Work-Related Stress Issue

crystalbristols

I am employed as a support worker with a housing organisation.

I have worked for the company for just under twelve months and for the first six months of my employment; I enjoyed a good rapport with my then team manager and felt I had a manageable workload to deal with and that I was working for somebody who knew how to manage people effectively and sensitively at the same time.

I was then moved to the team of a new team manager who'd just joined my department. My relationship with her has not been good. She has gradually overloaded me with more and more work. Over and above my contractual duties, she has asked me to take on forming and organising a user-involvement group from scratch. I agreed to do this because I wanted to help and I thought I would be allowed to do this extra and unpaid work at my own gentle pace as and when I had time to do so. This has not turned out to be the case. I have in fact been asked to do more and more work related to starting this group and on a deadlines-type agenda and when I asked to reduce my client level to accommodate these additional duties, I was told by her this wasn't possible.

The straw to break this camel's back occurred recently when she either intentionally or oblivious to the fact undermined me in front of my colleagues by telling me and them in a loud voice in a busy main office area that I looked 'bewildered’. Yes, I was !!!!!!!' bewildered because for a number of months I have had work coming out of my ear'oles and about three hours sleep a night as a result of the severe pressure of work in a role where you pick up the kinds of mess social workers don’t want to touch anymore. Perhaps a better tactic on seeing me confused and disorientated-looking would have been to have taken me off for a quiet word somewhere to see what was causing it and to find how she could support me to look less bewildered, but of course, this was not forthcoming.

My current manager and my employer are aware that I have suffered previous mental health issues prior to working for them, resulting in me at one point not being able to work for a number of years with anxiety and depression and that I need to manage my mental health on a day by day/week by week basis in order to get by. My manager was also aware of my background before she decided to say very publicly I looked bewildered. Yes, to some people, I guess, a perfectly innocent and jokey remark to make, but not very funny for me to hear with my employment history.

My stress levels have increased massively at work since I was asked to change teams and my self-esteem has suffered badly since the 'bewildered' remark she made. Up until going off sick I was having to work outside of working hours just to try to tread water and knew, of course, that if I mentioned that formally, the issue would be turned around to poor time management issues and not overloading. Hence, I realised last week after another late-in-the-day picky and insensitive phone call from her, critical of certain aspects of the user-involvement work I have been doing that I must now go sick with work-related stress. I then e-mailed my manager to let her know I was unwell and how long I anticipated being off for (as per what my contract says I should do) and left an answer phone message to similar effect on the main office phone. I was then called by her (I didn't take the call) to say she was sorry I was unwell, but could I contact her to discuss covering my work. My colleagues later agreed with me in their feeling I should not have been asked to call back to talk about work - particularly in the context of why I was ill in the first place.

A week prior to going off sick, I spoke confidentially (and off the record) with my previous line manager, I informally raised the above concerns with him and told him my mental health and general wellbeing was suffering adversely over the way I was being managed and I asked him if was there any way without making this a formal grievance issue that I could return to his team again. He said he would speak 'informally' with his manager and see if this could be done. I am afraid I wasn't able to last until the outcome of this.

I do not want to return to work and work for my current team manager. Is it reasonable for me to ask to be changed to a different team and does my employer have a duty to do this, or are they perfectly in their rights to insist I stay on the team I am already? Also, I wondered what are my rights (if any) over being off sick in the context of getting through my six month probationary period, but having less than a year's service with the company? Can they just get rid of the problem by just getting rid of me?

Proc

I'm bewildered.

crystalbristols

Are you my line manager?

Zazen999

In order:

Yes, but no duty to move you.
None, unless you are being discriminated against
Yes

Personally, I would sit down with your manager and go through why you might have been 'bewildered' and request that she takes this additional work off you or reduces the other work to match the time that you have spent on this additional work as this is causing you stress.

Oldernotwiser

"I agreed to do this because I wanted to help and I thought I would be allowed to do this extra and unpaid work at my own gentle pace as and when I had time to do so."

