Extremely sensitive employee - how best to manage/support appropriately

[milesandmilesandmileandmiles]

I hope this is an acceptable title.

We are a small company of eight staff. The employee in question has been with us 14 months nearly.

The quality of her work is absolutely fine, we have no issue in this regard. She's had quite a number of absences for physical issues and has also recently disclosed she suffers from severe anxiety and depression, for which she is having treatment. She's had some time off for this too and we've supported her and checked on her wellbeing.

She's extremely sensitive and can get upset very easily, and then this blows up into a drama. I don't think there's been a week in the last few where we've not had tears at some point at work.

An example would be yesterday where her line manger asked her not to use a new system until he himself was fully au fait with it and had transferred relevant information to it. Within five minutes, she was using the new system. When 'reprimanded' (for want of a better word), and after said line manager leaves the room, the tears flow and she tries to involve other employees. Which she tends to do if she feels 'slighted'

I was not at this incident, but line manager is now feeling he's treading on eggshells constantly. He did take her for a coffee and a chat this morning in the canteen and checked on her well being, but reiterated that she'd ignored a request that he'd given her. We've provided training for him in managing staff, which he's been happy to participate in. At no point has anyone had any issues before, he's an unbelievably affable chap!

She's pretty hard work in truth, and takes up a lot of our time. Other employees are starting to say things like 'why is everything such a drama' etc.

Are there any resources out there to help us all, she needs to be able to take instruction and accept criticism without being so sensitive. Am I coming at it from the wrong angle? More training for the rest of us? Is it us being insensitive?

TIA.

You have been a saint!
The other employees have been saints but you need to be firmer.
With most mental health issues things improve with appropriate support. If she is not improving there may be other issues.
As her employer you need to get some advice.

Op - google access to work - it's a government grant to keep disabled people in work. They will pay for an assessment and pay for any specialist equipment or training as a result - it's fully funded as you are a small employer - good luck and props for being so supportive so far

Have you just her say so on the ‘anxiety’?
She sounds a manipulative attention seeker.
I worked with someone very like this; from the day she started she talked about her health and within weeks was calling in sick, tried to divide staff against each other, messaging outside of work nasty gossip,we later found she lied about a miscarriage. 🤬She was exhausting and when she finally left when she realised it wasn’t profitable to be ‘ill’ so much. Found she’d done it all at a previous workplace.

She sounds like a nightmare.
She was told not to use the system by her manager yet ignored that instruction. Irrespective of her mental health it’s totally unreasonable for her to get so upset about being pulled up on it - it’s 100% her fault.
Mental health issues should give her a pass to disregard managers instuction.
Her reaction after - trying to involve other staff members also suggests she’s manipulative.
Her reaction to the notifications recorded for her leave is unreasonable too. She can’t expect you to make all these allowances for her without having all the information.
As an employer you only have to make reasonable adjustments. I think you’ve been more than reasonable.
She’s going to drag her colleagues down if this goes on, it’s a matter of time before people start looking for other jobs- ask yourself if it was them or her who are the most valuable to the business.

The best thing you can do for her is get her some resilience training and if she can’t step up get rid.

Whether it’s deliberate or not she does sound like too much hard work for a small company. I have actually been one of those other team members who does eventually get resentful of the colleague whose absence and constant stirring was making life difficult for the rest of us.

It sounds like a lot of other PPs have said it all already but is she quite young? Is this her first job? She needs to go and work for a big company where she’ll either learn to pull herself together because nobody is pandering to it or where they have the resources to deal with all her needs. Maybe just follow your obligations to the letter and no more and hope that she leaves sooner rather than later.

However much people are dismissing her as a pain in the backside, you need to tread very carefully as regards "getting rid of her".

• unfortunately until we get into employing robots, we're stuck with human beings who get sick, sometimes act impulsively, emotionally and unpredictably. All very inconvenient I'm afraid.

• you employed her, so presumably at some point during her employment she was delivering something of value. You need to try and refocus your efforts to getting back to that situation.

