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Mental health concerns in the workplace

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Mental health concerns in the workplace

Normally this time of year is incredibly quiet, with half my pharmacy team either on, or about to go on, their holidays. Unfortunately, a tricky situation came to a head to spoil the summer tranquility...

Last year we appointed a new dispenser, partly on the recommendation of another member of staff, and partly because the individual deserved a chance having become completely disillusioned with pharmacy as a result of working for a large multiple for a couple of years.

Nearly a year later, things just hadn’t worked out. After talking to the boss and to the rest of the team, I had to decide: do I take the easy option and ignore the issue, hoping it will get better on its own, or do I tackle it and risk making the situation worse? In a small team the easy option isn’t really an option at all. Something had to be done.

Alarm bells

Several weeks earlier, a locum had raised a concern about the behaviour and performance of this member of staff, in particular her mental health and ability to do the job safely. This isn’t feedback that anyone should take lightly, so I spoke to the rest of the team to get their thoughts on the individual, who I shall call Sally.

Generally they thought she was doing ok, but occasionally experienced periods where she struggled with the pressure and stress of pharmacy. I decided to take a low-key approach, initiating a series of regular meetings with Sally and her colleagues to monitor her performance – an area which really concerned me, as she was making a lot of mistakes.

Troubling

Normally I can handle someone making mistakes now and again because we all go through rough patches, but what I found troubling was that Sally didn’t seem to care about the consequences of her actions, or be prepared to listen to advice to reduce the risk of mistakes.

When I first sat down with her to talk about the issue, I was nervous yet sympathetic to her mental health problems. We knew when we took Sally on that she had problems with anxiety and depression, but we wanted to give her a go because we felt that we could provide a much more supportive environment than where she had been working. We talked through the issues for about an hour, including what support we could provide to improve Sally’s working life.

Several weeks passed without incident, or so I thought, but Sally was getting worse. The locum who had first flagged the issue reported finding her in a bit of a state and talking about hurting herself. Nobody wants to hear this, especially when people have access to medicines. When I asked Sally about this, she told me she “didn’t really mean it”.

Sally was already waiting on a referral for treatment from the mental health team, but was becoming increasingly frustrated that her GP and community mental health team weren’t listening to her.

Over the next four weeks I met with Sally around five times to discuss her situation and how things were progressing. It had become painfully apparent to me that pharmacy probably wasn’t the right environment for her. Stress, pressure and responsibility are integral to what we do and no amount of leave or altered responsibilities was likely to solve the problem.

Formal proceedings

After another spate of mistakes, and further manifestations of her condition through a poor attitude towards her work, I was left with no choice and started formal disciplinary proceedings. This was probably tougher for me than it was for her. Nobody wants to be making decisions that could have serious potential repercussions. I gave Sally a week’s paid leave to think over the question: “Is this the right environment for your long-term health and wellbeing?”.

At our next meeting Sally said she had decided to resign and find another job with less responsibility. To assist in this transition I was able to offer her a slightly longer notice period, and could avoid permanently damaging her employment prospects by not having to progress further with the disciplinary action.

This was one of the most challenging employment issues I have faced, but I feel this was absolutely the right decision for the good of everyone, Sally included. But management can be so, so tough sometimes...

This was one of the most challenging employment issues I have faced

* Pen name of a practising community pharmacist. Alexander Humphries’ views are not necessarily those of Pharmacy Magazine. Have you had to deal with a similar issue?  Email pm@1530.com

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