Should I tell work I have anxiety

[Chocolateface]

Hi

Do I have to tell my employer I have anxiety, and if so dors it have to be kept confidential. I have not been officially diagnosed by a doctor but hsve seen a counsellor about it in the past.

Part of me says to tell them the other part is telling the of the stigma attached to mental health, plus I don't want it to affect my employment, ie be used as a way of proving I am incapable of doing my job, even though in the three years I have been there there have never been any instances of me not performing ad expected, apart from all of the hassle this year with my colleague.

Thanks

Clare

[uru]

You don t have to tell them.

Health stuff is supposed to be confidential (this doesn't mean someone won't talk)

I have a colleague who is off for months at a time with anxiety. Everyone knows about it. No one treats her differently.

[Chocolateface]

Thanks, I think I am working myself up over all this, perhaps I will be better come tomorrow

[MyNameIsTerry]

Clare,

You are obligated to tell an employer when applying for a job if they are asking. So, if you are given a form and choose to leave a health condition out, it can be considered breach of contract if they find out.

Once you are employed, no you don't have to tell them anything. Unless if impacts on your work, they have no reason to have an issue with it. The only other concern is that as an employer they are expected to preserve your health so if they can do things to help you, they should under their duty of care. It's not a strict thing, it's woolly in law because it has to be flexible BUT if an employer isn't informed and hasn't picked up on it themselves, it won't be held against them hence they wouldn't care.

All HR data is confidential. However, I've been a manager, and managers are as professional & unprofessional as anyone else, they talk about confidential issues over a fag or a beer BUT they shouldn't. They should only discuss your records with their line manager or HR.

There are issues in some computer systems that use a tree format for HR in that every manager above can see the records of the one below BUT the higher you go, the more used to controlled sensitive & confidential data things become so you expect someone more professional. I don't think this is something to worry about.

So, you can choose to tell them BUT in my opinion you only tell employers what they need to know. There may be very personal things involved in these disorder that they won't understand. For instance, it could be difficult for someone to get their head around POCD and so it would be better to state "OCD, intrusive thoughts, etc" and not the content as people are still just people so they can't be robots and shut out their own thoughts in how they view people. This is just my opinion, it really does depend on the people and the company, I've just found that this is best where I have worked to avoid things getting out that could be a bit too sensitive at work.

Mental health issues have legal cover as they are covered under disability. This doesn't mean you are treated any different, it's to enforce the employer's obligation to make "reasonable adjustments" on them to be inline with physical health issues.

They can't use it against you, a Capability case has to be strong enough to hold up against any employment tribunal. Like with anyone without any health issues, dirty people can still use dirty tricks to "manage people out" if they want to but if you worked in a place like that, you would already know it. In Capability cases HR are present anyway, it's not just between you & your line manager (in proper companies anyway).

Remember, you have 3 years of evidence that you have performed fine when you hadn't told them about it. Thats evidence in your favour. They would have to see a decline in current & future performance to justify saying anything.

[Chocolateface]

Thanks for the replies, I don't remember anything on an application form other than things like adjustments to be made etc for physical health, so far as it has not affected my work so will see how it goes

Clare

[Fishmanpa]

The short answer is "No". If it doesn't affect your performance then why bring it up?

Positive thoughts