Recovery at Work Toolkit

Talking to a trusted friend or colleague is often the first step in deciding to tell someone at work about your mental health condition (or struggles). Taking the step to tell a manager is often difficult. Talking helps, as does early access to support, treatment, and workplace adjustments.

Deciding to tell someone about mental health struggles

Talking with your doctor or treatment provider may help you with deciding to tell someone about your mental health.

Here’s three tools to help you decide if you are ready to tell someone about your mental health at work and how much detail you wish to share:

• READY – A tool to help you decide if disclosing or telling someone about your mental health concerns is right for you
• Should I tell my employer – Heads up and Beyond Blue
• Hear2Talk – A free, confidential, independent, phone support line for NSW employers and employees. Skilled mental health peer workers use their own lived experience of managing workplace mental health challenges to support and coach callers in their recovery.

Remember, talking to someone will help you to make an informed decision about what will work for you.

Preparing to tell someone about your mental health

It’s important to prepare and be sure about what details you want to share with your workplace manager. Having a supportive and confidential conversation starts the process of working together and the process of developing a plan to support recovery at work.

When the talk with your leader doesn’t go as expected

Sometimes things don’t always go as expected, and this can happen when you decide to tell your workplace manager about your mental health struggles. It may be that you get a different reaction from your manager than expected, and the outcome feels negative. It’s important to keep in mind that this is not a failure but a starting point, and to avoid placing any blame on yourself or your leader.

If the talk isn’t on track, try and stay calm and listen carefully to what your leader is saying. Take time to gather your thoughts before responding and try to maintain a productive discussion. It may be helpful for both you and your leader to pause the discussion and take time away to review and re-group with an agenda of items to discuss together.

This will allow both you and your leader time to plan and reflect on:

• The perspective of the other person
• The intended outcome of the discussion
• The likely challenges of the conversation
• Some strategies to overcome these challenges.

You can also prepare a summary statement and key points you want to discuss written as ‘I’ statements. Be clear on what workplace supports you need, and if you are unsure, it’s good to discuss this openly.

It’s important to debrief and reflect on the conversation with a trusted friend or colleague. Look at alternate ways to work with your leader, or for other internal workplace resources, and get the support you need.

This same approach will apply if you work in a small or micro business. It may help to review some of the helpful resources created specifically for small businesses together with your people leader, as well as view this video by a small business owner.

Workplace leaders and managers have a responsibility to support an employee’s health and wellbeing. How you respond to and support your workers does make a difference. If you notice that something is not quite right with a worker, starting a confidential conversation is the responsible action to take. It’s the first step in providing the supports needed to recover at work.

• Our leaders resource kit provides helpful information and tips on how to talk about mental health in the workplace
• It’s important to use the right language to create a safe and understanding environment as part of preparing for a confidential conversation
• As a leader, it’s your responsibility to ensure privacy and confidentiality.

Some other tools to get you talking:

• How to ask 'R U OK' in the workplace
• Starting a conversation - Heads Up
• Discussion Plan – Beyond Blue
• Recovery oriented language guide – Mental Health Coordinating Council
• Keeping your team healthy - what a manager can do to help – video by Black Dog Institute
• Hear2Talk - a free and confidential peer-run support line for NSW employers and employees where you can get help managing workplace mental health challenges.

Watch the video below where Camille shares her lived experience of mental health recovery in the workplace. Camille shares the impact of a colleague sharing her own very similar story of mental ill health and recovery in the workplace.

It’s best to develop the plan together. The aim is to support recovery at work in a respectful way, providing the right supports at the right time, to make a plan that works for everyone in the workplace.

The plan should consider:

• Advice from the treating doctor, or health care provider/team
• Workplace adjustments and strategies to support recovery (e.g., changes to work hours or some duties, or flexible work hours to continue treatment)
• How to make adjustments so there are minimal changes to regular roles and responsibilities. This helps to maintain confidence in performance, and provides the opportunity for continued skill development, whilst supporting the overall needs of the workplace
• The type of support to be provided by the workplace and how supports will be implemented (e.g., providing extra training mentoring and support; reducing work tasks/responsibilities by reallocating to other team member; changes to arrangements for supervision; introducing hybrid work arrangements
• An agreed approach to communicating the plan to all team members
• Setting a rhythm to continually review and adjust the plan as needed
• How colleagues can support the recovery at work plan and outline any impact the plan may have on the day-to-day workload of colleagues.

It’s the small things that you do which can make a big difference to a colleague’s recovery at work. Peter’s story of mental health recovery at work, talks about how his managers provided the right support at the right time, after asking him about the type of support he needed.

Reasonable workplace adjustments are changes made to a job or workplace which provide support to someone with a mental health condition, so that they can keep working as they recover.

It’s important to work together to identify what reasonable workplace adjustments are needed to both support the recovery at work plan and are appropriate to the workplace. Making these changes can have a positive impact on someone’s recovery.

Changes or workplace adjustments might include:

• Adjusting workload or daily duties
• More flexible work schedules
• Devices or apps e.g. noise cancelling headphones, or apps to help organise or plan
• Using tools to help manage communication and work activities (e.g., use of ‘do not disturb’ or ‘focus’ times)
• Moving to a different workspace or work location (e.g., in a quieter area)
• Extra support via more regular check-ins
• Structured support from a colleague
• Exploring options for more tailored work schedules (e.g., work hours, shifts)
• Managing fatigue related to shift work and working on machinery (e.g., reduce exposure to noisy or uncomfortable conditions, or minimise shift work impacts on sleep patterns)
• Hybrid working from home/office (if appropriate).

Once these changes are made, work together to review the work plan and make any adjustments as required, so the plan stays effective and continues to work for everyone.

Having the support of a manager or supervisor is a crucial factor when it comes to remaining at or returning to work. It’s helpful to schedule regular catch ups and to maintain social connections, to help colleagues feel valued, part of the team and connected to the workplace. Here are two resources to help workers stay connected:

• How to support recovery at work - HeadsUp
• How to support a worker if they need time off work

We can all take actions to help build a mentally healthy workplace. Everyone has a role to play in improving workplace mental health. Managers and employees both have formal rights and responsibilities under discrimination, privacy, and work health and safety legislation.

Creating a mentally healthy workplace is more than just a legal obligation, it makes good business sense.

A mentally healthy workplace:

• Benefits every employee and every business, no matter the size or industry
• Promotes safe work practices and a positive work culture
• Encourages workers to seek help early and supports recovery at work.

There are simple, practical actions you can take immediately to promote workplace mental health, including providing training for all staff and making training a priority for managers.

Further resources:

• How to create a mentally healthy workplace
• Specific information for small business – HeadsUp
• Returntowork - resources
• SafeWork Code of Practice – Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work
• Creating a mentally healthy and resilient small business – video
• Managing Minds – a podcast series for managers exploring issues such as preventing burnout, dealing with bullying, and how to manage an unhealthy workplace culture.