Reference no: EM133434578

Case Study: George is a 55 years of age male and has a primary degree in geology and an MBA. His main leisure activities are golf and fishing. He is married with three adult children and his wife, who is not employed, plays a leadership role in a number of voluntary organizations and charities. Over his career, he had been through a number of takeovers and mergers and had always managed to progress in his career. Two years ago, George was the HR Manager responsible for training and talent development in a successful national financial consultancy company which specialised in the mining sector. Having worked for them for seven years, he was in line to become a partner. At that point, an international financial conglomerate acquired the company for which he worked. The leadership in the new company had little interest in the mining sector but was attracted by the financial margins. George always believed that the success of the company was grounded in recruiting and retaining sector specific expertise and talent. The HR leaders in the take-over company were more interested in reducing personnel costs. Things did not go well for him at the new company which had a focus on financial returns and little interest in talent development. This created conflict. He had negotiated a contract with the new company that included a five-year tenure or a significant pay off. He gradually realized that he was not suited to the new culture but saw no alternative but to stick it out until the end of his contract. At a certain point, he began to suspect that the company was trying to coerce him into resigning. He began to record his meetings with senior management on his phone and to keep meticulous notes of other meetings. He developed a sleep disorder and became obsessive about daily tasks. According to his wife, he became completely engrossed with what was going on in the company and with trying to interpret things that were said to him. His wife convinced him to see a psychiatrist who prescribed Prozac. He took the medication for a number of months until he began to feel that it was impairing his capacity to keep abreast of what was happening. He gave up the medication to ensure that he made no mistakes in his work. He became more and more despondent and started catastrophizing. As part of his continuing professional development, he attended a seminar on the Canadian Standard for Psychological Health and Safety in the Workplace. During the seminar, he began to wonder whether his depression could be viewed as a psychological injury. As a result, he made a workers' compensation claim against the company for chronic mental stress on the grounds of harassment and bullying. The company denied this, but he had sufficient evidence recorded to support his claim. He has been offered a settlement but has rejected it. The WCB claims department has accepted his claim and has referred his case to the return to work team.

Questions: The individual responsible for disability management working in the return to work team met with George. This individual surmised that George appeared to be more obsessed with 'punishing' the company than trying to return to work.

• List three fundamental issues that the individual responsible for disability management needs to take into account
• Describe health and safety legislation or human rights laws that require consideration.
• Explain why these are important from a return to work or job retention perspective.
• What advice would you give to the individual providing DM services to the worker regarding this overall scenario?