Tag: Mental Health

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Disability Duty of Care Employment Law Equality Act 2010 Health and Safety HR Lousha Reynolds Mental Health Neurodiversity Reasonable Adjustments Risk Assessment Sick Pay Stress

Stress at Work: More than just a bad day

Woman with head in her hands leans over a desk with a laptop in front of her

As we mark Stress Awareness Week 2026, we’re looking at the legal framework that governs mental health in the UK workplace.

Stress isn’t just a HR issue. It’s a significant legal responsibility. Whether you’re managing a team or navigating your own workload, understanding the boundaries of the law is essential for a healthy, compliant work environment.

1. The legal duty of care

Under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974, employers have a statutory duty to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety, and welfare of their employees. This isn’t limited to hard hats and trip hazards. It includes mental wellbeing, too.

  • Risk Assessments: Just as you’d assess the dangers of a faulty wire, you must assess the risk of work-related stress.
  • The Management Standards: The HSE (Health and Safety Executive) outlines six key areas that, if not managed, lead to poor health and reduced productivity: demands, control, support, relationships, role, and change.

2. When stress becomes a disability

While stress itself isn’t a disability, the effects of prolonged stress, such as clinical depression or anxiety disorders, often meet the criteria under the Equality Act 2010.

An employee is considered disabled if they have a physical or mental impairment that has a “substantial and long-term adverse effect” on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities.

What this means for employers:

  • If stress triggers a disability, you have a legal obligation to make reasonable adjustments. This might include:
    • Flexible working hours or “soft” start times.
    • Redistributing certain tasks to other team members.
    • Providing a quieter workspace or more frequent breaks.

3. Avoiding a personal injury claim

If an employer is aware (or ought to have been aware) that an employee is struggling and fails to act, they risk a claim for negligence. For a claim to succeed, the psychiatric injury must have been “reasonably foreseeable.”

The Red Flag Rule: If an employee tells you they’re struggling, or if their performance suddenly dips alongside signs of burnout, the clock starts ticking. Ignorance is rarely a valid legal defence once the signs are visible.

4. Practical steps for Stress Awareness Week

To stay on the right side of the law (and keep your team happy), consider these three actions:

ActionPurpose
Wellness Action Plans (WAPs)A proactive tool for employees to share what helps them stay well.
Training for ManagersEnsuring supervisors can spot signs of burnout before it becomes a grievance.
Open CommunicationReducing the stigma so employees feel safe raising issues early.

Work-related stress is often a symptom of systemic issues rather than individual weakness. By treating mental health with the same rigour as physical safety, UK businesses can avoid costly employment tribunals and, more importantly, foster a culture where people actually want to work. This year’s campaign, led by the Stress Management Society, focuses on the theme #BeTheChange, encouraging small, consistent, and positive actions. We think that’s a great place to start.

CONTACT US

We’re here to help with any questions or concerns you may have. Whether you need expert advice or would like an initial conversation about our services, pricing, or the options available, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. At Refreshing Law, what sets us apart from other law firms is that you’ll get to speak to an experienced employment lawyer right from the very first call.

02920 599 993

07737 055 584

lreynolds@refreshinglawltd.co.uk

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Lousha Reynolds
Refreshing Law

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Anna Denton-Jones Communication Duty of Care Employment Law Health and Safety Health Conditions Mental Health Risk Assessment Stress

What to do when you’re worried about someone — Suicide awareness

View of the City of London at sunset

Friday, 10th September was Suicide Awareness Day. By coincidence I ended up having the same conversation twice with two different organisations. In both cases, the employer had an employee who was on long term sick and where a pattern of contact with the employer had been established but they felt that something had changed. The lack of contact they were now experiencing was out character from the employee. In one case the employee had shared that they were having negative thoughts and in the other the employer was just concerned.

In such a case where efforts to speak with the employee are not fruitful, if you have any concerns then I recommend you act on them rather than ignore them. Our intuition is there for a reason.

The first port of call might be the next of kin that the individual has left with you. You don’t need to get into discussing any details about the employee or their absence, their health or anything like that: you can just remind the next of kin that they have been appointed by the employee as the next of kin and that you are worried about the employee because there has been a change in behaviour — are they okay? This is likely to prompt the next of kin to say that they will check.

The second port of call might be the GP. If you have the employee’s GP details which you are likely to do from the fit notes that they will have been submitting, you could contact the practice explaining that you have concerns and this is likely to trigger the practice then checking up on the individual. The GP will not be able to discuss anything about the individual with you but they will note if you are saying there is out of character behaviour and the fact that you have bothered to take the time to call.

