Managers and HR people. Are you starting to see people signed off for mental health reasons?

[Canyoutellilikrchocolate]

Specifically those who have been attempting to WFH with kids?

[Canyoutellilikrchocolate]

@joan04 we use Teams which is like Slack and I know what you mean.

[minny80]

@joan04 I also use Slack at work and I appreciate it can be intense. I think it's up to us to define boundaries though. My slack goes in Do Not Disturb out of office hours and I have disabled notification on my phone so I only get them when I am on the laptop. I've invited people I manage to do the same, and make clear I don't expect them to work out of hours.
I appreciate some companies will have a culture to pressurise employees into a long hours work pattern. On the other hand make the point of switching off will help you to be more focused and productive during the day so maybe this is a conversation you could try to proactively have with your manager?

[Laniakea]

Joan that’s the situation dh is in ... survived this round of redundancies (“change of focus”) that saw 19 of 24 go. His team is down from eight to two & still has work for eight people ... he has to be available on slack constantly & on top of the insane workload there’s the survivors guilt at still being employed, fear that it won’t stay like that for long & crushing responsibility of keeping things going. He had leave booked yesterday & was still working until midnight when I went to bed & I was woken up by the emails & messages rolling in at 4am. It’s unsustainable but as far as we can tell will only let up if he is made redundant too which is not a good outcome.

(And he’s the only one in both our extended families who is still working ... it’s creating a very strange divide where he isn’t constantly available for pub quizzes & zoom life drawing classes!)

[polkadotpjs]

I've not once been asked if I'm ok. Personally. Only been asked about work stuff. And given extra. I'm WFH with two children. One ks3 but getting so much work he's super stressed and needs someone to help explain it (and teach it) and ks2 child who doesn't want to do anything. It's so hard and an acknowledgement of this would be great. Colleagues without children are fine and enjoying WFH. I like wfh but not with the added pressure of children.

[10storeylovesong]

DH and I are both still working full time shifts (police and NHS). His work has been very flexible and he has worked his shifts around mine, but mine aren't flexible at all. I'm deliberately getting 3 hours sleep between shifts. I'm knackered and at breaking point. I've been referred to occy health for anxiety. I've never suffered with mental health problems before.

[ImInAStateOfMind]

Public sector here.

Absolutely no consideration to mental health/ caring responsibilities/ health concerns etc.

In fact we have had an increase in micro management and workload.

In the incessant Zoom team meetings they say things like “oh it’s so hard for everyone right now, we all have to be flexible and understanding” then thirty mins later they’re sending out emails with busy work.

It’s very stressful.

[ImInAStateOfMind]

Oh and we have had emails asking us why we would want to take annual leave at the moment, with the implication being that we are at home with nothing else to do so why shouldn’t we be happy to work all day every day?!

[ImInAStateOfMind]

@joan04 we use Teams instead of Slack (public sector). There is no way to disable or hide when you are online and when you were last seen. Managers video call you on it with no warning. We’re sent chat messages and if we don’t respond immediately we get follow up emails - or a video call! It’s very intrusive.

[PaperMonster]

This week has almost broken me. I’m in FE. I have to account for every hour I’m working - which adds to my workload. It’s non-stop. I can’t even help my child with her school work. Today she’s been in floods of tears because she doesn’t want me to work. Thankfully I’m part time. I spend a lot of time on the phone to students And their line managers - too many IT issues to Video call them. I’ve not even had a welfare call from anyone. I can’t work when my child’s gone to bed as I go at the same time as her. In the normal course of work I wouldn’t spend this much time in front of a screen and I’ve had to give my phone number to my students so they can get hold of me - but they forget I’m part time. Not that I mind helping them - but I feel then that I’m not helping them as much because I don’t have my resources at my fingertips. I feel very isolated and the management email demands are relentless. Had enough. Wish I could leave.

[joan04]

I am on the verge of a breakdown today as well. Been online working since 8 and still not done, will likely be online until gone 9 this evening, it's almost as though my boss is making work up in order to give me stuff to do. Slack messages and emails before I even logged on, loads throughout the day and they are still going now.

I too have never had any mental health problems and do consider myself to be a very resilient person (you have to be to work in HR) but this is something else. I have to work with the senior leadership team a fair bit who all earn around 150k each whereas I am on 35k, they expect me to show the same levels of commitment to the company too. I honestly think it's because they can't keep an eye on me or set me tasks in the office, it's a form of control and they need to show their bosses that they are also managing.

Today I had a Zoom call with them and one of them spent 15 minutes of the call showing us her new patio furniture where she was working outdoors in the sun in her big detached house garden. I live in a baking hot one bedroom studio top floor flat and have to work on my sofa as I don't even have a proper table and chairs. I'm on a main road too so can't even open the front windows when the weather is like this. Its soul destroying.

I thought about calling in sick today as I did have a horrendous headache this morning but thought that would be hugely frowned upon because I am at home and they would have thought I'd be doing it because of the weather.