Entering work

The vast majority of people in the study group had not returned to their previous employer. Only two people had gone back to their former job, and one other person had returned to her previous employer in another capacity, having first taken up work with a different employer when she initially moved off Incapacity Benefit.

Some people explicitly stated that they would not have wanted to go back to their previous employer. As was discussed in Chapter 4, some people felt that leaving their former employer had been the right thing for them, because of the impact the job was having on their mental health. In other cases, there had been

14 _{The ADF provides awards of up to £100 (previously £300) in any 12-month}

period, which can be used to help certain groups of benefit claimants to resolve the barriers to employment and job search that they face. The ADF allows Personal Advisers (PAs) flexibility and discretion to use financial assistance to respond to customers’ individual need in circumstances where a small amount of money can be instrumental in breaking down barriers to work or job search (Irving et al., 2004).

additional negative aspects of their job that had precipitated their decision to leave, notwithstanding the impact on their mental health.

Some people had returned to their previous field of work. These included people in freelance self-employment and people who routinely worked via employment agencies on temporary contracts. There were also people whose work histories comprised a number of jobs in the customer service, hospitality or manufacturing sectors who had returned to this same broad field of work, but sometimes took up work that they had not specifically done before. However, other people had deliberately made a more ‘radical’ shift in the type of work they took up, sometimes influenced by their experiences of leaving work due to job-related stress. Such changes of perspective on job and career plans will be considered in more detail in Chapter 6.

There were very few illustrations of phased returns to work in the sense of gradually increasing one’s hours with one employer. This is perhaps a reflection of the fact that only two people had returned to a prior position, one of whom did make a phased return on the strict advice of her manager and GP. Several people had moved directly from IB into full-time work. However, there were a number of examples of people independently planning their return to employment in a way that was gradual and incremental.

Some people had made use of the permitted work rules to take up work on a part-time basis, in the first instance, while retaining their entitlement to IB. For one person, this continued for the maximum permissible period of one year, after which she decided to move into full-time work. There were a number of examples of people who had occupied professional or senior roles before their period on IB taking up less skilled or more casual employment as a first stage. Taking account of their prior experiences of work-related stress, anxiety or depression, some people had deliberately begun by taking up jobs that entailed less responsibility or pressure than their previous roles. In some of these cases, people had gradually worked towards a role that was more comparable to their former position. However, other people had changed their aspirations and were content to work in a less senior or prestigious role for the benefit of their mental health. For example, one person had been offered a promotion since starting her job but had chosen not to take this up, being mindful of the detrimental effect that greater work pressures could have on her mental health. Another described her partner’s frustrations that she was ‘overqualified’ for her current role and was ‘wasting’ her abilities. While she acknowledged this and saw her partner’s comments positively, she was nevertheless conscious of her need to take things gradually.

Some people, who recognised that their mental health condition was still present despite feeling able to return to work, described decisions they had made in selecting the type of work they went into, for example, giving consideration to how the hours of work would interact with the fluctuating effects of their mental health condition. In a notable example, one person described how he had taken a decision to work via employment agencies, because this meant he could accept

work when he was feeling well enough, but state that he was ‘unavailable’ when he did not feel able to work. This approach had the dual advantages, as he saw it, of not needing to tell employers about his mental health condition and also not ‘letting people down’ as would happen if he became unwell under a permanent contract of employment. Another person felt that the only reason she had been able to take up and maintain a job was because of the flexible hours, which meant she could work as and when she felt able, and again had not needed to tell her employer about her mental health condition. In a third example, working an afternoon shift had been helpful to an individual whose depression affected him more strongly in the mornings.

Most people in the study group felt that they had been able to exercise choice in their return to work, both in the timing and the type of work they went into. Among the small number of people whose initial move off IB was not voluntary, there was some evidence of more limited choice in waiting for a preferred job opportunity to arise, given the reduction in benefit level and requirement to seek work if claiming JSA. However, even among this group, there were people who felt that, once they had begun the process of looking for employment, they too had been able to return to work on their ‘own terms’.

Although, on reflection, some people initially felt that they might have gone back to work before they were fully ready, most people felt they were now managing well in their new role. Some people had left work for other reasons by the time of the research interviews, but only a few study participants described ongoing struggles in work or subsequent departures from jobs because of the effects of their mental health condition.

There were also some people who felt that, while their job was manageable and relatively enjoyable, they had not been able to go into the sort of work that they really wanted to do. In most cases, however, people identified reasons other than restrictions imposed by their mental health condition, for example training and qualification needs, age barriers or local labour market conditions.

5.1.6 Telling people at work about mental health