Mental Health and Underperformance: What Managers Should Do First

When I run training with managers, there’s one question that comes up in almost every room. Someone’s work has slipped. They might be struggling. So what do I do?

On the surface that’s a question about managing performance. Underneath it there’s usually a whole set of other worries:

Those are fair questions, and most managers asking them genuinely want to get it right. The trouble is that the worry often pushes them into one of two mistakes.

The short answer

Notice the change before you judge it. Check in with the person first, then deal with the performance. And know your procedures before you need them, so you’re not working out the next step in the middle of a difficult conversation.

Underperformance is something you manage. Change is something you get curious about first.

What you see, and the story you put on it

Managers see the output. Missed deadlines. Someone quiet in meetings. Inconsistent work, lateness, small mistakes, avoiding certain tasks, a bit of irritability.

Then the story arrives. They’ve lost interest. It’s an attitude problem. They’re just not bothered any more.

Those are interpretations. The only fact is that something has changed.

And the reason might not be mental health at all. They might hate the job. Something might be going on at home. The workload might have doubled. There might be a problem with their manager, bullying in the team, or nobody has been clear about what’s expected. Sometimes people are disengaged. And sometimes it really is underperformance.

Behaviour tells you something is happening. It doesn’t necessarily tell you why.

It’s also worth asking a bigger question: what’s happening around this employee? If three people in the same team are struggling, it’s probably not three separate individual problems. Look at workload, leadership, change, staffing and whether people feel safe to speak up.

Two mistakes, at opposite ends

• Seeing the performance before the person. The manager goes straight to the missed targets and the formal process, and never asks what’s going on. If something is going on, they’ve just made it much harder for the person to say so.
• Being so worried you stop managing. This one is just as common. Allowance after allowance, other people quietly absorbing the work, nothing ever said. It builds resentment in the team and doesn’t actually help the person either.

What I tell managers is this:

Person before assumption. Then person and performance.

It isn’t one or the other. You can care about someone and still talk to them about their work. Something like:

I’ve noticed you’ve been struggling with a few deadlines recently. That’s not normally like you, so before we talk about the work itself, I wanted to check how things are with you.

If they tell you they’re fine and there’s nothing else going on, then you manage the performance. You’ve lost nothing by asking first. And if you get “I’m fine” but you’re not convinced, there’s a separate piece on what to do when someone says they’re fine.

What to do first: know what normal looks like

Managers often ask me for a list of warning signs. Lists can mislead you. Quiet Dave has always been quiet. Sarah has worked late for ten years. Bob isn’t a conversationalist before his first coffee. None of that tells you anything on its own.

What matters is change from that person’s own pattern. Emails getting shorter. Small mistakes from someone who never makes them. Arriving later, or staying much later. Pulling back from the team. Getting irritated over things that wouldn’t normally bother them.

Watch out for the performance mask, too. For some people, work is one of the last things to go. They hold it together at their desk while everything else is falling apart, so good output doesn’t always mean someone is okay.

The opening doesn’t need to be clever:

I’ve noticed a few things have changed recently. I might be completely wrong, but I wanted to check in. How are things?

Or simply: “You don’t quite seem yourself lately. Is everything okay?” If you’d like more on the wording, our guide on how to start a conversation about mental health goes further.

This is why I don’t think we should be training managers to spot mental illness. We should be training them to notice when something feels different.

When it tips into HR, occupational health or crisis

Start with the person. Then work out what the situation needs. That could be:

• Another check in. Sometimes the conversation is enough for now, and you agree to talk again.
• Temporary flexibility. A change to hours, deadlines or tasks while things settle, within what you’re allowed to agree.
• HR. Absence, formal processes, longer term changes or reasonable adjustments.
• Occupational health. When you need professional advice on what would help and what someone can manage.
• Crisis. If someone’s immediate safety is at risk, use your escalation procedure straight away. That isn’t a conversation for next week.

How you say it matters. “Right, I’m going to have to report this to HR” sounds as if the person has done something wrong. Try something closer to this:

Thanks for telling me. There are a couple of things you’ve mentioned that I don’t have the authority to sort out myself. I’d like us to involve HR so we can look properly at what support might be available. Let’s talk about what happens next and what information needs to be shared.

Escalating isn’t handing the person over. Stay involved. You’re still their manager, and the relationship you have with them is part of what helps.

Know your procedures before you need them. The middle of a difficult conversation is the worst time to go hunting for the absence policy or find out who your occupational health provider is.

A word on the Equality Act. Managers don’t need to decide whether someone’s condition counts as a disability before offering support or raising the possibility of adjustments. That isn’t your call to make alone, and HR and occupational health are there to help you think it through. There’s more in our guide to mental health and the Equality Act. And if someone has been off, returning to work after mental health absence picks up from there.

What this means for training

Managers don’t need to become therapists, doctors or employment lawyers. They need to notice, have the conversation, know their boundaries and know what happens next.

That’s the heart of our Level 2 Managing Mental Health Awareness in the Workplace course, which is credit rated and recognised by Qualifications Scotland, with levels that are equivalent to the RQF in England. It’s for anyone whose role means people will come to them, whatever their job title. If you’re not sure which level fits, our guide to Level 1, 2 or 3 explains the difference.

Common questions