Men at work

A growing number of companies are launching men’s groups with surprisingly positive outcomes

EVERY YEAR IN November, the moustache makes its triumphant return to the upper lips of many men (it’s now mid-Movember, so even the most hair-growth challenged participants are probably sporting something up there…). What started as an awareness campaign for men’s cancer health has broadened over the years and is now a catch-all fundraising and awareness effort for men’s mental and physical health, and it’s often something that is organized within professional networks.

Click here to view this article in the London Inc. Worklife newsletter

These are places where, while men have often dominated the scene, men’s issues have long gone underdiscussed in the opinions of some — and that’s leading to a rise in popularity of men’s groups in the workplace.

Story Continues Below

 

Bloomberg recently reported that several large firms have (quietly) started organizing men’s groups. One organizer at the British Channel 4, Tafadzwa Muchenje, said the response to a group he co-runs was a surprise: “The biggest surprise I had was how desperate men were to talk and learn,” he told Bloomberg. “There was so much desire and appetite.”

Men’s groups can be tricky to navigate in the workplace, in part because work has long been seen as an old boy’s club already. Advocates of this kind of support network understand that view.

“The misconception is that men have lots of spaces for them already: the board room; the golf club; the private members’ club,” wrote James Routledge. “A small minority of men, perhaps, are involved in these traditional networks, [but] the majority of men are lacking in communities where they can show up wholeheartedly with all their vulnerabilities and speak openly.”

Advocates for men’s mental health say it’s an issue that crosses social and class lines. “Beneath the sharp suits and confident demeanors of Canadian finance and accounting professionals often lies an unspoken struggle: the impact on men’s health,” wrote Kassen Recruitment, offering their tips on how to organize such a group. One all-gender support group in the UK called GENts, said the response they get from participants is “they feel they can open up without any fear of judgment or ridicule, which is exactly what we I aimed for when we set GENts up.”

Story Continues Below

 

There is data that bears the need for this out. Men’s labour force participation rate has been on a downward trend for two decades, and men have seen their social isolation rates increase at a faster rate than other groups. “Women tend to have larger support networks and are in many cases more likely to share their feelings with family and friends,” said Bloomberg reporters Jeff Green and Saijel Kishan. “Men, on the other hand, are living increasingly isolated lives, especially amid the decline in civic and religious communities.”

The aim of many involved in this movement is not to recreate any type of stereotypical men’s network of the past, but to introduce change in ways that allow men to feel healthier and more themselves at work.

“Men’s groups can allow for men to change the typical male culture that holds so many people back,” summed up Routledge. “The truth is stereotypical male culture — quips about football or misogynistic jokes — make lots of men feel uncomfortable, too. Men too want typical male culture and norms to change for the better.” Kieran Delamont