If you do decide to use performance management, you would need to give her adequate support throughout the process, and be sure you aren't deliberately engineering it to get her out the door, especially given her MH challenges, which could also increase the chances of a Tribunal claim.

I'd suggest using your company solicitor for good quality advice, not relying on the say-so of people here baying for you to get rid of her. Albeit supportive of you, there could be another side to this that isn't evident so not good advice in this situation.

Just re read that she recently informed you of her ‘anxiety’, I smell bullshit, she probably realises she’s on thin ice with her shitty behaviour and thinks if she claims a MH it’ll excuse her crap.

OP you also say she tends to involve other staff if she feels slighted

this is just blatantly unprofessional. If you think a recent episode might have affected her health and judgement, then I would be wanting to see a doctor's note - can you do that? I genuinely don't know.

Employment law doesn't change because it's a small company. I imagine anyone on here who's worked for a small company will be grateful of that fact, because it means everyone, no matter who they are, their background and their challenges, gets to benefit from the same employment rights and protections. Good practice can be applied here just the same way as it can in a multinational corporate, it is just scaled accordingly.

OP I wonder if you have actually gone overboard on some of the stuff you've done for this person, and now it has backfired. Reasonable adjustments only ever need to be "reasonable" I.e. commensurate with the size of company and revenues it generated. You don't need to break the bank to be a good employer.

Just a thought... as regards her depression and anxiety, has her line manager sat down with her and had a very explicit discussion about how these mh problems affect her at work and what will help.

If her thoughts are along the lines of, "I need to understand this operating system immediately, or people will think I'm stupid, so I'll try and get a head start and have a go now", would it help if instructions were very clearly accompanied by expectations eg "please don't use the operating system until I'm confident with it. No-one is expected to understand it immediately, we'll all make mistakes and learn, but as the manager I need to be the one who learns how to explain it to others."

Sorry, that's a bit long-winded. But people do do daft things under stress, and sometimes need what is expected of them and why to be spelt out really clearly.

Christ - suck up the cost of legal advice and get rid. It's not sustainable.

Sack her. Follow process, performance manage first but dismiss if it doesn’t improve. She hasn't been there two years so that’s in your favour,

I'd tell her that if she has issues, she isnt to drag others into it, or she will be written up.
That's what management is for.
I would hate to be a coworker getting pressed for sympathy everytime something went slightly sideways.

Yes, we've probably tried almost too hard to accommodate. I accept that, but any fault here has been with good intent.

I don't have a doctor's note, as the absences tend to last a couple of days. I've no clarity re MH issues but equally no reason to doubt, if you believe in trust. That is probably naive, we rarely have absences.

The longer absence for a procedure did have medical evidence to support.

As I've said, her performance is generally fine, albeit inconsistent, due to the absences and periods of emotion and stress. This is more and more frequent, no issues initially.

We have employment support, via a professional company, this post was initially about supporting her via training and resources, rather than law, but in truth has also made me think considerably too about our other employees etc.

I think we are finding that one employee is taking up an awful lot of time and energy, when she was employed to reduce the workload of others. I'm happy to support and adjust, I equally need to see a time where we benefit also.

I'm not actually hiding anything I can think of at present, but accept her view would be different.

She sounds like a drama-queen nightmare, and if you let her pass her probation she'll be a nightmare to get rid of. You say the rest of your staff are solid and loyal: don't risk pissing them off by entertaining this nonsense.

"if you believe in trust"

sorry, that's madness. And this makes me doubt she has a diagnosis. Everywhere I've worked, people who have had any adjustments for mental health issues have had to provide confirmation from a doctor that they have a condition.

So presume you are allowed to ask for this? That's your first step, surely?

it's funny isn't - I worry myself silly that people will find out about my mental health issues, partly because I don't want anyone to think I will behave unprofessionally. This woman might be making it up to excuse unprofessional behaviour.