Clearly you might be barking up the wrong tree entirely but for the sake of a phone call or two, if you are in any doubt, it is better than regretting not having raised a concern if there is something to worry about.

Anna Denton-Jones
Refreshing Law

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Absence Anna Denton-Jones Burnout Duty of Care Employment Law HR Mental Health Stress

Burnout and the risks for employers

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Last year the World Health Organisation recognised “burnout” for the first time in its classification of diseases. It defines “burnout” as “mental or physical exhaustion caused by excessive or prolonged stress and a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”. It highlights the three characteristics:

  1. Feeling of energy depletion or exhaustion.
  2. An increased mental distance from one’s job or feelings of negativity or cynicism relating to one’s job.
  3. Reduced professional efficacy.

For many people who were reading that definition they would be saying yes or would be ticking off the criterion, due to the pandemic, with the stresses and strains of the last year or so only adding to the problem.

Stress is normally a short lived thing or tied to a specific goal so is not harmful. If the stress feels never ending and comes with feelings of emptiness, apathy and hopelessness, it may be indicative of burnout.

A recent case involving a firm of solicitors that has been litigated through the Courts highlights the risk of employers not taking this issue seriously. In this particular case, the employee concerned was a high flyer – for a period of around 5 years he had been one of the most high billing or income generating fee earners at the law practice, being in a leadership position, in charge of one of the firm’s offices. Criticisms levelled at the employer included, failing to reduce his working hours or ensuring that he was taking his annual leave. He had been dedicating 15 hours a day to work and the employer faced criticism for not having picked up on that and done something about it.

It seems that when the condition began to manifest including the employee acting out a character and making an inappropriate joke which was then used as a disciplinary matter, the firm failed to put in place a structured plan for offering support. In particular, when the employee had 7 weeks’ ill-health, they didn’t take any steps to find out about the extent of his condition. If they had done so, they may have been more aware of his fragility and the problem that they were dealing with.

In particular, at the point at which he has tipped over into “burnout”, the firm had a duty to put their minds to how they could prevent the risk to his health that his job was causing. The problem is that the firm took the perhaps “usual” reaction of getting him to relinquish his management position. Indeed it was found that one witness had said that he should “drop back into midfield” and leave the captaincy to somebody else. The Judge in the case found that that was grossly insensitive. Of course the firm might have had genuine concerns over the impact on colleagues but there wasn’t really any meaningful communication around the issue or understanding of the workload issues or what was necessary.

These sorts of cases are going to be particularly relevant given all the evidence about people working from home, working greater hours, juggling all the other stresses that come with a pandemic and inadequacies in many cases of employers to be prepared to deal with these sorts of issues.

So what things can an employer be doing to prevent “burnout”?

  1. Actively encourage employees to take holiday, including those in senior leadership positions and create an environment where people are allowed to genuinely switch off, which will require senior leaders to lead by example in this regard.
  2. Reconfigure email so they send only during set hours.
  3. Encourage all managers to check in with the members of their team as regards workload. It is a culturally normally thing to happen for work to be juggled around between different people to alleviate the pressure points?
  4. Encourage employees to speak up if they are starting to feel overwhelmed, explaining that support will be available if they do, including the possibility of devoting extra resource to take on workload.
  5. Train managers to spot the signs when somebody is beginning to become overwhelmed and not cope and to not be afraid to intervene when they see that happening.
  6. Refer the employee to occupational health immediately for guidance on other measures that can be taken.
  7. Have an employee led position about what they think needs to happen – they know themselves best.
  8. At this stage, emphasise that any changes to job description or duties are temporary whilst you are supporting them to recover.
  9. Simple things can apply, such as permitting the employee to say no to new tasks.
  10. In any return to work/management plan, it will be useful to schedule regular breaks including identifying what activities the employee is going to be doing to help them reduce the feelings of burnout in terms of self-care and exercise etc.

If the medical condition the employee is suffering from becomes a long term thing then it could become a disability which is protected by the Equality Act, in which case the duty to make reasonable adjustments is going to apply. Where an employer has not tackled the issue early enough, if the employee goes through periods of absence and return to work with little changing, you can see how a pattern could be established that leads into disability territory.

In the particular case involved, the employer was potentially liable for the employees losses that resulted from his employment relationship coming to an end and not tackling the issue effectively.

Anna Denton-Jones
Refreshing Law

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Anna Denton-Jones Disability Employment Law Employment Rights Act 1996 Equality Act 2010 Menopause Mental Health Protected Characteristics

Guest Blog | The Menopause — Why should organisations bother?

