TEOH CHEE HONG

Background information of the organisation:

I was assigned to work with HushTeabar, which is a social movement that champions social inclusion and mental wellness. Led by the Deaf and people recovering from mental health illness, this silent teabar hopes to bring self-care and inclusion to every workplace and community. Building an empathetic, resilient and inclusive society, one cup of tea at a time. Specifically I was assigned to work on the Hush@Workplace aspect of the Hush movement, which targets the working community. Workplace stress and mental health issues are becoming more prevalent in society today, so by going through the Hush@Workplace experience, they can experience a refreshing session of experiential empathy and mental wellness. Hush aims to impact the growth and development of staff to build a healthier, happier and more inclusive workplace.

Background information on project and tasks:

The project we were assigned to aims to increase the reach of Hush as a company to the public, especially corporations that put heavy emphasis on employee wellness and mental health. Hush provides a chance for employees to take time off their stressful schedules and unwind in silence with a cup of tea. This allows them time to reflect, focus on their personal wellness and grow in empathy towards others.

I was assigned to look for various companies that Hush has not engaged with in the past, but are potential partners with Hush. After that, I had to look for a way to:

• contact the heads of HR
• draft up a message to engage the heads of HR, to convince them to bring Hush to their workplaces.

In order to reach out to more corporations, a lot of time and effort was taken into crafting engagement messages and slides for Hush's clients. Our mentors helpfully provided us with templates and different examples to guide us in the crafting of content.

At the time we joined the organisation, Hush did not have that many engagements. Hence, the main focus of our project was to increase awareness through outreach to more companies, with the hope of raising public awareness on mental health issues in the workplace.

Elaboration / record of activities done:

For the project, we sieved through several websites, looking for companies that heavily emphasised employee wellness and mental health. Such websites include the Randstad’s list for top HR companies and Asia One’s website for best companies to work for. Afterwards, we added them to a spreadsheet (pictured below) which detailed information such as the date the company was added to the spreadsheet; the link of the source; the name of the organisation; and the name, position and contact method of the person to contact. With our external mentors' approval, we then came up with a draft of the engagement message for the company. We then sent this engagement message via Hush's email account to the person of interest.

Apart from this, we were also assigned to schedule two different types of Facebook posts for the entire year as part of their outreach program. The first type of post is the "Hush It On" posts. At the end of a Hush session, participants create "Hush It On" cards by writing inspirational quotes or words of support on a piece of colored paper. These cards would then be distributed to other participants in following sessions to encourage and inspire them. Our task was to take artistic pictures of some of these inspiring cards to share with the public. We did this by using a few flower petals, leaves, and small candles, along with a red cloth as the background, to create the nicest possible shots of these cards. We then scheduled these pictures to be posted to Facebook on Mondays and Wednesdays for the entire year. We paired each picture with inspirational quotes, to give people scrolling through Facebook something to lift their mood. We also scheduled the posts to go out in the morning, around 9AM, this being the time where most people would be awake and scrolling through social media before work. These posts serve to energize people, and motivate them to get through the day with a brighter outlook on life.

The other type of posts that we scheduled on the Hush Teabar Facebook account for the rest of the year are the "flashback Hush@Workplace" posts. Hush has posted many picture albums with photos of the sessions they have had in the past. We were tasked to pick out a picture from each album that we think encapsulates the experience of the session. After this, we used canva to edit the pictures using a specific and standardised template that we created with the guidance of our external mentors. This edit (an example pictured below) would indicate the company from which the picture of the session has been taken from, along with a standardised wording “ Hush@Workplace” at the bottom right corner. The purpose of these flashback posts is to engage the audience on Facebook, letting them see for themselves what a Hush session is like, allowing them to better understand Hush as an organisation. It is also to pique their curiosity to visit the official Hush website to find out more. Additionally, we tag the respective organisations in the caption to bring their attention back to Hush in an attempt to re-engage with previous organisations and relive the Hush experience.

