I'm not convinced a workplace focus on welbeing is a good thing

[Backhills]

Over the last couple of years, we've really tried to do a lot of work on staff wellbeing. There has been MH training, voluntrary wellbeing events, both social and creative, lots of encouragement to talk, stress surveys and action plans, exercise sessions, group coaching sessions, an employee support package, supported flexible working.

It just seems to have given everyone "permission" to have MH issues and to offload on colleagues. Sickness absence has gone through the roof and it's absolutely draining for the people having their colleagues' issues dumped on them. I tried to find a better word, but that's how it feels. People want to dump all their issues on someone else, both work related and personal.

Is this a common experience or are we getting it horribly wrong?

Absolutely agree with the last few posters.

If people have, for example, asked for flexible or home working to enable them to overcome the parking problems and meet their carer’s responsibilities but that’s been turned down for no good reason, or they are reprimanded for being late, or management have reserved spaces or whatever it is - then the actual car parking is only a tiny part of their stress.

If you are being paid to do a job, turn up and do the job you are paid for. Leave your personal issues at home. If you are not well enough to do the job, either physically or mentally, get signed off until you are well enough to go back to work. Your personal problems do not belong at work.

We have a whole team devoted to wellbeing at work....all their yoga, mindfulness etc is inaccessible to staff run ragged and unable to take breaks. The same staff (admin, education and training, (HR)) attend and congratulate the initiative...

I hear what you say about it reducing resilience rather than building it. It's lip service to the concept rather than actual practical help like flexible working, car parking, support with caring responsibilities etc.

@BitterTits

I took two months off after my mum died and ultimately decided I had to resign rather than go back to a deeply unpleasant working environment. There is definitely something amiss with your workplace if people can't face being there when they're struggling with MH.

This is such a good point. And I am sorry you had to go through this.

But people I and working environments can often just about cope, they go to work they do the job, put up with the shit and go home.

Then something happens in their personal lives that is so devestating, it makes work impossible. And going back to that environment whilst grieving is not something lots of people can face. So they end up, off for a very long time or don't come back.

I agree the solutions are often closer to home - relatively small things like making sure people feel heard about issues that affect them, and a bit of 'thanks and praise' can go a long way.

I'm working today because I've got a deadline. I worked last weekend. In my appraisal I've been pulled up for poor time management, but the issue is that we are short-staffed. My colleagues are also putting extra time in to help because they have their own deadlines, but I have had information I need very late in the day - e.g. this week I got a really vital doc at 9pm Thursday, when officially I clock off at 5 and don't work on Fridays (or Saturdays or Sundays!). Its not sustainable. Yet last time I did these hours I was marked down for it and offered only a fraction of the time back. The problem is that it looks bad, so it circles back to me in the end. What I want from my manager is something more proactive - encouraging me to take my TOIL, an acknowledgement that its not my fault, and that I've stepped up, and a discussion about what can be done differently. A thank you. These things cost nothing.

I don't find this surprising at all. There is a strong element of social contagion to how people understand and interpret their emotional states.

If you're in a work environment where the wellbeing initiatives are repeatedly giving you the message that mental health is a fragile thing that needs to be coddled and protected, and people are talking that as a cue to talk frequently about their own emotional issues, then as soon as you have a tough week instead of thinking "wow, that was a tough week, I hope things turn around next week", you think, "I'm going through one of these mental health crises that everyone is talking about and I need to get signed off because that's what everyone else does when they get stressed".

Maybe people don't feel heard? You say SLT are supportive, I'm sure in many ways you are...but you are dismissing the parking and that's quite big.

I appreciate you can't magic up parking spaces. What about introducing initiatives for those who live close by to walk or cycle so that frees up some parking?

I personally think things like free tea and coffee at break times, meetings that finish on time and thanks for specific things go a long way. Further than lunch time yoga type initiatives

I agree. I worked somewhere with a BIG focus on well-being. It had created an unbelievable sense of entitlement, and staff who constantly claimed they were stressed and experiencing 'psychological damage' at work, despite it being a very cushty place to work.

The intention is good, there are many genuine people out there would benefit, but it was abused.

Do you have separate line management and clinical supervision (or your version thereof)?

I have worked in what sounds like a similar environment and had separation of line management - KPIs, workload etc. and then clinical supervision - discussion around the emotional toll of cases etc

I've also worked in places where we did peer supervision - which was basically a structured hour to have a moan, before cracking on again.

I've also had access to a confidential staff counselling line before if needed.

All of this was in public services.

If everyone is having a free for all moan at work, it sounds like you haven't quite got the right structures in place.

