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There are many common types of mental ill health. The most common forms include anxiety, depression, phobic anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders.
People with these types of diagnosed mental health issues may be regarded as having a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. As such, it is unlawful for you to treat a disabled person less favourably for a reason relating to their disability, without a justifiable reason.
Mental health issues – which may be mild, moderate or severe – can affect anyone, and are often associated with, or triggered by, work-related stress, relationship breakdowns, bereavement, other work or personal difficulties, or a combination of these things. For more information, see the page in this guide on external causes of stress.
Mental health issues are one of the most common factors in long-term sickness absence. However, many employees with these conditions may continue to work without displaying obvious symptoms. For example, an employee with a depressive illness may work quite normally, particularly once any medication, counselling or other therapies begin to work.
As with many stress-related conditions, warning signs could include irritability, tiredness, erratic timekeeping, neglecting appearance or personal hygiene, being quieter than usual or being reluctant to participate in meetings, social exchanges or events.
As an employer, you can give special consideration to mental health issues by:
keeping an open mind
learning the facts about mental health disorders
being flexible
seeking expert advice and guidance
Your line managers’ listening skills can be particularly useful for helping to manage mental health issues. You may wish to provide managers with specialist training in dealing with employees suffering from severe anxiety or depression.
If workers feel able to talk about their concerns, this should be encouraged.
You could arrange an informal meeting, perhaps over lunch or coffee, to find out what sort of support they may require.
Treat mental health in the same way as you would when dealing with other potentially sensitive issues at work. Workers may benefit from being asked open-ended questions which allow them to talk about what is happening and why, and being assured that all discussions are in confidence. It is important to remember that they may find it difficult to talk. You could arrange an alternative time and date to discuss the issue, and pose specific questions for them to consider and address when you meet again.
You can also help employees who are suffering from mental health problems by:
enabling them to work flexible hours, so they can have time off if they need it, or during an especially difficult time
making sure they can work in the most congenial space – this may mean enabling them to move their desk or work station to a place where they feel most comfortable and secure
Here’s how we tackle stress to create a healthier working environment
Stephanie Horton is the managing director of River Canal Rescue. Set up in December 2000, it’s a 24-hour national breakdown and recovery service for boats on UK waterways. During the peak summer months of 2004, Horton noticed her call-out engineers were suffering from stress. She explains the measures put in place to create a healthier working environment.
What I did
Acknowledge the problem
“We get peak periods when our engineers attend several calls in one day, often in different parts of the country. Other days they might only get one call, but this could come at 6am or 6pm. This limits where they go and what they do and can contribute to feeling stressed.
“I discovered our staff were feeling stressed through our appraisal system. We also had one engineer who left – because of stress and other health problems. I realised we needed to tackle it because delivering a high standard of service is a priority and this is compromised if we have stressed engineers or lose them at peak periods. It can be hard to find suitable recruits and normally takes three months to train them.”
Introduce stress-reducing initiatives
“The first thing I did was introduce monthly meetings where the managers sit down with each employee to discuss how things are going. This helps cut stress because people don’t bottle things up and it also makes them feel valued.
“Starting this summer, we’re introducing time-out days. Each engineer will be given five individual time-out days to use during our peak periods, in addition to their holiday allowance, that they can take at 24 hours’ notice. Any extra work will be given to contractors to avoid creating more stress for the rest of the team.
“The days are designed to prevent employees from throwing sickies – although that was never a real problem – the key is that it is self managed by the individual, because they know better than we do if things are getting too much. Knowing the time off is there and that we trust them can help reduce stress.”
Monitor the situation
“We are already seeing the benefits of the monthly meetings and although the time out days haven’t taken effect yet, knowing we will be doing something to tackle stress this summer is appreciated by our employees. It has also been a selling point to new recruits.
“Now I know how stress can affect the business, I also keep an eye out for signs that our employees are under pressure – such as if they show up for work looking haggard or seem to be losing motivation.”
What I’d do differently
“I would have introduced the monthly meetings much earlier. Although there was always an informal plan to do this, and I encourage all staff to come to me with their problems, if you don’t make it a formal arrangement it is easy to keep putting it off.”
