Upon reading the latest reports on the draft proposals to remove the rights of unproductive workers to claim unfair dismissal has left me with a wry smile on my face.

In my mind this is undoubtedly a knee jerk reaction to just one too many difficult conversations with a frustrated  manager bemoaning that it is “impossible” to dismiss anyone, when resources are under increasing pressure, budgets are being cut, everyone is under close scrutiny to deliver more with less. No one wants to be carrying “dead weight”.

Where performance management has been distinctly lacking in the past, I do wonder if this is a reaction to a few chickens coming home to roost.

A week or so ago I had the opportunity to attend the Health and Wellbeing conference inWhitehall. An eminent panel of speakers gathered including Lord Freud, Dr Steve Boorman, Dame Carol Black to name a few.

Whilst the focus of the agenda was on longer term strategies to end “worklessness” in people with long term conditions and/or disability, especially where this is nonsensical because there is capacity to continue working, what interested me most about the day was the opportunity to speak with other delegates and hear speakers, for example from Health and Safety Executive on insights into stress and stress related conditions and its impact in the workplace.

My interest was piqued for a number of reasons, I often find myself face to face with people unwell with stress, they are either going off sick, trying to come back to work or discussing their perception of how work has contributed to their illness.

A blog post written by our Director Matthew Scott for XpertHR’s Tribunal Watch section on when it is reasonable not to dismiss an employee who has been given a custodial sentence.

Matthew served for 10 years in HM Prison Service and rose to the rank of Operational Manager (Governor Grade). His blog post can be viewed below, or on the Tribunal Watch site by clicking this link: (Link).

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“Take him down.” Three words that signify the beginning of a custodial sentence for a law breaker and a complete change of life for him or her, his or her family and in some cases his or her employer.

I have always thought that one of the main responsibilities to dealing with those in the criminal justice system is “reasonableness”. Yet, in my time serving in the Prison Service, I was always amazed at how unreasonable people and employers could be when dealing with those who had fallen foul of the law.

The news yesterday that CIPD/Simplyhealth survey findings that the incidents of stress related illness in the workplace is on the increase came as no surprise at all, nor was it any surprise to hear that the findings make a direct link to the current economic downturn.  I was saddened to hear in news reports that this trend is particularly prevalent in the Public Sector, as is an increasing trend of mental health conditions.

I say I was sad, because unfortunately none of this was news to me and I would hazard a guess nor to anyone else.  Why then do we seem to just accept it? Apart from a half hearted suggestion that employers make use of counselling services none of the news items I encountered had any suggestions about how to address this problem.

Counselling can be enormously helpful to identify the root causes of stress and provide individuals with a range of coping strategies but it is only one small part of the picture.