If you manage this person out before they have been there for 2 years it is (I think) not possible for them to bring a claim of unfair dismissal, they would have to be able to prove discrimination. Given how much you have already done and how much you have already spent I think that would be unlikely to roll tbh. As long as you follow employment law and your own procedures correctly you should be fine.

Continue with your measured approach, OP, and see what your legal team recommends with all the facts in front of them.

Anything you've done already to support her will stand you in good stead. Nothing to reproach yourself there, but it may have given out conflicting messages given her emotional fragility. Advice you may wish to seek from legal is to have an appropriate approach to her performance management in the light of MH challenges to ensure you're compliant with legislation.

You're right there does need to be a balance between her welfare and that of your other employees.

@daisychain01 You are quite right and I should rethink the remarks about small v large companies. I guess my comments are coloured by my own experience of a smallish team where one person was having a disproportionate impact on morale and it was annoying that the rest of us had to pick up the slack. I suppose I thought that in a bigger organisation the impact might be less. Having said that perhaps it wasn’t being appropriately managed and therefore felt worse. Sorry to derail. The point is I think Daisychain01 is right to urge caution.

Hi @milesandmilesandmileandmiles, please contact your legal helpline as she may be classed as disabled and you will need to follow a clear process in order to manage her behaviour and possibly her exit if required.
You are really going above and beyond.
It sounds like the team are managing as best as they can but this employee needs to understand that they are responsible for managing their own behaviour.
MIND has lots of really useful resources which can help a conversation regarding mental health and well-being.
Feel free to pop me a PM if you want any further help as I don't mind a mental health HR query

Sorry but she'll only get worse, it's time to let her go or you'll regret it and lose money due to all he absences.

I think we are finding that one employee is taking up an awful lot of time and energy, when she was employed to reduce the workload of others

As a naive young manager in my last job, I wanted to give a chance to a staff member who was looking for a transfer into our department. My own manager at the time warned me against it, saying “I guarantee you, that one guy will end up consuming 80% of your time with his under performance and being a pain in the arse to manage, and it’ll put the rest of your team at a disadvantage.” I ignored him, and in the long run the bugger was right.

Once it became obvious, it took a year to try and address his underperformance and move to disciplinary action. That was a year of stress for me, knowing that any action I would take would be scrutinised by our union, and the rest of the team were missing out on development and coaching etc because so much of my time was taken up with shitty admin to cover my arse with this member of staff.

It could have been totally avoided if in his first two years of employment, his manager had actually managed him and addressed the issues head on.

Actually ACAS advice does make it clear that there is a difference between large and small firms. The difference is that poor performance and absence is much more difficult for small companies to manage and profitability can be hit very quickly and sometimes terminally. Therefore tribunals look at size of company and ability to absorb costs of poor performance or absence.

I think you are wrong about her good work performance OP. Someone is covering this work when she’s not there and she cannot possibly be as profitable or useful as other employees with continued absences. Therefore you need to deal with persistent absence and a few days at a time adds up.

I would also make sure you have a performance management scheme for all employees. It can be used to identify training, how the work can be done more efficiently and effectively and excellent work can be rewarded by additional pay if you link it to your pay policy. It really would get a dialogue started. Even if you don’t do this, you need to interview her about the concerns and start monitoring the situation.

I am also assuming you have a discipline and capability policy. The 2 year qualifying period regarding bringing an unfair dismissal claim doesn’t apply if the dismissed person says it was dismissal because of disability. Therefore do take legal advice but because you are a small company, a fair dismissal will, I believe be possible.

Why don't you get her to apply for an access to Work assessment. As a small business any recommended support may be completely free.

They can recommend and provide a grant for all sorts of equipment plus mental health support.

For example, I receive a special sit stand desk, an ergonomic chair, a special mouse and a bigger monitor on an arm fior my back problems and RSI. I also get "support sessions" which are fior brain fog, but can be for depression and anxiety.

This is all paid for by Access to Work as I work for a small employer.

I also came across this the other day:

www.remploy.co.uk/about-us/current-programmes/access-work-mental-health-support-service

let us know what happens, OP? I don't envy you.