else.
Sarah Eifermann (02:41.762)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (02:53.314)
Yeah. And I like my favorite, I suppose, in a non positive way is the employees that take book their holidays and then tell the business owners they're taking holidays at that period of time. Like our generation, you just don't do that. But the generations coming through below us don't care. And then the impact that that has and how do you manage a business for beneficial outcomes for everybody?
Trudi Cowan (03:05.262)
Yes, rather than. No.
Mm.
Sarah Eifermann (03:20.862)
Most business owners I know are too damn loyal to their staff to their own detriment.
But then that's now changing with the staff member's mental health position on top. So that's a tough one to manage.
Trudi Cowan (03:32.926)
Yeah, yeah and in a similar vein I've I heard one recently where the staff member who was a key staff member put you in leave at the same time that they knew the boss would be away. The boss had the choice of either saying no to their key staff member or not having their own holiday. Put you in a really difficult situation.
Sarah Eifermann (03:45.261)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (03:52.342)
not good. Yeah, I mean culture is everything so I think a lot of this comes down to culture. Culture at work, culture of communication, culture of respect that goes both ways. Like it's a symbiotic relationship where you require employees. It has to work for both of you and it's not just salary, right?
Trudi Cowan (04:05.145)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (04:14.658)
Yeah, it isn't just salary. And look, if you want to look at a purely, I guess, cash kind of perspective, it's salary and it's super. It could be workers compensation, leave entitlement, you might have payroll tax. If you've got to pay to onboard staff or to use a HR service to hire new staff, recruitment, there's a lot of other just purely cash costs associated with having staff other than just a wage.
Sarah Eifermann (04:19.64)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (04:23.214)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (04:31.148)
Recruitment. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (04:41.774)
Mm-hmm.
Trudi Cowan (04:42.234)
But then if we look at the non-cash, it's what we're talking about. It's the mental health issues. It's are they actually present when they're at work? Are they engaged and efficient when they're at work?
Sarah Eifermann (04:52.386)
Yeah, potential screw ups as well, know, like if they're there but they're not really there, who's liable for that?
Trudi Cowan (05:00.898)
Hmm. Yeah, and depending on the industry that you're in, does that then become an &S issue if they're not paying the right amount of attention to what they're doing?
Sarah Eifermann (05:11.714)
Yeah. And then you have things like burnout, stress, financial worries of their own, which then erode profitability because they're not efficient in their job. It's not an easy thing to be a business owner with staff in the same way the relationship between staff member and boss has changed.
Trudi Cowan (05:31.384)
Yeah, I think back in the day, I think it used to be that you checked your life at the door and you walked in and you went and did your job and you were at work and life didn't exist and then you left and then you could have your life. But I think that that's, well, I think I personally think that's the wrong way to look at it. But these days, you know, people do have a life and it's very difficult for them to check that at the door. They shouldn't have to check that at the door. And so what's happening in their personal life is going from a leading
Sarah Eifermann (05:37.538)
Yes.
Sarah Eifermann (05:54.592)
It's true. It's true. I think there's a happy medium.
Sarah Eifermann (06:01.838)
Yeah, but there is a there is a there is a happy medium though, right? Like it's not the business owner's responsibility, nor do they have capacity or control of what's going on in their personal life. So this is about self accountability to and how that then impacts how you show up to do to work. And that's what I was talking about earlier with the culture of respect. Like, do you respect your employer enough to show up and be committed to performing the job which you are employed and engaged and paid to do? Regardless.
Trudi Cowan (06:15.19)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (06:29.442)
Yeah, but you're more likely to do that if you've got a boss that is empathetic and understanding of you've got shit going on at home as well.
Sarah Eifermann (06:34.072)
Yes. Yes.
You know, our last episode was on AI and one of the biggest themes of that is around people thinking AI is going to steal their jobs. AI is not going to steal your jobs. AI will just replace your jobs, as I personally talked about, where employees also aren't delivering a return on the cost and the stress and...
the management that goes with them. So this symbiotic relationship of employer and employee is so important for both of you.
Trudi Cowan (07:11.128)
up and put it in a really plain example if you're somebody that comes to work and you do bare minimum maybe not even bare minimum and your boss realizes actually there's a tool that I can be using to replace you who is not even doing bare minimum isn't really adding anything to the team culture and it's cheaper to use the software where do think they're gonna go so you don't want it to be an easy decision
Sarah Eifermann (07:30.444)
Yeah, that's right.