Why on earth would you think that this would be the case?

"Up until going off sick I was having to work outside of working hours just to try to tread water "

This sort of work is almost never 9-5; everybody puts in extra hours.

bettybelle

Sorry to hear of your troubles. I worked in a similar role before and came very close to a breakdown.

As for your situation, yes they can get rid of you as you don't have many rights (if any) with less than a year's service. Although they may agree to extending your probationary period if you can prove your absence was due to extenuating circumstances. In this situation I would think it was extenuating.

You have the right to ask to go to a different team. Although employers have no duty to do it at least you are trying to come back to work so I hope they would help. They might have to make reasonable adjustments as well.

I'm in my new job 5 months and am off sick, trying to get moved like you. I wish employers would be more sympathetic to mental illness especially when they have been given prior warning.

I wish you the best of luck.

jazzyman01

You can raise a formal grievance stating that you are currently working xx hours on a project in addition to your normal workload. State that you agreed to work on the project and believed that this would be at your own pace but have been pressurised more and more into meeting targets. Explain that this means you are finding it extremely stressful and this in not helped by the line manager stating you look bewildered. Ask for help - you cannot manage the project on top of your normal workload - as outlined in your job description.
Cover off the issue of them claiming that it is a time management issue by producing a copy of what you do each day and the time taken to do it. Finally, remind them that you have a history of mental illness and you want this resolving so that you can return to work. If nothing else this may remind them you have potential disability claim.

olly300

Firstly you need to remember that lots of managers are just placed in their position with no training so don't deal with things the best way.

Secondly if you have a history of anxiety and depression you are covered by the Disability Discrimination Act. (Stress doesn't count.)

However it is up to you to make your managers aware that you are covered under the DDA in a method they cannot deny you telling them this. Simply stating you have suffered from anxiety and depression is not enough as lots of people suffer from these illnesses but are not covered due to the shorter length of time their illness has affected them.

You need to do this before you take any more time off. And if you do take time off I would recommend you go to the doctors and get a doctors note clearly stating why you need the time off.

And yes they can still use it to get rid of you but they have to be more careful.

Thirdly when you tell your manager this you need to tell her exactly how she can support you both verbally and then follow it up in writing. Make it very clear what you can cope with. You need to be straight and to the point with this so she doesn't get any confusing messages.

Unfortunately I have found talking to people even with obvious disabilities that they have had to tell or train their entire office how they need to be treated to make life easier for them.

Don't go down the formal grievance route until you have tried sorting the issue out less formally.

crystalbristols

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

" Why on earth would you think that this would be the case?"

Why shouldn't it be the case? It was work I'd agreed to do for no extra money and no reduction in contracted workload. It seems a completely reasonable assumpation for me to have made given those circumstances. It would seem extremely unreasonable and unfair for any decent and caring employer to disagree with that view.



"This sort of work is almost never 9-5; everybody puts in extra hours"

I am assuming you speak from direct experience and not anecdotal evidence on that particular point. I was previously a community advocate for four and a half years. My client and supervisory feedback suggested I was doing a consistently good job and that was without having to work more than a 37 hour working week. I was given the structure, workload and support to function in that way in that job. I can unequivocally assure you I was not untypical in doing my support work prior to this current role within my contracted hours and no more. In fact, I've done support-type work for the last seven years and believe me, this is the first job where I've been sitting up doing support plans in the small hours of the morning.

Snow_White_5

crystalbristols wrote: »

Oldernotwiser wrote: »

"This sort of work is almost never 9-5; everybody puts in extra hours"

Even if they do, it doesn't make it right.

pinkshoes

I think you need to sit down with your team manager and discuss the situation with her. Tell her you took on the extra work as a favour, but can now no longer cope with it as it's affecting your mental health, so you would like to return to your previous work load.

I'm presuming you were happy with your previous work load before she gave you more?

My job is incredibly stressful (and I have had far worse things said to me!!!), so I sympathise, but you need to find a way forward.