A social enterprise focusing on mental health at work has created a series of blue emoji to help employees communicate their feelings to colleagues

Feeling the January blues but don’t know why? Scotland’s first social enterprise aimed at promoting workplace mental health has the answer – shades of blue emoji.

MHScot Workplace Wellbeing has created four blue emoji stickers that might just represent how third sector staff are feeling this January.

If you’ve dragged yourself back into work while still suffering from a cold, there’s an emoji sticker for you. If you’re just a bit fed up listening to colleagues drone on in meetings while it literally gets dark outside, then take a look at these nifty communications tools.

MHScot wants to see mental health first aid training become a mandatory part of workplace health and safety. It designed the blue emoji to help colleagues communicate how they are feeling.

Catherine Eadie, founding director of MHScot said: “Mental health issues in the workplace affect a wide spread of employees across many sectors. It is not isolated to any one social demographic and affects people at all ages and stages of their career and employment. The workplace is a real opportunity to spot employees who are in difficulty – especially as so many people live alone and can be very isolated at night.

“We see the use of our “shades of blue” emojis as forming a part of mental health first aid training and would welcome a push to place mental health first aid training on a par with first aid as a vital HR skillset through fully accredited training.”

You can download the shades of blue emoji at the MHScot website.