One last main task that I was assigned was to film 3 videos with 3 different themes for Hush to use as publicity material to attract more people to notice Hush. It was also aimed at helping people understand the organisation’s purpose and the mindset it advocates - that of improving oneself’s mental health. The three videos have the themes of Empathy, Self-Care and "Gra-tea-tude" (gratitude). For the first video on empathy, we had two co-workers at Hush act in a skit. In the story of the skit, one of the co-workers notices that the other is stressed and offers to make him a cup of tea using Hush Teamoods (their specialised tea leaves) to calm him down. We filmed the second video on self-care with this storyline: One of the workers is making a cup of tea using Hush’s cup and their Teamoods leaves. Then, he sits down to enjoy a book while sipping on this cup of tea, enjoying the time he carved out to care about his personal well-being. For the third video of Gratitude, we filmed Faith picking out a "Hush It On" card from a pile and reading the message before enjoying the cup of tea that was provided, showing that she is grateful for many things in life.

Deliverables:

All in all, our 3 main tasks were crafting the videos for publicity, updating the moodboard which is a document recording memorable testimonials from past participants and editing the slides that they send to their clients. However, other than that, we were also tasked with some extra deliverables such as the Facebook posts, reaching out to new companies and helping them brainstorm different ways to publicise Hush and its purpose.

3 content knowledge / skills learnt:

One skill i have learnt from this experience is the skill of time management. Due to tight deadlines given by our external mentors, we have to manage our time well in order to get our tasks done on time. For example, we have to get 4 Facebook posts out per week while simultaneously looking for companies to reach out to. This tight deadline for the tasks issued to us has taught me to manage my time better. Although I started off struggling to manage my time with the deliverables, it got better and easier over the course of the month as i found myself having less troubles completing my tasks on time without compromising quality.

Another skill I have learnt from this experience is good communication. Throughout this experience, many of the tasks we were assigned to were things we had not done before. Hence, I have picked up the important skill of communication - in particular, clarifying my doubts whilst doing the work so as to not compromise of the quality or promptness of my work. I have realised that this will also help prevent miscommunication and confusion when I am working with others in the future.

Lastly, I learnt the importance of paying attention to details. Throughout the month, there have been many times my work has been vetted by my external mentors and requires further amendments. Most of the times, these amendments are due to minor mistakes and minute details. Initially, I did not understand what the fuss was about. However, as time passed, I started to realise that these minor errors are important to correct as they will be picked up on by the public. If that happens, the image and branding of the company can be tainted. Hence, even the smallest details make the largest impact on people’s views. Therefore, I have learnt that paying attention to small details is very important as it can cause people to have a bad impression of the company and implicating the possible partnerships.

Two interesting aspects:

One interesting aspect that I experienced on this journey is learning how to communicate effectively with deaf people that work at HushTeabar. At the start of our attachment, the deaf workers at Hush taught us basic sign language so that we can communicate with the deaf people. Some of the things we learnt how to sign include the alphabet, "thank you", "i am sorry" and "please forgive me", to name a few. With our new knowledge on sign language, communicating with the deaf workers was easier. Before this attachment, I did not have many opportunities to come into contact with deaf people. I was apprehensive about communicating with them at first, fearing that I might accidentally offend them. However, in truth, communicating with deaf people is not as hard as I thought it would be as the meaning many of the sign languages they use can be inferred from its resemblance to the actual action. Even for inexperienced signers like us, an appropriate reply wouldbe to either using sign language or just type out the message on a phone for them to see. Especially during the filming process, my group did the latter for the majority of the time.

Another interesting aspect of this attachment is how HushTeabar does not have a fixed location; they are a moving tea bar. When I first read the description of Hush, I expected it to be something like a cafe that is completely silent with deaf people working there. However, much to my surprise, Hush is actually a moving tea bar that brings their services to the workplaces and schools of their clients. This is interesting as normally people would expect a tea bar to be in the structure of a shop or cafe. Because of their "setup", they have flexibility in their daily work timings.

One key takeaway for life:

One takeaway for life that I got from this experience is the new light I see differently-abled people in. During the introduction at the start of the attachment, the people at Hush told us that deaf people are just differently-abled, not disabled. One of my mentors said : “If they are considered disabled, then so are we as we lack the knowledge of sign language”. That statement really stuck with me throughout the attachment. I experienced and became convicted that deaf people should not be ostracised or discriminated just because they use a different means of communication from us. Instead, they should be treated like any other human being - with respect and kindness. I believe that this new outlook in life will allow me to better understand people of different circumstances, act appropriately, and accept them into my life.