Sarah Eifermann (07:35.822)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (07:39.83)
I told a client last week who were financially struggling just based on the marketplace. He's got concerns about one staff member. And I said, if he's lazy, sack him. And he went, he is the laziest out of all of them. And I'm like, well, why are you keeping him? But I mean, at the same time, like you said, like there's this blurred line now between life and work and friends and work and
Trudi Cowan (07:50.372)
Mm.
Trudi Cowan (07:57.401)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (08:09.524)
my boss is my best mate and then that creates yeah.
Trudi Cowan (08:11.93)
in a full business environment you like to think that your staff are your friends or at least that you're friendly with them. It's been if they've been working with you for a long time it can be difficult from an emotional perspective to I guess make that do the right thing by the business whether that be a performance management situation or having a staff member exit the business that can be difficult.
Sarah Eifermann (08:30.274)
Do the right thing. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (08:40.504)
So what are some of the other hidden costs of like poor wellbeing or, you know, mental struggling?
Trudi Cowan (08:46.094)
well, increased sick leave, whether because they're unwell or seeking medical appointments or because they just, as we say, chucking a sickie, because they don't want to be at work.
Sarah Eifermann (08:59.95)
Yeah, Higher staff turnover, you also might need to engage somebody to pick up their slack as well. Then there's also the safety factor that goes with it. And I don't know if this is true, but is mental health now a work health and safety obligation to employers in Australia? Yeah, like that's interesting.
Trudi Cowan (09:07.875)
Yep.
Trudi Cowan (09:21.402)
I think so,
Sarah Eifermann (09:25.466)
Where does the boundary stop? it only work related? Are you responsible? Yeah, it's interesting. But look, supporting an employee well-being is not just a feel good extra. It's actually a financial strategy to ensure you're getting the best ROI. If we want to be really like robotic about it, it makes smart financial sense to make sure that your investment is performing.
Trudi Cowan (09:27.822)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (09:34.518)
Thanks.
Trudi Cowan (09:42.722)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (09:49.73)
And you just almost touched on something before as well, that if you do have someone that's underperforming or maybe not able to perform because they have got other things going on and other concerns going on, if somebody else is picking up their slack, what's the impact on that person as well? There's nothing worse than a team environment where everybody knows that X person is the slacker and doesn't do any work and we're all having to stay back late or do any full work.
Sarah Eifermann (10:00.674)
Mm-hmm. Correct. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (10:13.752)
Bad, bad for culture. Bad.
Trudi Cowan (10:16.024)
really bad for culture. So it's not just about the person that's potentially struggling, it's about what's actually the impact on the rest of the team as well. Don't forget about them because they're probably the ones that are actually, as you say, picking up that slack.
Sarah Eifermann (10:22.508)
Yeah, absolutely.
Sarah Eifermann (10:28.022)
Yeah, completely. That's probably where I would go to first is the ongoing impact and the burnout on other staff members and the, I have to work with that guy today. It's not good.
Trudi Cowan (10:29.7)
Mm.
and
Trudi Cowan (10:40.826)
So look, we know that financial stress is a big issue for a lot of people, whether it's just cost of living or whether it's you are the business owner and you're stressing about being able to pay the wages to all these people that are struggling with cost of living. So what's maybe some of the things that we can do as an employer to help support that, I guess, financial wellbeing of our staff?
Sarah Eifermann (11:03.448)
Yeah, look, offering financial literacy programs or resources that don't just focus on counseling, but teach you how to be better with your money. And I was actually engaged last year by Blundstone. They flew me to Hobart to teach their factory staff and then back into Melbourne about financial literacy, basic budgeting, how to read your payslip. Giving them a bit of knowledge empowers your employees. Empowerment can relieve or alleviate stress.
Trudi Cowan (11:27.407)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (11:28.35)
If you teach an employee how to get the most out of their paycheck and look, some of the conversations on that session were very interesting around what they didn't realize they were spending their own money on and how much of it was being spent each month. I think that's the awareness pace that makes a massive difference. But it then gives them the agency to make their decisions and make better decisions, which can alleviate the stress as well, right? Which then reduces any shame that they may have about money struggles.
Trudi Cowan (11:48.879)
Yes.
Sarah Eifermann (11:55.47)
And I had another client fly me to Melbourne a couple years ago, a plumber. He's got younger guys on his crew. And he asked me to come in and teach them what they needed to do to be able to buy a house because he knows that it's getting harder to do that sort of stuff. And when we went through their numbers and I made them do like their living expenses and what they spent. One of his crew had spent $90,000 on top of $100,000 of a car loan for a land cruiser on cars and car parts.
