Telling new employer about anxiety

[Fay13]

I started a new job a few weeks ago and am wondering if anyone has any advice about telling new employers about anxiety. When I was diagnosed a few years ago I'd been at my old job for over a year and so felt more comfortable doing it. I know I don't have to tell them, but there is something coming up (a day out on site with a site team which has really nothing to do with my role but is something new starters do) and it's making me so anxious and I can't think of any other reason to give them that wouldn't just result in it being rearranged rather than being told I don't have to do it. My new manager seems nice, but it's a very large company and he's out at other offices a lot of the time so I haven't seen him that much. I'm sure the fact that it's a very large coorporate company wil help me in some ways, in that they'll have proper HR procedures (my last job was a very small company with a very casual approach to HR issues) but I'm still worried about talking to him.

Any tips??

[lior]

Hello, I know how agonising this decision can be.

If it's a large company, it's likely there'll be some procedure that will support you - and will support the manager to support you. This is good news! :)

I told a manager once after a performance review in a moment of desperation that I was depressed, because she was criticising me in a non-constructive way and I couldn't take it any more. But the result of her being nicer to me felt like she was excusing stuff I wasn't good at... and I didn't like that. I wanted to be good at my job whether or not I was depressed.

I guess what I'm trying to say is - it would be better to be straight up about anxiety rather than it coming out during a performance review. It's not a great feeling to feel like you're excusing yourself for what you're not able to do. It's better to get as much support as possible from the workplace, if it's that kind of workplace.

Now, I'm straight up about all my health issues with all new colleagues. I want to have an environment around me where it's normal to talk about these things when they affect work.

It could be that by telling your manager, he'll sort out what exactly you're anxious about re: the site visit, and then you might want to go :)

What exactly is scaring you about talking to him? If you're solid in your reasons for doing it, what have you got to fear?