Hi Sharon

Every incident like this tends to differ of course and I don;t think in these circumstances that it's necessary to refer to OH at least at this stage - unless of course your OH is expert or has access to specialised help regarding depressive etc illnesses.

The main purpose of OH referrals is of course to get a professional medical opinion / prognosis about when an employee is likely to be fit to return to work and about anything that might facilitate this happening as early as possible. The purpose therefore differs rather from the employee's relationship with their GP and any other consultant etc physicians and medical professionals, which is entirely focused on the wellbeing of the patient and not necessarily on helping the employer in any way other than to achieve the primary aim.

So, I'd think you are dead right just to keep in closest possible touch with the employee in a welfare mode and if needs be to signpost to possible other sources of help to get them well again and to discuss how you as employers can contribute to achieving this. At the same time to try as well to ascertain what the personal problems are and how much these have contributed towards the depression.

If someone doesn't get selected for a job, it can send their self esteem plummeting and plunge them into a swamp of negative emotions that can lead to depression, especially if they're already fragile in that regard for whatever reason. It puzzled me as to why a bad application for an internal job should matter much, or even a bad interview, given that your colleagues ought to know all about the employee's normal capabilities. Maybe too the employee when they applied and underwent interview was already in the early stages of their illness and therefore was acting out of character etc?

Just a few musings if any possible help.

In reply to David:

PS

Sorry, I should have added that signposting to self help organisations such as MIND often can help and that you might need to be wary of the illness turning into a serious / protracted one. Usually, the longer these things go on for, the less likelihood there is of a full or even any recovery being possible, but of course such disorders affect most people at least once in their lives and most people quickly get over them with normal GP etc help

In reply to David:

Thank you David. The role he is applying for was not related to his current role and probably too big a step but is something he really wants to do. We do generally interview all internal applicants as a matter of course and I guess he felt that he was in with a chance. I was hoping that the feedback would be constructive/supportive but as he is saying that this is a reason for his depression, probably wasn't.

I will speak to the manager to request that they provide him with further support so that he knows exactly what he needs to do (and with our support) to further his career development.

In reply to Sharon :

Sounds as if some feedback of a positive / constructive but still honest and realistic kind is called-for, Sharon!