Like, mate, don't tell me you can't buy a house in Australia if that's where your money is being spent.
Trudi Cowan (12:29.977)
Yeah.
And it's kind of funny as an accountant, have a lot of people say to you must be really good with your money being an accountant. But sometimes I think it's just that I have that education and that knowledge to actually think about where is my money going?
Sarah Eifermann (12:42.69)
Wow, you are pretty good with your money though Trudi. You're also married to an accountant so both of you come with that baseline. Yeah, but I mean that's the adage.
Trudi Cowan (12:48.122)
I am pretty good with money. But, I'm going to try the tours. But, as I say, we've had that budget paper. It's not necessarily taught at school, it's not necessarily taught at universities about how to budget for your money, how to actually do a budget, how to check where your money is going and being spent. It's not about that coffee that you're buying, it's not about the avocado on toast, it's the combination of
Sarah Eifermann (13:07.299)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (13:16.152)
you are you spending $200 a week on groceries and then also spending another $400 on Uber Eats?
Sarah Eifermann (13:22.668)
and not eating your groceries.
Trudi Cowan (13:23.064)
Right. And on any groceries, it's those little things that you may be not even thinking about. Have you got five subscriptions for different TV programs, but you're actually really using one.
Sarah Eifermann (13:32.664)
Yeah. Back in the day before streaming services started, the question used to be from me, are you going, have you got a gym membership that you're not using? And are you paying, are you paying for Fox Tell, but not watching it? And do you need the package that you're on on Fox Tell? So, look, when people feel financially stable, they just perform better all, all around, like at work, in their home lives, but they're happier. They're happier people.
Trudi Cowan (13:41.018)
Well that's probably the question.
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (13:57.219)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (14:02.286)
And I suppose that's the outcome. We want happier people in society and how can we as employers and as business owners actually encourage that outcome? And side note, I know plenty of accountants and brokers that are terrible with their money. So it's not always about the education. It's about what you choose to do with that. So, yeah.
Trudi Cowan (14:12.831)
people on our team as well.
Trudi Cowan (14:18.746)
Yes. No. Yes, very true. So look, some other tips, you know, encourage access to budgeting tools, debt support if people know it, need it, making sure people understand what superannuation is and how it works, because that's another area of education that I think a lot of people have missed. And also just generally creating a culture around
that's sort of reducing any shame around money struggles.
Sarah Eifermann (14:52.494)
Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, look, given that this is what I spend a lot of time doing and teach and have a course for, you can offer the course, I can give you a coupon, we can do a discount, a bundled price, $169, you can put your staff online. It shows that you care. And whilst you might think, I don't have $169 per staff member, if you get better performance out of those staff members for the next six months, was it really a...
Trudi Cowan (15:16.483)
Well, in this case.
Sarah Eifermann (15:17.698)
But was it really worth it cost 169 or did it really generate your whole leap of extra money instead? Like you said, it's very small investment. So what do how do we look at this? We mentioned it at the start about COVID, COVID creating a lot of stuff, but COVID has brought some shifts in how we work as well. So. Yeah, yeah, which doesn't work for every type of role. Some things you physically can't work from home. You can't change somebody's toilet from your house.
Trudi Cowan (15:32.758)
while the biggest one's been working from home.
Trudi Cowan (15:42.81)
No, you can't work in a retail shop from home.
Sarah Eifermann (15:45.528)
Can't get an operation from home.
No, so, but there are plenty of professional services and administration capabilities that allow people to work from home. Even in government roles, a lot of them have been allowed to work from home for period of time. But what does that look like moving forward?
Trudi Cowan (16:06.66)
that it's going to continue. I think that that will be the norm. I think there'll be a mix of it'll be hybrid. You'll be expected to be in the office a certain number of days and you'll be expected to be at home or be allowed to be at home a certain number of days but I think some of that is also about managing what does that hybrid look like? I know lots of mates who are required to be in the office let's just say two or three days a week and they get there and no one else is there so they're still doing Zoom calls. So it's sort of become what's the point? So if
Sarah Eifermann (16:32.504)
Yeah, I know, it's kind of stupid. It should be like Monday, Wednesday, Friday, everyone's in the office and Tuesday, Thursday or half or...
Trudi Cowan (16:38.586)
Even if it's certain teams or silos that you agree with, if you're a larger organization, the finance team has to be in this day and the operations team has to be in this term. Or if you are smaller, yes, maybe it just is. Everyone is in Monday, Wednesday, Friday, or whatever the days are. Because part of them being in the office should be about having the opportunity to actually check in and physically see how your team is growing.
