2020 has been a difficult year. Levels of anxiety are higher than ever, and everywhere you look, tensions are growing between people.

Unfortunately, at the Smart Clinic we’ve noticed an increase in the level of aggressive, rude or inappropriate behaviour towards our staff or staff at our partner organisations. Whilst we make every effort to be understanding of people’s situations and emotions, we must also protect the wellbeing of our own employees.

Occupational health is a difficult sector, and for a member of staff who has been referred to us, we understand it can be nerve-wracking.

We have a team of highly skilled, professional and wonderful individuals, who are trained to deal with difficult situations and support clients through challenging times. They’re at the heart of everything we do, however their job role shouldn’t include dealing with personal abuse or insults.

As an organisation, we’re very open with our clients, and we’re widely available to be contacted by telephone, email, via our smart phone app or via our client portal. We respond quickly, and will always be as helpful and informative as possible so as to alleviate any concerns. We would encourage our clients to take advantage of this by asking us any questions, or voicing any concerns in an appropriate manner, and our team would be delighted to assist.

Where staff feel that a conversation has become inappropriate, they have been trained to politely terminate the conversation to protect their own wellbeing. In these rare and difficult circumstances, clients will be asked to take time to consider what they would like to ask, or say to us, then submit these in writing to us. Where this is the case, please do not take offence, but please do consider the wellbeing of the individual you’re speaking with.

Where individuals are still unable to engage with us amicably, we reserve the right to cease any activity with the individual, and inform their line manager of our rationale for this.

We would like to further emphasise that we fully appreciate the difficulties, and challenges that many people are facing. We’re here to discuss these with you, and support you wherever possible. We believe that politeness and empathy with our clients shows them the respect they deserve, and we’ll always continue to demonstrate this.

We hope you understand the need to protect our staff wherever possible.

Take care

Harry