Psychological Strain: What Managers Can Cover in Workplace Instruction

Explain working conditions, not employees’ mental health

A team manager notices unanswered questions, missed breaks and decisions made under constant time pressure. Workplace instruction can explain which priorities apply, when employees should ask for help and who can change the organisation of work. It cannot diagnose an illness or use a short resilience test to determine somebody’s suitability for a role. This guide addresses organisations operating in Germany and offers managers a practical discussion and escalation process. Suggested timings and conversation prompts are local design recommendations, not statutory forms or universal legal deadlines.

The DGUV explains psychological workload as a neutral term for influences arising from work; strain refers to their individual effects. Instruction therefore starts with tasks, processes, working time and cooperation, rather than supposedly weak individuals. A demanding task is not automatically a health hazard. The relevant questions concern the actual conditions and necessary protective measures. Explaining this distinction first makes it easier to report interruptions, conflicting assignments or missing support without evaluating individual employees in front of their colleagues.

Keep the legal duties separate

Under section 5 of the German Occupational Safety and Health Act, psychological workload at work belongs within the risk assessment. The employer must derive the necessary measures from that assessment. Section 4 requires, among other things, tackling hazards at their source and considering work organisation and social relationships. A resilience course therefore cannot resolve permanently conflicting task assignments. Instruction explains established protective rules and can reveal gaps; it does not replace the systematic assessment of working conditions. Responsibility for that assessment should be clear before the team session.

Instruction under section 12 must take place during working time, be sufficient and appropriate, and relate to the workplace or task area. The Act identifies triggers including recruitment and changed responsibilities and requires adaptation as hazards develop. This does not establish a separate statutory annual course called mental health. Other applicable rules and workplace risks need their own review. Our guide to online occupational safety instruction covers format and documentation; this article focuses specifically on the manager’s practical contribution.

Preparation: choose a specific work situation

For an initial session, choose a recurring situation such as handling calls, a customer inbox and urgent approvals simultaneously. Gather factual process information beforehand: which assignments compete, who can prioritise them and when is cover unavailable? Do not use employees’ medical histories as teaching material. Ask the responsible occupational safety function to check which measures already follow from the risk assessment. If an identified conflict has no agreed rule, mark it as an open organisational decision rather than presenting an improvised solution as binding.

Prepare a short process card covering the trigger, first safe action, authorised decision-maker, deputy and feedback route. In our example, the first action is not to work faster but to make the priority conflict and affected deadlines visible. Management then decides which task should be postponed or reassigned. A deputy matrix for key personnel prevents this route from disappearing during annual leave. Test the card with someone from the actual work area: a contact who is theoretically available is of little help if they cannot be reached during the relevant shift.

A short session with an observable learning objective

You could schedule a thirty-minute local pilot, without treating that duration as a prescribed minimum. Start with the selected situation and explain two specific rules, such as prioritisation by the team manager and the reporting route when support is missing. Small groups then work through a fictional case. The learning objective is that everyone can name the next safe action and the responsible contact. Questions about personal mental health do not belong in this knowledge check. Also provide an opportunity to ask clarification questions outside the group.

Next, ask participants to explain the process in their own words. If the answer is simply that everyone should take better care of themselves, the organisational layer is probably missing. Ask who can actually change a deadline and what happens if that person is unavailable. The overview of mandatory employee training helps place the session within the wider programme. Passing an online test provides evidence of learning, not proof that workloads are appropriate or that every necessary protective measure has been effectively implemented.

Case one: three urgent assignments, one employee

In a fictional service team, an employee receives three assignments with the same deadline. She must also check an error-prone statement while remaining available for calls. During the exercise, she reports the conflict by identifying the tasks, deadlines and foreseeable consequences. The manager establishes a binding order, arranges temporary telephone cover and agrees a revised deadline with the requester. The team then considers whether this is an exception or a recurring pattern. Repeated conflicts should trigger a review of work organisation rather than merely another training session.

Agree a manageable review point for this pilot, for example after two working weeks: were priority conflicts actually resolved, and was the deputy available? That timing is a local recommendation. Collect process examples rather than names of supposedly less resilient employees. The work environment and availability expectations can also interact. For distributed teams, home-office ergonomics instruction can help clarify responsibility for workstation questions. A different chair alone, however, will not remove contradictory targets or constant interruptions across several communication channels.