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Katie Day is a Director at RDP International Ltd

Policies and guidelines around mental health are in place.

Established and clear policies have been in existence for pregnant women and parental leave for many years.

Ways of recording reasons for absence and supporting staff (via Employee Assistance Programmes for example) are well used.

The menopause.

Ah.

Not so good there then!

I find this puzzling. Not every woman will experience pregnancy, yet every woman, if she lives long enough, will experience the menopause. As we make up around 52% of the population, and around 57% of that number are of key menopausal age (between 40 and 65). That’s a lot of women who will go through this life transition!

It is estimated that absence due to menopause (where woman are not supported at work) represents a cost to the UK economy of around £7.3 million per year1.  According to the Government Report on Menopause, women at menopausal life phase are the fastest growing workforce demographic, and according to the Faculty of Occupational Medicine nearly 8 out of 10 peri- and post-menopausal women are in work.

Women are lying. Around 75% of women say they do not feel confident to cite the menopause as the reason for their absence at work, so are reporting ‘other reasons’ for their absence. They feel really bad about doing this, which further exacerbates their feelings of vulnerability. Ensuring there is a supportive workplace culture is the responsibility of the organisation, not the responsibility of the women who work there.

One in four women consider leaving their job during this life phase.

Combine the above statistics with the legal requirements of employers to support and protect staff, this is a topic that cannot be ignored within the business community.

When asked, women in the UK report the following menopausal experiences as just some that have a negative impact for them at work, there are others2:

  • Irritability: 56%
  • Poor concentration: 51%
  • Tiredness: 51%
  • Poor memory: 50%

Women want to talk with other women going through this life phase, to have more information. They want management awareness of the topic, combined with information and advice from their employer. They want access to support via training sessions and networks.

Not all the responsibility lies with the employer of course. It is shared with the woman herself. We can all take ownership of our health and find out how we can best support ourselves, navigate this transition with the maximum ease and minimum stress and emerge stronger and even more resilient.

First and foremost we need to ‘normalise’ the conversation. What do I mean by this? Well, we all need to feel comfortable talking about ‘the M word’. If, as women, we are uncomfortable verbalising our experience(s), then it is pretty much guaranteed that people around us will also feel uncomfortable. The menopause is a natural part of life, and once we accept and embrace this life transition and see it for what it is – a temporary rite of passage, we are able to recognise that we can, to some degree, sail through rather than stumble through.

Honest and open conversations are the key. We all need to acknowledge the important and valuable contribution women of menopausal age make to the business world. By ‘all’ I mean women themselves and their employers. To lose all that experience and expertise is simply bad business and poor workplace practice.

With two employee tribunals (2012 and 2018),3 both of which went in favour of the claimant (menopausal woman), organisations ignore this issue at their peril. It is increasingly crucial that employers ensure they become, and remain, employers of choice – for everyone. ‘Everyone’ must not exclude women of menopausal age.

We work with some truly wonderful organisations who have the courage to tackle this issue head on, brave enough to make the changes necessary and savvy enough to ensure they retain some of their best talent. Do you work for, or run, one of these organisations? Or is there room for improvement?

Many of our clients are considering making our Supporting people during the menopause session mandatory for every manager they employ.

More and more men within our client organisations are putting themselves forward to be a champion and a ‘point of contact’ for women. They encourage other men to learn, change and support. They are the benchmarks all people need to follow.

Let us all embrace the strength and value of this time in a woman’s life, promote the wisdom, experience and expertise of women and collaborate to create an even more resilient and successful workplace.

Katie Day

Director

RDP International Ltd

katie@rdp-int.com

RDP International works with organisations on: leadership / communication / all matters ‘midlife’

www.rdp-int.com

Join the conversation:

LinkedIn:        Midlife Matters Group

Twitter:           @Midlife_Matters

Facebook:        Midlife Matters

  1. Kleinman NL, et al. (2013)

Direct and indirect costs of women diagnosed with menopause symptoms

Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2013 Apr;55(4): 465-70

  1. Griffiths A, et al. (2013)

Menopause and work: An electronic survey of employees’ attitudes in the UK

Maturitas 76 (2013): 155– 159

  1. Merchant v BT plc (ET/1401305/11, 27 February 2012)

Reported in below:

Okill A (2017)

Time to tackle the myths and taboos of the menopause in the workplace

HR News (October 2017): http://hrnews.co.uk/time-tackle-myths-taboos-menopause-workplace/ 

Katie Day highlights the need for workplace support for menopausal women, emphasising the importance of normalising discussions and providing resources.