Working here has been the most stressful and challenging period of my life. Excessive workload pressures, poor management support, and a workplace culture has had a significant negative impact.
The caseload expectation is unclear and unmanageable. While there is clear criteria for who the service will and won’t take, I have found upper management will consistently take on referrals that go against their own exclusion criteria. If you then raise concerns about whether this client is in the right place, management can put this back on you by questioning your ability to work with the clients and your commitment to mental health. I have found that they operate by guilt-tripping and making you question whether you’re good enough for the role, while you are primarily concerned about client safety.
I have noticed that management will often hire colleagues they know from previous jobs into open management positions, creating a culture where you cannot discuss concerns.
There is a culture of primarily operational management, with limited experience of mental health work. In my experience, they were unclear of the work practitioners do or their needs. An example of this is that staff calendars are closely monitored, and even protected time for writing notes or completing admin is questioned. There is little recognition that documentation, safeguarding tasks, and emotional decompression are essential parts of the role. Instead, there is constant pressure to appear fully occupied with back-to-back appointments, which contributes significantly to stress and burnout.
This high and complex caseload, combined with a pressure to be fully booked, means that it is essentially impossible to fit the workload into the 37.5 hours. I have rarely seen anyone take a lunch break, with most staff eating at their laptops. In terms of overtime, most staff will work after their shift. The company will not compensate this time but expect the work to be done.
As you can imagine, staff wellbeing is extremely poor. Staff members breaking down in tears in the office has been normalised, occurring around once a week. The turnover within the service is extremely high. Within the MHSW team, there has been an entire team of 7 turnover in 10 months, with new hires constantly coming in and subsequently leaving within 6 months to a year. As far as I’m aware, there has been no investigation into this by management.
There are also often frequent, major changes to the role, with no notice or training. Staff are expected to adapt immediately, even when the changes are significant and impact day-to-day practice.
I found that the MHSW team operates on a sink-or-swim style of training. Training is extremely limited for the complexity of the role. New staff will shadow 1-3 wellbeing sessions by other practitioners, and then be expected to independently manage their own caseload just 2 weeks into the role.
I have seen great, successful and compassionate practitioners crumble under the immense pressure of this company. I can’t emphasise enough for people to not work here.
