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TA-02: Mental Health & Wellbeing

Reference: TA-02 | Issue Date: 14/03/2026 | Review Date: Sep 2026 Applicable Standards: ISO 45001 Cl. 6.1.2, 8.1.2 | ISO 9001 Cl. 7.1.4 Related Documents: HPOL04, HPOL11, HREG03 (Refs 9, 14)

Who Should Read This

All CRGI Solutions staff. Mental health affects everyone. This article covers what CRGI does to support you, what to watch for, and where to get help.

Why This Matters

Mental health is just as important as physical safety. As a distributed team working remotely across the UK, the nature of our work brings specific challenges: isolation from colleagues, blurred boundaries between work and home, the pressure of technical deadlines, and the intensity of detailed engineering work. These are real hazards, identified in our Hazard Register (HREG03 Refs 9 and 14), and we manage them just as seriously as any physical risk.

Remote Working and Mental Health

Working from home has clear benefits — flexibility, no commute, control over your environment. But it also removes things that support mental health in a traditional workplace: casual conversations with colleagues, the structure of a shared routine, the natural separation between work and home.

Common Challenges

  • Isolation — Working alone for extended periods without face-to-face contact
  • Blurred boundaries — Difficulty switching off when your office is in your home
  • Reduced informal support — No coffee-break chats or corridor check-ins
  • Communication gaps — Tone and intent can be lost in written messages
  • Lack of routine — Without external structure, days can feel shapeless
  • Technology frustration — Connection issues and platform fatigue during intensive remote collaboration

Project Pressures

Engineering consultancy work adds its own demands: tight turnaround on design deliverables, the need for high accuracy where errors have real consequences, managing multiple clients with competing priorities, and the continuous learning required to stay current across sectors and standards.

Recognising Warning Signs

Everyone moves along the mental health continuum. There's no weakness in having a difficult period — the important thing is recognising it and responding.

In Yourself

Watch for changes from your normal patterns:

  • Emotional — Feeling overwhelmed, anxious about deadlines, low motivation, irritability, or disconnected from the team
  • Physical — Persistent headaches, disrupted sleep, fatigue despite rest, muscle tension, changes in appetite
  • Behavioural — Working excessive hours to "catch up", avoiding calls or meetings, procrastinating on tasks you'd normally handle, withdrawing from team interactions
  • Cognitive — Difficulty concentrating on technical work, forgetfulness, indecisiveness, negative thought patterns

In Colleagues

In a remote team, changes can be harder to spot. Look for shifts in patterns: missed deadlines from someone normally reliable, camera always off when it wasn't before, shorter or less engaged responses, working unusually early or late, or reduced participation in team discussions.

If you notice changes in a colleague, a simple check-in can make a real difference. You don't need to be a counsellor — just ask how they're doing and listen.

What CRGI Provides

Regular Check-Ins

One-to-one meetings with your line manager include a wellbeing component. These aren't a tick-box exercise — they're an opportunity to raise anything affecting you, whether work-related or personal, in confidence.

Flexible Working

We operate a flexible working model. If you need to adjust your hours to manage personal commitments, caring responsibilities, or simply because you work better at different times, speak to your line manager. Where project deadlines allow, we accommodate.

Team Connection

Regular team meetings, project catch-ups, and social interactions are part of how we work — not an add-on. These exist specifically to counter the isolation of remote working.

Fatigue Management

Our Fatigue Management Policy (HPOL11) exists because sustained overwork doesn't produce good engineering. If your workload is consistently unmanageable, that's a resourcing issue for management to solve, not something you should absorb.

Stress at Work

Stress becomes a problem when the demands placed on you exceed your capacity to cope over a sustained period. The HSE Management Standards identify six factors:

  • Demands — Workload, work patterns, and the work environment
  • Control — How much say you have in how you do your work
  • Support — The encouragement and resources provided by the organisation and colleagues
  • Relationships — Promoting positive working and avoiding conflict and bullying
  • Role — Whether people understand their role and whether the organisation ensures roles don't conflict
  • Change — How organisational change is managed and communicated

If any of these feel consistently wrong, raise it. These are organisational issues with organisational solutions.

Getting Support

Inside CRGI

  • Your line manager — First point of contact for work-related concerns
  • Sean Ashton (Operations Manager) — For anything you'd rather raise outside your direct reporting line
  • Dragos Ciordas (CEO) — Open door policy for any staff member

External Support

  • NHS 111 — For non-emergency health advice, including mental health
  • Samaritans — 116 123 (free, 24/7) — For anyone struggling to cope
  • Mind — 0300 123 3393 — Information and support for mental health
  • CALM — 0800 58 58 58 — Campaign Against Living Miserably (men's mental health)
  • Your GP — For ongoing concerns, your GP can refer you to talking therapies, counselling, or specialist support

Confidentiality

Anything you raise about your mental health with management will be treated confidentially. We will never share personal health information without your consent, and raising a mental health concern will never be held against you.

Your Part in This

  • Be honest with yourself about how you're doing
  • Use the support available — it exists because it's needed
  • Take your breaks, protect your boundaries, and switch off at the end of the day
  • Check in on your colleagues — a quick message can mean more than you think
  • Speak up if your workload is unsustainable — early, before it becomes a crisis

CRGI Solutions HSQE Department | HSQEMS v2.0 | Classification: CRGI Information