The Work Couch RPC

We are marking Mental health awareness week this month by devoting a four-part mini-series to mental health at work. This week, in part 3, Ellie is joined by Alice Hendy MBE, CEO and founder of charity R;pple Suicide Prevention to explain how employers can protect their employees' digital wellbeing.
 
We discuss:
 
·     Alice's own experiences of losing her 21 year old brother Josh to suicide and her subsequent discovery that he had viewed severely harmful content online;
·     How Alice founded R;pple in Josh's memory and devised a pioneering digital tool that intercepts searches for harmful content online;
·     The significant role that harmful content is now playing in some suicides;
·     Effectively signposting people to free mental health support;
·     The impact that R;pple has had and how it has saved lives; and
·     How employee privacy and data is protected when using R;pple.
 
You can listen to previous episodes in our mental health mini-series:
 
Part 1: Mental health at work: turning despair into hope, with Jonny Benjamin MBE
Part 2: Implementing effective mental wellbeing measures, with Neil Laybourn
 
 
 
* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer
 
To access further support on mental health, you may wish to visit: the Samaritans, Mind, or Rethink. Or you can use the text service from Shout on 85258.
 
We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
 
All information is correct at the time of recording. 
The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark Mental health awareness week this month, we are devoting a four-part mini-series to mental health at work. In part 2, Ellie is joined by the other key person from the incredible "Stranger on the bridge" story, Neil Laybourn, who on that fateful day in January 2008, stopped to talk to Jonny Benjamin, who was about to take his own life on Waterloo Bridge.
 
Like Jonny (who Ellie spoke to in part 1 "Turning despair into hope"), Neil is a passionate mental health advocate and now runs his own consultancy, helping employers to implement end-to-end employee mental health programmes.
 
We discuss:
 
·       Neil's 30-minute conversation with a stranger on a bridge that sparked a remarkable friendship and a shared determination to champion better mental health support;
·       Challenges and barriers for businesses in supporting their people's mental health;
·       Hybrid working and mental health;
·       Removing negative working practices to help create a psychologically safe workplace culture, for example the Mindful Business Charter;
·       Factors to take into account when implementing mental wellbeing support measures;
·       The business case for better mental health support at work; and
·       How to engage under-represented communities in implementing your organisation's mental wellbeing programme.
 
* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer
 
To access further support on mental health, you may wish to visit: the Samaritans, Mind, or Rethink. Or you can use the text service from Shout on 85258.
 
We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
 
All information is correct at the time of recording. 
The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To mark Mental health awareness week this month, we are devoting a four-part mini-series to mental health at work. In part 1, Ellie Gelder is joined by Jonny Benjamin MBE, whose incredible story touched many people all around the world when his search to find the stranger, who talked him down from taking his life on Waterloo Bridge, went viral with the hashtag #findMike.
 
We discuss:
 
·       Jonny's experience of mental illness;
·       How a stranger on a bridge changed his life forever;
·       Jonny's work to champion mental health, especially among young people;
·       The importance of support for relatives;
·       The power of listening without judgment; and
·       How colleagues can effectively support someone at work who is struggling with their mental health.
 
* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer
 
To access further support on mental health, you may wish to visit: the Samaritans, Mind, or Rethink. Or you can use the text service from Shout on 85258.
 
We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
 
All information is correct at the time of recording. 
The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.
 
 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whistleblowing commonly features in today's top news stories, recent examples including the Post Office and Horizon dispute, and the harrowing Lucy Letby case. It's also a notoriously complex, and sometimes misunderstood, area of employment law, which can present challenges for line managers, HR teams and business leaders.
 
In part 3 of our mini-series on whistleblowing, Ellie Gelder is joined by Sybille Raphael, legal director at whistleblowing charity Protect, to run through the five key challenges in the world of whistleblowing for employers to tackle in 2024 and beyond. We discuss:
 
·     How whistleblowing legislation may change in the future to reflect the shift in the types of wrongdoing at work that workers are reporting today;
·     The increasingly pivotal role that whistleblowing plays in relation to a business's ESG obligations and associated risks, including greenwashing and social washing;
·     Whether AI will help or hinder whistleblowing, including potential risk areas and opportunities;
·     Why some people are more or less likely to speak up than others, including a possible connection between certain neurodivergent conditions and whistleblowing;
·     How whistleblowing can help employers to comply with their legal and regulatory duties to protect employees from bullying and harassment at work; and
·     The impact of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (the first UK anti-SLAPPS law), and the extent to which this applies to whistleblowing.
 
* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer
We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
 
All information is correct at the time of recording. 
The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Addiction comes in many forms; it is often hidden and, due to social stigma, is rarely discussed. In the work context, addiction and dependency can raise complex challenges for line managers and HR teams.
 
In this week's Work Couch podcast episode, Ellie Gelder is joined by Charlotte Reid, senior associate in RPC's Employment, Engagement and Equality team and Eleena Misra KC, of Old Square Chambers, to explore how employers can respond appropriately to a colleague who is affected by addiction, while at the same time also ensuring that the safety of others are protected, and business interests are preserved.
 
We discuss:
 
·     The importance of considering why a person may have an addiction or dependency;
·     Factors to take into account when responding to a situation where a person's addiction is impacting their work or others;
·     How addiction, in certain situations, could form the basis of a disability discrimination claim;
·     Making reasonable adjustments, where appropriate;
·     Employment tribunal cases involving alleged misconduct due to alcohol or drugs; and
·     Helping employees open up about their addiction or dependency in a "safe space".
 
* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer
 
To access further support on addiction, you may wish to visit: With You, (formerly known as Addaction), GamCare, or Talk to Frank.
 
We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
 
All information is correct at the time of recording. 
The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.
 

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Whistleblowing commonly features in today's top news stories, recent examples including the Post Office and Horizon dispute, and the harrowing Lucy Letby case. It's also a notoriously complex, and sometimes misunderstood, area of employment law, which can present challenges for line managers, HR teams and business leaders. 
In part 2 of our mini-series on whistleblowing, Ellie Gelder is joined by Sybille Raphael, legal director at whistleblowing charity Protect, to explain how employers can approach whistleblowing complaints proactively and effectively. We discuss:
 
·       The reasons why employees don't speak up about wrongdoing at work, and how to foster a "speak up" culture;
·       Protecting whistleblowers from victimisation;
·       The shifting perceptions of whistleblowers, and how the nature of complaints has changed over the last decade;
·       How the employer's approach to whistleblowing will differ to its approach for grievances;
·       Balancing the duty of confidentiality to both the whistleblower and to the subject(s) of the complaint; and
·       Using whistleblowing reporting as a positive tool to achieve wider commercial goals.
 
* Please note these podcasts will not run on Internet Explorer
We hope you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please subscribe to be notified when new episodes release. You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts and Spotify to stay up to date with the latest episodes.
 
All information is correct at the time of recording. 
The Work Couch is not a substitute for legal advice.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.