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Case two: a confidential report of overload

After the session, someone requests a private conversation and says they can no longer manage their current work. The manager listens and asks about work-related situations and any immediate adjustment needed. One possible prompt is: which tasks or processes are making work difficult right now, and what can we change about them? The manager does not demand a diagnosis, ask about medication or promise treatment. Support options are explained without pressuring the person to disclose personal information in front of colleagues.

Separate two next steps: deciding on working conditions and voluntarily seeking appropriate professional support. Depending on the organisation, contacts may include the occupational health service, a confidential counselling service or external medical care. Verify the actual contact details, access arrangements and confidentiality rules in advance. If an immediate danger to the person or others becomes apparent, follow the workplace emergency route and obtain professional help rather than scheduling an ordinary feedback meeting. Managers should not attempt a clinical assessment of whether somebody has a mental health condition.

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Reporting routes must allow employees to bypass their manager

Not every concern can be discussed with the direct manager. If the concern involves that manager’s behaviour, employees need an accessible alternative, such as the next management level, the responsible HR contact or an existing employee representative body. Specify who acknowledges receipt, who can decide on measures and how the affected person receives feedback. Do not promise absolute secrecy if information must be shared to implement protective action. Instead, explain transparently which information needs to reach which responsible function and for what purpose.

Record attendance, the rules covered, the version used and unresolved technical questions in the training record. Personal health information does not belong in a generally accessible attendance list. Individual concerns require separate, access-restricted procedures under applicable data protection rules. GDPR training for employees can explain that distinction. A shared action log often needs only the organisational issue, such as unclear prioritisation on the late shift. Deliberately decide which personal details are actually necessary, who may access them and when they should be deleted.

Do not confuse records with effectiveness

Under section 6, the required records must show the risk assessment results, the measures established and the outcome of their review. An attendance certificate cannot answer those questions by itself. Link instruction to the relevant version of the measures without copying confidential case information into the learning environment. Audit-ready training records show who received which content. Separate action tracking shows whether a deputy was appointed, a disruptive parallel assignment removed or an unclear decision-making authority actually resolved.

Check effectiveness through a few work-related questions: can employees explain the reporting route, are conflicts resolved, and do the rules fit the actual shift? A high completion rate is only a starting point. If reports stop, that may reflect a lack of trust rather than the absence of problems. Review feedback and work processes together with the responsible specialists. When rules fail, first change the measure or its implementation, then update the instruction. Do not simply repeat the same test while leaving the underlying problem unchanged.

A useful entry in the action log might read: approvals and customer calls arrive simultaneously on the late shift; the team manager arranges telephone cover for the agreed checking window; the responsible shift lead checks at the next review whether statements could be processed without interruptions. This describes a testable work problem. Writing that an employee lacks resilience would instead be an unsupported personal judgement and would say nothing about which working condition should change.

Do not forget managers themselves: they also need a clear route when promised capacity is unavailable or decisions exceed their authority. The pilot should therefore specify which issues the team manager may resolve independently and which go to the department head. An unresolved decision must not silently become the personal responsibility of the employee who reported it. Feedback should identify the current position, the accountable role and the next agreed contact.

Use digital learning as one component

According to its current description, the ConformBase course on mental health and stress prevention covers warning signs, work organisation, respectful conversations and support options. It can prepare a shared foundation. Add your own prioritisation rules, accessible contacts and concrete cases from the relevant tasks. A course certificate is not a medical qualification or a substitute for the risk assessment. Choose the learning format according to language, accessibility and working circumstances, and ensure that questions about workplace-specific rules can actually be answered.

The first actionable step is therefore small and testable: choose a recurring priority conflict, confirm the responsible decision-maker and practise the process using a fictional case. Record one unresolved organisational question with its owner and an agreed review date. Then check whether the change works in everyday practice. This keeps the manager within their role: shaping work, explaining protective rules, listening to concerns and connecting people with appropriate support. Instruction becomes neither a diagnostic consultation nor a substitute for necessary organisational decisions.