David Tall, an assistant delivery manager at Royal Mail, understands the importance of sensitive line managers.

[POSTMAN]

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The managers who hold the line on workplace stress

“People don’t leave jobs, they leave managers.” The aphorism is underscored in a report that highlights the role of line managers in spotting signs of employee stress, anxiety and depression.

The study, called Leading on Mental Wellbeing: Transforming the Role of Line Managers and published by Business in the Community on Thursday, urges them to learn how to recognise warning signs of workers’ stress, anxiety and depression. It also calls for employers to support line managers who lack autonomy.

David Tall, an assistant delivery manager at Royal Mail, understands the importance of sensitive line managers. A bout of depression that he describes as like being shrouded by a blanket — “it goes dark”, he says — left him distracted at work.

Mr Tall felt his distress was overlooked, and pressure of work increased. But then the arrival of a new, empathetic manager gave him the chance to air his problems and scale back his work. “If it wasn’t for him my mental condition would have got worse. I would have gone further into despair,” he says.

The business-led charity suggests that line managers develop an approachable style. “Ask simple, open and non-judgmental questions about an individual’s mental health, give staff an opportunity to communicate what keeps them well at work”, the report says. It also encourages senior executives to provide support to line managers who themselves feel vulnerable to stress. Research published last year by Columbia University found that middle managers have to absorb the discontent of those below and above, and yet often feel powerless to make any changes.

One financial services executive who experienced profound anxiety and had to take time off work speaks of the importance of finding the right “time, tone and place to bring it up. It’s hard for people to talk about and we need to make it easier”.

This latest report urges employers to provide mental health training for managers. Its publication coincides with Time to Talk Day, which highlights the importance of open and regular conversations about mental wellbeing.

Loads more at the link.

[borgpicard]

Seriously, We leave because we are fed up with being treated like cu nts, and every excuse in the book NOT to pay over time, then threatened if we say we work to time, and what I have just read is total Boll ocks.

[hellpop]

i agree with previous post.our present dom is a sadistic maniac who delights in upsetting people.his second in command had previously been suspended for over a year for bullying and harrassment so the dom loves him to pieces.these two couldnt win a popularity competition if they were up against adolf saddam and bin laden.the sad part is we have a decent manager a young chap in his twenties who gets bullied and picked on by these muppets because he speaks to people in a decent manner and treats them like human beings.