Occupational health question and employment rights

[UnseenAcademicalMum]

To give a bit of background...

I went to Occupational Health recently due to the fact that my working environment (and, in particular, interaction with one senior colleague) was clearly having adverse affect on my health (sleeplessness, anxiety, nervousness, loss of self-confidence, the list goes on).

Having had the meeting with OccHealth, I then went to my management about this and asked for my workin environment to be changed. OccHealth stated to me (but not yet to them) that if my working environment was not changed, they expected me to be shortly signed off with stress/depression.

When I had meeting with management, pretty much all of this was brushed away. They then asked, (after having listened to me voice all my concerns. Done whilst physically shaking and trying not to cry) "is there anything else you would like to tell us about your talks with Occupational Health?"

I am now wondering if there is a set protocol I should have looked up and adhered to? Was there something specific they were looking for in this question?

Occ. health should produce a written report with recommendations. Your management should implement these recommendations unless there are good reasons why this can't be done.

I doubt that your own feedback about the meetings will make much difference to the management, if I'm honest - not until they have seen the formal report.

Thanks for the reply.

I work as Post-doc at University, and had a meeting with Occupational Health about stress. Felt like to me there was some kind of protocol, but that I didn't know what it was.

I was told it was a good opportunity to say what you think needs to be changed for you to return to work safely without stress. Once the management have read recommendations in report they should invite you to a meeting to discuss changes.

Goodluck - for me it wasn't successful. I was taken off my project and have still not been offered any other work (6 weeks ago).

DrDoofenschmirz, I'm sorry to hear it didn't work for you. In my case, I am tenured, so they'd have to find somewhere for me to go. However, I get the impression that they want to force me to stay where I am and blame any stress/anxiety on me, rather than admit there is a rotten core of individuals in the department who make life unpleasant for anyone who gets in their way.

I'll go back to OccHealth and try again. Thanks.

You can ask for a copy of the report that O.H. send to your manager