“That perspective of knowing what to let go of was really helpful, and I was really hopeful to share it with my team,” said Roffino. “I wish everyone could gain that without having to (experience) the pain.”
Redefining flexibility
After losing her husband, Roffino understood the extent in which grief functions on an unpredictable schedule. She also continued to recognize that emotional distress does not come from uniform sources—one employee might need more time to process a public event or tragedy than another, for example. According to Roffino, a flexible work environment is about ridding people of the guilt that they could or should be somewhere else.
“What I’ve absolutely learned is that grief hits you when you least expect it,” said Roffino. “Sometimes you need a minute and sometimes you need a day.”
Pursuing purpose in safe spaces
After spending the last five years embedded in mental health conversations, Roffino often forgets just how much the general public fails to understand its universal relevance and gravity. Since feeling the shock of losing a partner after being unaware of his struggles, she wants to reroute the narrative around what it looks like to hurt while encouraging others to seek help without shame.
“Everyone wants a reason something happened,” said Roffino. “They say ‘That won’t happen to me because I don’t fall within those reasons, but that’s not the reality. That’s not how mental health works.”
Roffino pursues a level of sensitivity in her leadership style that she hopes inspires greater comfort among employees. The Marketing Arm has refined ERGs so employees can connect over sensitive topics without an expectation to educate the company. Roffino is also confident in the ad industry’s power to address mental health, and she hopes to one day establish a nonprofit that serves families that have lost a loved one to suicide. While she works out how to share her story on a wider scale, she is encouraging the people around her to make consistent emotional honesty a priority.
