Managing an employee with anxiety

[user6703267]

I work in retail where at least 80% of the job involves customer facing, I have an employee who is suffering with anxiety and has told me she is struggling with the customer facing part of the role and has asked if she can just do the behind the scenes jobs.
I don't have enough staff to cover so need her to do some customer facing.
What would be the best way to handle this situation?

Do you have a HR dept or option of referring her to Occupational Health? She can't opt out of the job and certainly needs a formal diagnosis to seek reasonable adjustments and OH can help there.
Is there an option to keep her in back rooms and peak times though? Take some pressure off?

@Fizzgigg

Do you have a HR dept or option of referring her to Occupational Health? She can't opt out of the job and certainly needs a formal diagnosis to seek reasonable adjustments and OH can help there. Is there an option to keep her in back rooms and peak times though? Take some pressure off?

No don't have HR or Occupational health. She hasn't had a formal diagnosis for the anxiety for reasonable adjustments but has recently returned after a cancer diagnosis. I think that might be an option if she can work during quieter times, she has said that she feels less anxious when the store is quite and not so much going on.

I would explain to her that whilst you are sympathetic, you can't reorganise her duties in a way that is fair to the whole team. (What if someone else has anxiety, how would you then accommodate that?)

At the end of the day, the job description requires her to spend 80% of her time in customer duties, and there isn't enough work behind the scenes plus you have to be fair to other team members who may also be struggling with MH.

Instead, ask her what would help to support her in the customer-facing part of the role. Is she anxious about angry customers? This could be addressed by training and being able to call someone else on the shop floor quickly.

Is it the pressure of seeing lots of people? Again, this could be address by training.

Is she worried about covid and customers who aren't wearing masks? You could talk to her about the risks and how these are being mitigated.

Anxiety doesn't always reduce by avoiding triggers and she might actually feel better if she identifies the cause of her anxiety and gets help from you to work through it.

So is she awaiting cancer treatment? A recent Cancer diagnosis is obviously awful so can see why her mental health wouldn't be strong right now.

Good suggestions from RainingZen regarding training or support when she is facing customers, combined with avoiding peak times might be enough for her to feel supported and listened to. If she knows she can request help in a challenging situation with customers it may help her a lot.

www.macmillan.org.uk/documents/getinvolved/campaigns/workingthroughcancer/equalityact2010workhomepage.pdf

You really have to explore what reasonable adjustments you can make. It could be short term...your attitude to supporting her might really help her resolve some of her anxiety

@Fizzgigg

So is she awaiting cancer treatment? A recent Cancer diagnosis is obviously awful so can see why her mental health wouldn't be strong right now.

Good suggestions from RainingZen regarding training or support when she is facing customers, combined with avoiding peak times might be enough for her to feel supported and listened to. If she knows she can request help in a challenging situation with customers it may help her a lot.

She has recently returned after a cancer diagnosis/treatment.

I will have a word with her about some extra training, I think it's probably a case of her needing to find her confidence again.

No experience of managing an employee with anxiety but I do have a daughter that has anxiety and it can be debilitating and can be misunderstood.
your employees job is probably very important for her mental health not just finances .
If feasible I would try and keep her in back office duties during peak times and put her customer facing during quieter times, your suggestion of changing shifts to quieter periods is very kind and a good one as long as it can be balanced within the team. My sister who works in retail does stockroom -she prefers it to customer facing but other members of her team are the opposite and prefer to stay on shop floor so I think its an arrangement that can work well within a team but they do need to be prepared to cover other roles if necessary.

Macmillan have a website on supporting employees with cancer at work and I think a support line which might be of help, as likely there is probably some link to the anxiety and recent diagnosis/treatment.