After working in a variety of pharmacies, Mark, a 35-year-old pharmacist, joined a group as a pharmacy manager two years ago. 

He manages a team of six employees, two of whom work alongside him in the dispensary. Mark is the only pharmacist in the practice. Recently Mark has started to experience problems sleeping. He dreads Sunday evenings as work is looming. He feels he cannot disengage from work as out-of-work emails are sent by his line manager. He loves sports but now spends less and less time at the gym, and while he enjoys working with his colleagues, he still feels a sense of being ‘overwhelmed’, especially by unrelenting and burdensome targets.  

He understands that he works within a business environment, but his professional work is constantly interrupted by non-patient related activities. He has a lot of respect for his line manager but simply dreads his visits. They take too long and everything is target driven. He feels that his line manager does not allow him to make decisions or contribute to any changes. Recently he has been experiencing ongoing digestive problems. 

Mark realises that something must give as he feels distant and disengaged from his work. He has put off addressing the issue with his employer. He doesn’t want to leave his role as he knows he could contribute to the practice’s development. He requests a meeting with his manager. 

Mark decides to take personal responsibility and asks his line manager to listen while he expresses his concerns. He outlines that his workload does not match his job role, service targets are excessive and he does not get time to deliver the services. He adds that he feels left out of decision making even though he is the pharmacy manager, and his work and home life are blurred with excessive emails. 

The line manager listens carefully and admits that he didn’t know Mark was feeling this way. He is not sure how he can fix all concerns, but says he will start looking at ways to reduce Mark’s work burden. He agrees that out of hours emails are not necessary unless there is an emergency. He also agrees to set aside time each month to review workload and how other employees can be up-skilled to take on more of the administrative burden. 

The line manager knows this will not address everything, and admits he has never received training on how to deal with work overload and stress in the workplace. He admits this would be a good place to start and agrees to raise it with the employer. Mark knows that everything cannot be fixed in one go, but feels more relaxed that at least the journey has started.