Hating your boss is ‘not a mental health condition’, employees have been warned.
The former chairman of John Lewis has raised concerns amid the ‘overmedicalisation’ of workplace problems.
It comes as one in five people of working age have a health condition that affects their job and there are 2.8million people inactive due to ill health.
This is up from 2.1million since before the Covid pandemic – though the numbers have been steadily rising over the years.
The ex-high street chief, Sir Charlie Mayfield, has now been appointed by Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, to come up with plans to stop workers leaving their jobs because of poor health.
Mr Mayfield’s report is due this autumn.
He told The Sunday Times: ‘The last thing I wish to do is trivialise [mental health conditions] but I agree that things do get over-medicalised.
‘That’s not to say there aren’t medical issues that need to be dealt with through proper clinical medical interventions, but there’s a lot more that can be done through the workplace and through encouraging discussion and relationships and processes that encourage that.
The ex-high street chief, Sir Charlie Mayfield (pictured), has now been appointed by Liz Kendall, the work and pensions secretary, to come up with plans to stop workers leaving their jobs because of poor health
One in five people of working age have a health condition that affects their job and there are 2.8million people inactive due to ill health (file image)
‘It might be better to say: “What’s making you anxious?” Because then we can do something about that. And how do you deal with it if you’ve got [an employee with a] “I hate my boss syndrome”? Well, we can do something about that. We can say “Is it the case that your boss is hateful?”, in which case, that’s probably an issue that we should figure out how we deal with.’
Mr Mayfield added there were also the possibility the boss was ‘quite legitimately doing what they should be doing’ meaning it is ‘not hateful behaviour’ and in fact might be ‘what bosses are meant to do’.
He went on to say bosses should be routinely in contact with employees when they are signed off to help support their return to work.
Sick notes also create an ‘impregnable barrier’ between employer and employee, according to the former high street mogul, with those in charge often too scared of contacting staff for fear of ‘causing offence’.
The 58-year-old believes lessons can be learnt from the Netherlands where there is a mandatory six-week intervention meeting requiring employee, employer and occupational health to agree a return-to-work plan with two-week monitoring cycles.
He pointed out that statistically the longer someone is away from work, the harder it is to get back and the less likely that person is to do so.
Sick notes also create an ‘impregnable barrier’ between employer and employee, according to the former high street mogul (file image)
Mr Mayfield said it should become normal that people are contacted when they’re off sick and that while some organisations are ready to do this, most are not.
The former John Lewis chief pointed to a fear of individuals disclosing health conditions and also line managers not wanting to offend people about something obviously personal to them.
He also offered ‘keeping in touch days’ like those used by women on maternity leave as a solution – to help solve the disconnection between employer and employee, improving return-to-work outcomes.
Flexibility is also key – particularly among the over 50s – as a way to boost participation, according to Mr Mayfield.
