Struggling with mentally ill colleague

[ScottishJo31]

I work in a private day nursery. ( it's a small setting) with 6 staff.

My colleague has worked here for 4 years and suffers with anxiety and depression. ( she has gotten worse over the last 18 months)

She struggles to cope at work, would rather sit for hours and not do anything unless asked.
She is reluctant to do any of the tasks she doesn't like.. ie change dirty nappies or wet clothes.

She can be aggressive and loud when challenged. This has been in earshot of the children.

She demands time off for her two sons school events ( I appreciate it isnt nice to miss things but when you work you can't always be there) she doesn't asks she tell us " I will have that day off"

She is sometimes snappy and loud with the children. She struggles to cope when things aren't completely calm and plain sailing.

We are struggling to know what to do! We have tried to understand and support her but she makes our jobs very difficult.

She does have days where she is much better and can be good at her job but these days are getting fewer and farther between.

She says she knows "her rights" and when we have looked into it, it seems she does have quite a lot of rights regarding her mental health in the work place things like we have to make reasonable adjustments etc but what about the children in our care who aren't getting an acceptable level of care at times.

Some of the parents has made comments that she always seems to be sitting down and doesn't greet them and we fear this will get worse.

What can we do?

I think as fellow employees, you can advise management that she appears to be struggling with her tasks and has been noted by both staff and parents.

But where are management in all of this.
The children's needs are paramount here I would have thought.

Has she been formally diagnosed?

Sounds more like laziness to me

You can have anxiety and depression and still manage to change a nappy. If she's struggling so much that she can't do the job then she needs to be reconsidering her career.

You get an occupational health assessment, follow their guidelines, and hold disciplinaries in line with code of conduct. Yes you have to make allowances but she has to be fit for the job. If she’s snappy and aggressive she gets sent home and or called to a meeting. MH does not excuse bad behaviour at work but you have to make steps to provide her with maybe a chill out room, more regular breaks, part time hours etc etc to help her manage her stress. OH would help with what you need

If she can't do the job she should be signed off work and on SSP.

I would have thought changing nappies and not sitting down all day and not snapping at the very young children in her care are absolute basic requirements of the job.

The nursery manager should be taking charge of all this.

If you're her colleague and have no supervisory responsibility for her your manager should be addressing the situation in the most appropriate way.

Her line manager needs to be made aware that she is struggling and whatever capability procedures are in place need to be put into practice. It sounds as though you and your colleagues have been discussing this en masse with her - that needs to stop because that could potentially be seen as workplace bullying.

The problem here is bad management. If you have an employee who is unwell you cannot expect other employees to put up with nastiness regularly or just overload them with the other person tasks and chores indefinitely.

If the person is so unwell she can’t do her job, she needs to be at home and a temporary replacement found. If she is more or less ok, she should remain professional.

Pis poor management!

It may be that colleagues need to put grievances in written form and hand in to the manager. The manager would also need to offer support and reasonable adjustments. Surely after doing all that, then action can be taken? Just because someone has anxiety/depression (which half the population seems to have these days, although i would argue that a proportion of those would be suffering from shit life syndrome as opposed to depression/anxiety but that's a whole other thread) it doesn't mean that they can make colleagues lives a misery and not take proper care of the children in her care?

Has she got a diagnosed condition or is it just her word?
Management needs to actually manage, and follow proper guidelines to ensure that if she needs to be dismissed they have followed proper procedures to avoid a tribunal.
At the moment just letting her decide is not fair or her, colleges and the children, is her actions becoming a safeguarding issue?

I completely agree that management are being crap!

You make a lot of good points.
Sorry to drip feed but I didn't want to give away too much revealing info in my op.
We are committee run so despite being managed onsite it's the chair person who is ultimately seems be in charge of the decisions which is frustrating as she doesn't get to work with her in a daily basis.

The thing is, even with a mental illness she still has to work within your policies and procedures. Management should be following a disciplinary process with her.

@Changeembrace nice arm chair diagnosis of someone you’ve never met there one of the major symptoms of depression is lack of motivation. Anxiety can make the strangest things hard/impossible. For a full year I couldn’t sleep on my left side as it threw me into an insane panic attack every time. You have no idea what’s going on with her.

While she has rights to be supported in the workplace, the matter of safeguarding the children should be the focus of all staff. If she is inattentive and unresponsive with young children, there is clearly a risk of accidental injury or neglect. This is an issue for management to address, and you could perhaps mention the impact on other staff having to compensate for her inaction. If something went wrong that could be linked to her conduct, it risks an official inquiry from ofsted or other agencies. If you don't want to address this, perhaps you could respond to a parent next time they mention this colleague and suggest they take it up with management. You remain neutral and professional that way.

You need to document each and every time she is snappy or unable to carry out basic tasks - it's incredibly hard to struggle with poor MH (I know from lots of personal experience) but you are caring for young children, I'd be extremely angry if a staff member who repeatedly snapped at my (very shy) child was allowed to continue doing so, as if her rights trumped my 2-year-old's. Then once you have documented a week's worth of issues, take it to the chair.

If she isn’t well enough to do her job then she shouldn’t be there. I have anxiety and depression and work in a nursery. My job is done as well as everyone else’s!

As a line manager, this is what I'd suggest.

I'd recommend that you have a formal meeting with her and explain factually the situation. There are numerous times where she has become snappy with children and aggressive to work colleagues and we will need you to stop.

In order to be successful in this role your responsibilities are Xyz. Being a team player including doing jobs you don't particularly enjoy, are a massive part of what it takes to be successful in this role. Let us know if that is something you can cooperate with. Then see what she says.

If mental health comes up, then say... If it is difficult to do that with the issues she has been having with her mental health perhaps this isn't the most suitable role for her. And let the ball be in her court.

Be sympathetic with her mental health issues. Ask her how she has been trying to resolve them. Be clear this isn't about mental health or discrimination against it, its about being successful in her job.