Tackling work-related stress
Supporting employees with mental ill health
There are many common types of mental ill health. The most common forms include anxiety, depression, phobic anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorders.
People with these types of diagnosed mental health issues may be regarded as having a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. As such, it is unlawful for you to treat a disabled person less favourably for a reason relating to their disability, without a justifiable reason.
See the page on discrimination against disabled people in this guide on how to prevent discrimination and value diversity.
Mental health issues – which may be mild, moderate or severe – can affect anyone, and are often associated with, or triggered by, work-related stress, relationship breakdowns, bereavement, other work or personal difficulties, or a combination of these things. For more information, see the page in this guide on external causes of stress.
Mental health issues are one of the most common factors in long-term sickness absence. However, many employees with these conditions may continue to work without displaying obvious symptoms. For example, an employee with a depressive illness may work quite normally, particularly once any medication, counselling or other therapies begin to work.
As with many stress-related conditions, warning signs could include irritability, tiredness, erratic timekeeping, neglecting appearance or personal hygiene, being quieter than usual or being reluctant to participate in meetings, social exchanges or events.
As an employer, you can give special consideration to mental health issues by:
Your line managers’ listening skills can be particularly useful for helping to manage mental health issues. You may wish to provide managers with specialist training in dealing with employees suffering from severe anxiety or depression.
If workers feel able to talk about their concerns, this should be encouraged.
You can download guidance on helping colleagues through difficult times from the Mental Health Foundation website (PDF, 493K) – Opens in a new window.
You could arrange an informal meeting, perhaps over lunch or coffee, to find out what sort of support they may require.
Treat mental health in the same way as you would when dealing with other potentially sensitive issues at work. Workers may benefit from being asked open-ended questions which allow them to talk about what is happening and why, and being assured that all discussions are in confidence. It is important to remember that they may find it difficult to talk. You could arrange an alternative time and date to discuss the issue, and pose specific questions for them to consider and address when you meet again.
You can also help employees who are suffering from mental health problems by:
Here’s how we tackle stress to create a healthier working environment
Stephanie Horton is the managing director of River Canal Rescue. Set up in December 2000, it’s a 24-hour national breakdown and recovery service for boats on UK waterways. During the peak summer months of 2004, Horton noticed her call-out engineers were suffering from stress. She explains the measures put in place to create a healthier working environment.
What I did
Acknowledge the problem
“We get peak periods when our engineers attend several calls in one day, often in different parts of the country. Other days they might only get one call, but this could come at 6am or 6pm. This limits where they go and what they do and can contribute to feeling stressed.
“I discovered our staff were feeling stressed through our appraisal system. We also had one engineer who left – because of stress and other health problems. I realised we needed to tackle it because delivering a high standard of service is a priority and this is compromised if we have stressed engineers or lose them at peak periods. It can be hard to find suitable recruits and normally takes three months to train them.”
Introduce stress-reducing initiatives
“The first thing I did was introduce monthly meetings where the managers sit down with each employee to discuss how things are going. This helps cut stress because people don’t bottle things up and it also makes them feel valued.
“Starting this summer, we’re introducing time-out days. Each engineer will be given five individual time-out days to use during our peak periods, in addition to their holiday allowance, that they can take at 24 hours’ notice. Any extra work will be given to contractors to avoid creating more stress for the rest of the team.
“The days are designed to prevent employees from throwing sickies – although that was never a real problem – the key is that it is self managed by the individual, because they know better than we do if things are getting too much. Knowing the time off is there and that we trust them can help reduce stress.”
Monitor the situation
“We are already seeing the benefits of the monthly meetings and although the time out days haven’t taken effect yet, knowing we will be doing something to tackle stress this summer is appreciated by our employees. It has also been a selling point to new recruits.
“Now I know how stress can affect the business, I also keep an eye out for signs that our employees are under pressure – such as if they show up for work looking haggard or seem to be losing motivation.”
What I’d do differently
“I would have introduced the monthly meetings much earlier. Although there was always an informal plan to do this, and I encourage all staff to come to me with their problems, if you don’t make it a formal arrangement it is easy to keep putting it off.”