Things which increase stress:

• lack of facilities for staff (such as sufficient car parking)
• a well being team who dismiss concerns (such as car parking) raised by employees
• being told that my unmanageable workload is fine because teachers in other schools have it worse
• slt banging on about the various well being initiatives, all of which require me to give up time (which I don’t have) to attend. If I had two free lunchtimes each week to attend yoga I wouldn’t be stressed in the first place

My work place trots out stuff about well being champions and provided yoga classes and counselling etc. But several of the directors are bullies and no amount of yoga is going to improve wellbeing for people in their departments. Yet HR keep offering the yoga and waffly courses and never tackle the bullies

@PanamaPattie - at my place the MH first aiders are divided into two camps. The first are sort of unsympathetic types I’d never dream of confiding in, but feel they know it all. I had to laugh when I saw some of the names. The second are the sort of lovely colleagues who I’d always have felt comfortable opening up to.

The training is pointless.

@KeyboardWorriers

My work place trots out stuff about well being champions and provided yoga classes and counselling etc. But several of the directors are bullies and no amount of yoga is going to improve wellbeing for people in their departments. Yet HR keep offering the yoga and waffly courses and never tackle the bullies

Exactly

The fish rots from the head, as the Japanese proverb has it.

@ChloeCrocodile

Things which increase stress:

• lack of facilities for staff (such as sufficient car parking)
• a well being team who dismiss concerns (such as car parking) raised by employees
• being told that my unmanageable workload is fine because teachers in other schools have it worse
• slt banging on about the various well being initiatives, all of which require me to give up time (which I don’t have) to attend. If I had two free lunchtimes each week to attend yoga I wouldn’t be stressed in the first place

I really agree with this post. Especially the bit about workload being fine as other teachers in other schools have it worse.

OP are you really sure workload is manageable? In schools I really think that sickness/well being issues largely boil down to two things:

1. Workload
2. Feeling underappreciated

I think of you have to say you care about the well being of your staff then you probably don't.

There are things employers could do that would probably avoid thr mess in the first place.

Have adequate staffing so the worry about letting the team down goes away.

Alternating weekends off sometimes so the same 2 people don't have to cover it every week and get to spend time with their families.

Stop with the arbitrary timings. If you have a job where as long as stuff gets done it doesn't matter if its 8.30-4. or 11-6 then allow the flexibility instead if making people scraping together childcare.

Or allow working from home of possible. I.mean a these people who were told they can't and yet everyone's managed it fir the last year and a half.

Have a proper training program st staff and carrying newbies for longer than necessary. ( we were all new once and we all accept that but it needs to be done well across the board or when you cover in different offices/shops you aren't full of so many bad habits or a victim.of such poor training it's harder work.you being there than not)

And having somewhere clean, and safe and with windows to take breaks.

To name.but a few.

And also I agree that if people feel they cab offload at work or get away with not doing their.jobs.properly or get away with constant cigarette breaks etc it could well have a knock.on.effect of making people feel.its less of a problem than it is. Could that lead to people not seeking help when they probably should. And how does that affect other staff when they were disciplined fir being late because the bus didn't show up but someone else can take multiple cigarette breaks and no one says anything.

Ultimately its all just virtue signalling nonsense.

I am getting mightliy sick of all the Wellbeing bullshit that is forced on us through work and media in general. Work colleagues or managers are the last people I would talk to about personal issues.
Endless invitations to join mindfulness sessions and listen to inspriring rwellness talks. I think the last straw was the compulsory hour long video we had to watch with some irritating tit of a man telling you to take a walk and get plenty of sleep if you're feeling stressed.

I did find myself questioning whether there is something wrong with me becasue I don't seem to have MH problems. Yes, I feel pissed off, angry, sad, bored, tired, and unmotivated at times, but I also feel happy, energetic and positive at other times.

I have had severe post natal depression and a couple of quite frightening depressive episodes, so I am aware that mental health illnesses are real and debilitating, but general up and down feelings are just part of life.

My workplace has the well-being champions, events etc etc. It's mostly giving free food and a nicer staff room!
But they've done fuck all to ensure decent working conditions or staff morale, so we know it's all theatre.

For instance: it's all well and good handing out free cookies and tea, but then to say we have to work through lunch because there is nobody to cover and they can't close the office... if they really cared, a manager could come out and man the phone lines.

I am sceptical about the effectivity of general "wellbeing" waffle.
If you have a genuine mental health issue you need proper help, not just a mindfulness session and a PowerPoint on stress relief.
If you don't have a mental health issue then such initiative is a waste of time anyway and if you are keen on meditation etc. there are ample resources online you can find for yourself.

I think there is a strong case for wellbeing to be part of the appraisal cycle and line management responsibilities, and for there to be confidential routes to support.