Situation 1:
You have sent a contract of employment with an offer of permanent employment to someone you have recently interviewed. The contract is returned signed to confirm their acceptance of the position, with a letter informing you the candidate has a history of depression and is currently on anti-depressants.
Real life outcome:
The manager spoke to me when I was an HR manager and we discussed how best to support the individual when she joined the company. He was coached in having supportive conversations with her to identify any reasonable adjustments that may be needed to help her in the workplace.
Situation 2:
A member of your team is generally positive and optimistic. They embarked on an ambitious project 18 months ago to have a new house built on the site of their old home. They moved into a large caravan / mobile home when their old home was demolished.
During the build they became quieter and less outgoing. They moved into their new home 3 months ago. You were surprised six weeks ago when you were told they had been hospitalised with depression. They are due to return to work, Occupational Health has prepared a phased return to work plan, which you are happy with. How will you prepare to welcome them back to work?
Real life outcome:
This person was about to attempt suicide, before calling his wife at work for help. He was then hospitalised. The stress of project managing the build and staying within budget took a great toll on him, he did not speak to anyone about how he was feeling during the build. When he was hospitalised his wife to their HR Manager to find out what support was available. He knew HR had been informed about the suicide attempt and trusted them to keep it confidential. He was struggling with a sense of guilt, shame and failure, he didn’t understand how he had got so low. He was sent to me for some 1-2-1 therapy and I delivered mental health awareness training at a senior level in the business. His wife and adult children also struggled with what had happened and I gave them details of another therapist who would be able to support them.
Situation 3:
Your company is restructuring. It is currently based over four different sites across the country, the decision has been made to relocate all offices to a new, purpose built building that is 70 miles from your current location. All staff have been informed and the transition will happen in a years’ time, everyone needs to decide if they wish to remain with the company, find a new role during the transition period and leave, or wait for a year and receive a redundancy payment. You have all been aware of this situation for the last four months.
Three months ago one of the members of your team became withdrawn, seemed to be irritable and has been generally unapproachable. He doesn’t engage in the social aspects of work anymore, he seems to be taking a little less care of his appearance and has been seen in the car park on his mobile phone appearing to be angry at whoever is on the other end. You feel he is not responding well to the changes, how do you plan to address this?
Real life outcome:
The man’s wife asked him for a divorce 3 months ago, as a consequence of this he had been sleeping on friends’ sofas and was not seeing as much of his children as he wanted. He had thought he was coping until he attended one of my training sessions focusing on change and stress, when we did the activity of identifying the signs of stress he took me out of the room and told me he could not be in the training as he would lose it. he said he had thought he was coping, but he now recognised he was engaged in every one of the behavioural changes identified in the exercise. I supported him to talk to HR and his manager about the additional challenges he was facing. His manager had assumed his behaviour was linked to the office move and had not asked him about it!