Sarah Eifermann (16:49.507)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (16:56.312)
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, for example.
Sarah Eifermann (17:04.547)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (17:05.688)
to do the team things like the birthday cakes or the celebrations for achievements. And that doesn't work if there's only one of you actually there and everybody else is there. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (17:08.738)
Mm-hmm.
The culture, the culture building activities, right? That's what we want to see still happening. Look, I know somebody that does not work from home well, like it makes her mental health significantly worse to work from home, the isolation. She's more than capable, but the isolation, so she had to, she was working for a council. The council didn't have a desk for her post flooding up in the Northern Rivers because her building went under and they moved it to a facility she
physically couldn't work out because she had a mold allergy. And so she was told, well, you just work from home now. And it absolutely screwed her up. Like her mental health, it made life harder for her. So she ended up going and getting a job where she can work from home two days a week. And then she drives to the Gold Coast the other three days just so that she's got people around her. And that also helps her leave her work at the door when she leaves and comes drives home. So it's.
Trudi Cowan (18:04.292)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (18:08.062)
I think the key there as an employer is instead of just pushing certain arrangements on people, have a conversation with them about what work for you. Because as you say, there are some people that just don't want to be at home. don't have the space or there's too much noise or as you say, it's the isolation of being at home. So they would prefer to be in the office. So make sure you have those conversations to check in with people as to what is their preference.
Sarah Eifermann (18:14.168)
Yeah. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (18:30.434)
Yeah, it's interesting because like I've worked in both offices and I've worked from home and I personally prefer working from home. I am a lot more productive without the distractions. So being a HSP, highly sensitive, like someone walked past my office door, my window, I'd be looking at them rather than what I was doing. I was very easily distracted and it didn't help me. But that flexibility used to be like an add on perk and now it's just a standard part and parcel of the job role.
Trudi Cowan (18:48.954)
Thank you.
Trudi Cowan (18:58.426)
and it's expectation for a lot of people as well.
Sarah Eifermann (19:00.396)
Yeah, yeah, and that goes with the work-life balance thing. People are looking for more chances to get off the grind, I suppose, and find other ways to do that. And so the difficulty with this change in the way that we physically do work is that, as I said earlier, it's very hard to maintain a culture if your people aren't there and you don't see them.
Trudi Cowan (19:03.844)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (19:24.102)
And I think the other thing that's been a bit of a shift and is probably also here to stay is just that expectation of flexibility and working from home is one example of flexibility. But there are other examples. Maybe it's that you want to do a nine day fortnight or you only want to work five hours every day. there's obviously flexibility around hours as well.
Sarah Eifermann (19:30.318)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (19:44.718)
Yep. I have another client who has a staff member that wants to work 14 hours on one day and two hours on the next because she does something with their mom. And Nicole had to go and speak to her HR crew and be like, this legal? Can I do this? And because the staff member had requested it, she was okay. Like it was under the law. was allowed because she was on a salary and she had to set an amount of hours she had to work for the week, but she had to go check it. But what was she going to say? No.
Trudi Cowan (20:04.89)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (20:14.059)
Like, if that's what works for you, then sure we'll...
Trudi Cowan (20:17.021)
But again, as long as it works in with your business, if you're a shop that's only open for eight hours a day, then that's not going to work. But if you're in a role where you can actually do the 14 hours, yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (20:21.87)
Correct. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (20:29.048)
She does the books for this business, so it was fine. Yeah, in this instance, it was fine. But yes, you're right. It has to work for both employee and employer. And that's often the bit, as I was alluding to at the start. You're still an employer as a small business owner. It has to work for you first and foremost. If you can accommodate their needs and it's a win-win situation, fantastic. But you shouldn't be losing as a business owner to accommodate staff's needs.
Trudi Cowan (20:41.912)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (20:56.938)
No, definitely not. And I think also, I think also sometimes it's a little bit of negotiation. So maybe in your example, the 14 hours wasn't able to be accommodated, but maybe it could be 10 and then the other hours are split over two days so she could still have that day with not many hours, right? So maybe there's a negotiation that can be had. And if people, if your staff feel like that they're going to go and ask something and you're just going to go, no.
Sarah Eifermann (21:05.122)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (21:14.892)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (21:23.512)
culture.
