The mental health dispute has become a flashpoint for workplace conflict. ACAS data shows a sharp rise in disability discrimination claims — up 30% in the last two years. Accusations of disability discrimination now make up around a quarter of all tribunal cases.

The principal cause, according to employment law firms, has been the re-classification of mental health issues as a disability. And this is in the context of CIPD data which suggests that mental illness has become the biggest reason for long-term sickness absence.

In other words, there’s been a collapse in the conversation between HR, management and employees over the wider issue of mental health: the role of stress and what causes it; symptoms of depression and anxiety and their impact on people’s ability to work.

Addressing the root cause

One side of the argument says employers just aren’t taking mental wellbeing seriously enough, they don’t appreciate how the work environment and its demands — workload pressures and difficult relationships — affect health. The rise in disability discrimination cases linked to mental health is a symptom of a lack of support from employers, says Mental Health First Aid England. Employers need to better understand their “legal, ethical and business” responsibilities rather than putting pressure on productivity and getting people to return to work.

But there’s another argument, one that HR and management aren’t necessarily willing to speak about openly, but it’s always there in the background of perceptions and attitudes. The worry that staff have become hypersensitive. That quite ordinary feelings of stress, a natural response to the pressures that come with any competitive environment, are too quickly being categorised as ‘burnout’, as constituting excessive pressure, requiring time off and support. That any workplace where employees don’t get the praise, recognition and promotions they want is labelled as ‘toxic’. Consequently, there are questions over whether people, intentionally or not, are using the new attention to mental wellbeing to make claims of discrimination.

At the heart of the issue is the complexity of mental health, the sensitivities around personal stories and concerns, and the grey areas that result. In legal terms there is a problem around how to establish whether a condition has genuinely had a ‘substantial and long-term adverse effect’ and can therefore be considered a ‘disability’. Where are the lines drawn, and in many cases, who is able to say with confidence what’s real and what might be exaggerated?

On the surface, a minefield. Always likely to lead to suspicion, irritation and, on both sides,  the potential for feelings of being let down. CIPD advice on avoiding tribunal claims around disability points to the importance of people management skills. Managers need to make sure that health issues are part of the performance management process, and that they understand their responsibility for recognising and supporting people with mental health issues.

The Importance of Workplace Culture

Management behaviours are one thing, but it’s the wider workplace culture that’s critical — and the strengthening the culture is only way for organisations and HR to avoid an increasing struggle with complaints arising from the management of employees’ mental health. More rules for employers to follow on mental health support, more awareness training for managers, will only exacerbate the problem. Instead there has to be a foundation of trust and openness in the workplace.

Feelings of trust and psychological safety at work are the source of wellbeing for anyone, whatever challenges and insecurities they must deal with. Employees need to feel able to speak up about their mental well being when they need to, and for managers and HR that means they need their soft skills to kick in: listening, empathy, self-awareness and curiosity, will arrive at clarity for all concerned, rather than cycling into perceptions of demand and denial.

Soft skills are increasingly critical to a successful workplace, along with the backbones of support: access to a third party such as a harassment advisor or Wellbeing volunteer, to mediation, and to coaching.  Such support can avert a crisis or collapse in relationships.

With a culture of trust and openness, employees are able to deal with issues without the need for formal processes, and without any sense that a tribunal — and the extended periods of tension, stress and conflict that can go with it — meaning far better conditions for supporting mental wellbeing.

Photo by Gui Spinardi