A Personal Journey Around Mental Health in Finance and Recruitment with Javed Bobat

Content note: This episode includes references to suicide and may be sensitive to some listeners. 

"Profit with Purpose"

In this episode of The Finance and Procurement People Podcast, PPN CEO, Ellen Leith talks to entrepreneurial finance recruiter, Javed Bobat as he explores the impact of mental health on his own career trajectory and how that feeds into everything that he does, explaining the ethos that sits behind the moto "profit with purpose" for the company he co-founded, IFF Talent.

More than just another recruitment company, in fact in a sea of nearly 40,000 others in the UK, Javed wanted to create something special, something different that combined recruitment with putting something back into society. So he did. Founded on the back of the original company he set up on his own, FIDE, the company combining recruitment with social enterprise was the first of its kind. And now combines social mobility, equity and inclusion and mental health advocacy alongside placing people in life changing careers. And now it's up for a start up of the year award! 

But Javed's journey into the world of being a mental health advocate in the workplace and beyond was formed out of something very personal.

Going back to the beginning of his career, Javed talks of his path into the corporate world as being one of two halves. Always a driven, hard worker, he admits to being distracted by the usual pulls of youth and (probably too harshly) says that he could have done more. But that all changed in 2008/9 when a switch was flicked to "let's go!"

Throwing himself head-first into his work paid dividends. Promoted quickly through the ranks from consultant, manager, senior manager, director in the space of five or six years. With a passion for start ups and starting a new office, Javed was rewarded with creating the most successful office the company had ever had, by every measurement. He says it didn't come naturally to him, but having to work at it forced a level of focus that created results. So much so, that he explains that if he'd stayed he's have reached a level of success that in another decade he wouldn't have to work anymore. 

But

When he reached the top, he started to feel empty. Not the joy that he thought success would bring. That feeling started to grow. He talks of factors that had laid buried for a long time, and unspoken about for 20 years that started to resurface, partly as a result of burnout. At that point he discovered people who supported him, and some who he thought would, but didn't. He hit rock bottom and came close to making an irreversible decision.  

Some people didn't understand it and said; "What have you got to be depressed about?" But as Javed goes on to explain, mental health difficulties don't discriminate, they can happen to anyone. While your risk factors can be increased by environment or exclusion for example, no one is exempt. Javed talks in general terms about CFOs and others who he's spoken to where from the outside you would never know anything was wrong. 

Javed goes on to talk about what we can do as individuals, in society and in the workplace to help support better mental health. As an individual, he explains, we can more actively identify our stress signals and our "stress containers" which he explains vary from person to person, but it's important to recognise our own.