Supervisor at work handed out this paper to each team member, asking us to pay attention to „Persönlichkeitsstörungen“ in the team.

Is this normal?

by airbusflier

15 comments

  2. Define “normal”.

    Your employer has a so called “Fürsorgepflicht” which basically requires them to provide a safe workplace.
    This form is intended to check for signs of psychological exhaustion in the workpalce (burn out) in the workplace.

  3. What the actual… fuck.

    I googled, and that list comes from a brochure by the Barmer insurance https://www.barmer.de/resource/blob/1023122/6e10a32995d30f3db8589f9f10e9c209/barmer-psychische-erkrankung-am-arbeitsplatz-60122-data.pdf – it’s a guideline for management personal on how to recognise that people have mental health issues, and how to help them.

    Now, I haven’t read the brochure. But something tells me that “give a list to all the employees and make them report on what they claim their colleagues’ mental state is” is *not* how this is intended to be used.

    Do you have a Betriebsrat?

  4. Your employer has a legal obligation to ensure your well-being (known as *Fürsorgepflicht* in German). Most of these questions appear to be aimed at monitoring symptoms commonly associated with certain psychiatric conditions. I’d assume you’re part of a fairly large company with its own “Arbeitsmedizin” (idk how to translate that, doctors that work for your employer to boost employee health and well-being), and this likely falls under their responsibility to carry out routine health monitoring as part of their role.

  5. At first i thought it’s not appropriate to hand this out and tell you to be mindful of your colleagues.
    However, how is that different from the countless seminars that companies do on the topic for their staff?
    Maybe the boss means well but it came across wrong.

    Psychological disorders cause 20% of sick leaves. It’s a huge problem and it might be helpful if the workplace notices problems early to try to help before it gets too severe.

  6. This sheet looks like it is intended for managers to check if their team members show signs of burnout. Handing it out to everyone seems a bit odd to me.

  7. If you’re in an Arbeitnehmerverein, you should consider consulting with them about this and mention your manager’s logic. Just breezing over this, it reminds me a lot of the mental health assessments we had to do every year in the Army… with the key word being that you fill them out **for yourself**, not report others. The only time I could see this happening is if you work with confidential information (as in the national security sort) or dangerous chemicals/explosives.

  9. If all your colleagues are Sozialpädagogen and Psychologen …

  11. If my coworker has mental health issues, I’m not snitching that to the boss, wtf. The company isn’t even allowed to ask me if I have any mental health issues.

  12. Make copies and fill them out for everyone you know at work. Put them on the wall in the break room. This issue will be dropped immediately.

  13. Without a way to revoke or give cknsent and an extra passage stating what where and how your data is used on this sheet, jt shouldnt comfort with the DSGVO

  14. Pit your boss’s name in and check all ‘bad ‘ results. Then scan and send to all colleagues

  15. This may look odd but I think the intention is burnout or even suicide prevention.

    My former employer handed out guidelines to all of us after a young girl committed suicide and no one had noticed. After receiving some awareness training, we realised there WERE signs.

    I think your employer could have explained  what this was for, and that it’s not meant to snitch people to get rid of them (employment rights are strong here!) but to help.

Comments are closed.