Mental health absence - work related stress

Background

Early resolution of a potential long term sickness absence case caused by work related stress, with allegations of bullying and harassment.

The employee Mr B went off sick with stress. He had advised HR before going off sick that he felt under terrible pressure from his line manager, Ms Y, who he said was undermining and micro-managing him.

The company discussed how to engage with the employee during the absence. It was agreed that the mediator would try a new type of flexible mediation with a view to resolving the work issues which had caused the stress related absence before Mr B would return to work.

The company asked the mediator to engage with Mr B in the first week of his absence, and the mediator then spoke to Mr B several times by phone over the period of a month. During that time Mr B said he was feeling stressed and anxious all the time and had great difficulty sleeping. He said he did not see how he could return to work.

Mr B had a long list of complaints about how he felt his manager had been undermining him and making his job impossible. Mr B also felt that the manager’s approach became more pressurised after he had told her that his mental health was being affected. Mr B regarded this as bullying and harassment.

The mediator created a document outlining Mr B’s concerns and met with HR to discuss them. HR then discussed the complaints with Ms Y and reported back to the mediator that while Ms Y did not accept she had been overly pressurising Mr B, she was willing to propose a set of adjustments relating to how Mr B would be managed upon return to work.

The mediator liaised with Mr B who was willing to agree to the adjustments.

A graduated return to work plan was agreed between the parties, and a meeting was held in the week before Mr B’s return between the mediator, HR, Mr B and Ms Y to go through the plan. This was the first time Mr B had met anyone from the company since the start of his absence.

Outcome

Mr B was off work for 7 weeks, where work related stress absence cases, with allegations of bullying and harassment often last well over a year. He shared with the mediator that he felt a tremendous lifting of a burden off him when he knew that someone would represent his position to the company and deal with the issues for him. This enabled him to return to work several months earlier than otherwise would have been the case. Mr B returned with an agreed plan for how he and Ms Y would work together, covering how objectives and targets would be decided, a weekly meeting to review workload and prioritise activity, and a mechanism for Mr B to check in with HR if he had concerns.

This approach prevented an employee grievance and linked stress absence turning into a prolonged long term absence case and disability claim. The employee returned to work with the issues with his line manager already resolved. The company saved long term sickness costs, legal costs, avoided a costly disability case in an Employment Tribunal, and gained an employee returning to work with issues already resolved.