LOOKING instead of looking away

Dealing with mentally stressed employees: Our managers dealt with this topic last Tuesday as part of a one-day training course.

Mentally stressed people at work - not a nice or easy topic and, above all, one that many people don't want to deal with or are firmly convinced they will never come into contact with. Nevertheless, it is an issue that is becoming increasingly present in today's business environment and cannot be ignored. Current statistics show that over 10 % of all employee absences due to illness are attributable to psychological causes.

The initial aim of the training was to raise our managers' awareness of various basic mental illnesses and their symptoms so that they could better recognize possible changes in employees and their behaviour or mood as early as possible and, if necessary, classify them.

The day was also about learning how to approach and support employees who may be suffering from mental health problems. The idea here is not to train our managers as therapists, but to provide them with the tools they need to deal better with affected employees and to alleviate their uncertainties in this area.

After all, dealing openly and constructively with psychological stress - assuming that the employee is willing to talk about it - is the right and important way to improve the situation for everyone involved.