Trudi Cowan (21:25.437)
they're not gonna come and ask and then they're just gonna sit and resent. And so, as you say, it comes down to culture as well. But if you're at least open to the conversation, then it's different.
Sarah Eifermann (21:29.206)
Yeah, culture, emotional intelligence. Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (21:38.562)
Yeah, so what are some practical tips for success when it comes to mental health in the workplace and managing changing expectations and work-life balance?
Trudi Cowan (21:48.398)
Look, I think communication is always really key in these situations. You've got to be, as a boss, open that people can come and speak to you, whether it's about work or a personal related matter, and knowing that there's different supports that are available.
Sarah Eifermann (21:50.53)
Yeah.
Sarah Eifermann (22:09.57)
Yeah, completely, completely. And I think it's also about looking at things like what is productivity? What are your expectations? And as you said, communicating those and then regular check-ins. So not just a performance review, but an actual, how are you? Like that genuine empathetic, let's have a real conversation. Look, I don't know about you, but whenever I had staff, I wanted real connection with my staff. didn't just want them to be robots.
Trudi Cowan (22:24.366)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (22:36.6)
No.
Sarah Eifermann (22:36.75)
because I didn't want my customers to experience that either. it's finding a way to communicate with people and ensuring that sometimes they're not going to tell you what's going on in their life either.
Trudi Cowan (22:44.442)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (22:48.056)
Yeah, I work with a small team of women. We're very chatty, so we're very open and it's very easy to share. know, in my previous life when I was, I guess, a supervisor of quite a number of juniors, I made it a point to have just take Matt for a coffee once a month or once every couple of months. And it always started with, how are you? How are you doing? How are you going?
Sarah Eifermann (23:05.656)
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
Trudi Cowan (23:11.866)
Let's just talk about that first and then if there was any other sort of performance related matters that we'll work related matters to talk to that would come later. But let's start the conversation with how are you going? And sometimes that would take up the entire coffee and we wouldn't get to any of other matters. So that's fine. It's more important than sometimes that conversation needed to be had first.
Sarah Eifermann (23:19.566)
slightly.
Sarah Eifermann (23:25.186)
More important, be human first.
Yeah. So I mean, managing your employees well-being is a business growth strategy. It's not a side project. So it's really a fundamental part of being in business. And our smart businesses are adapting to this. They're investing in mental health. Like I said, Blundstone, Flumeet, Tassie, they're looking for financial stability. They want flexible work models. And, you know,
Healthy, financially secure and engaged employees do equal a stronger, more sustainable business for you. So this, if you haven't done this already, what's one step today that you could take to support your team's financial or mental wellbeing?
Trudi Cowan (24:06.956)
Yeah and look in just about every business your employees are your biggest asset and they require investment as well. So you just need to make sure you're investing in them not just with a wage but with other support as well whether it be EAPs or financial support or just being open and available as a human being to support wherever they are in their life.
Sarah Eifermann (24:12.525)
Mm-hmm.
Sarah Eifermann (24:27.467)
Also...
Sarah Eifermann (24:33.024)
Lifeline and Beyond Blue are offering free resources for businesses online. So there are some things that you can pull from some of those workshops to come in and talk.
Trudi Cowan (24:40.079)
Yes.
Trudi Cowan (24:43.822)
Doesn't hurt to even just print out a poster and have it on the wall and...
Sarah Eifermann (24:48.3)
Yeah. And look, I do offer financial literacy. So very basic financial literacy workshops for staff, for businesses to engage with their staff for that reason. It's really just to get them a leg up, teach them some basic stuff, get their brain ticking and give them some empowerment to really feel like they've got capacity to manage where they're at in their lives.
Trudi Cowan (25:02.168)
Yeah.
Trudi Cowan (25:08.568)
Yeah, and if you do feel like there is a significant amount of sort of mental health issues within your business or area, there is actually a mental health first aid course you can do as well, which I've done through our accounting professional bodies. It's actually a really useful course to do to just get an understanding of what some of the signs are and also what do I then do if someone does come to me?
Sarah Eifermann (25:17.71)
Amazing.
Trudi Cowan (25:31.778)
with a certain type of issue or problem. So if it's something that you're not really sure how to deal with, there are actually courses available to help support that as well.
Sarah Eifermann (25:38.86)
Yeah, next week our episode is on leadership and management in modern enterprises. So it's another not to be missed episode. But if you do have any questions about this, do feel free to reach out. Have a chat. We can point you in the right direction.
Trudi Cowan (25:46.298)
See? That's not it.
Trudi Cowan (25:53.22)
Bye.