Extract written by Fiona Jebb, Business writer and taken from edition of Pendulum – the Journal of MDF The bipolar organisation
Whether to disclose your mental health history at a job interview is one of the biggest dilemmas facing people with bipolar. Here Fiona Jebb explores the trade-offs.
She was the ideal candidate for the job. The recruitment agency said so. Her CV tallied with the employers requirements, and then Nicola Oliver, somewhat reluctantly, broached the subject of her bipolar.
Oliver takes up the story ‘After I’d recovered from my breakdown in late 2007, at the age of 35, I started searching for a new job. During my job search I got to know a lovely recruitment agent called Louise who found me the ideal job. It fitted my skills and experience and was in the perfect location, near the sea. She told me I would be an ideal candidate. I spent hours tailoring my CV to the job specification (for a business analyst’s post) and sent it to her to forward to the employer.
‘After Louise received it, she rang me for a long chat about what I had written. She was very positive and enthusiastic. However at the end of the conversation she asked me what I had been doing since my last job. After a pregnant pause, I told her about my period of illness and being diagnosed as bipolar. I assured her that I was well again and looking forward to getting back to work. She suddenly went very quiet and then closed our conversation with ‘if you haven’t heard from me within a week, then give me a call.’
I rang Louise seven days later. She told me that the employer hadn’t wanted to see me for interview. I was a bit shocked as Louise had told me I would be an ideal candidate, but I wanted to learn from the experience so I asked for some feedback about why the company wasn’t interested in me. Louise told me that they hadn’t given a reason.
‘I mulled over my rejection for several days, confused as to why they weren’t interested. Eventually, I decided to ring up the employer to get some feedback from him as to why I wasn’t suitable for the post. I spoke to a lovely guy, Daniel, who told me to send my CV over. Later that day he called me back to tell me that they had never received my CV from the recruitment agent’. By this time the job had gone.
Deciding whether or not to disclose one’s bipolar status is a dilemma for every job applicant with bipolar. Disclosure invites discrimination (some research shows that 20 per cent of employers fight shy of hiring those with mental health issues, a somewhat conservative estimate), while failing to disclose both eliminates the possibility of protection under the Disability Discrimination Act and risks termination of employment if the truth comes out.
‘It is a huge hurdle to sell bipolar’ says Fiona Cooper, employment services manager at MDF, the BiPolar Organisation, ‘but there are a lot of (bipolar) people in employment.
The use of health questionnaires often brings the issue to a head since they are now employed by 70% of hiring companies, according to Ben Willmott, senior policy advisor with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. However the CIPD does not know whether the questionnaires are being conducted as part of the interview process or once an offer has been made. The best one can hope for it seems, is that this questionnaire is introduced only when a job offer is actually on the table in which case the candidate has some redress if the offer is withdrawn.
Cooper is clear where she stands on this issue, ‘you’ve got to remain within the law’ she says, ‘if you’re asked if you’ve got a disability leave the box blank. If you say ‘no’, your employers can dismiss you. If you say ‘yes’ you probably won’t get an interview.’
Professor Patricia Leighton, employment law expert, advises a more open approach, whether the issue is raised through a questionnaire or as part of the general interview process. She says that candidates must even be prepared to have their potential employer discuss their case with their GP so that reasonable adjustments can be made to the employee’s needs and so that the employee can benefit from the full protection of the law.
Paul Farmer, chief executive of the mental health charity MIND, is more ambivalent. ‘Currently many employers use pre-employment questionnaires to ask job applicants about their health, including mental health.
‘As fewer than four in ten employers say that they would take on someone with a history of mental health problems, this places individuals in a difficult situation as to whether or not to disclose their mental health experiences – do they disclose and face discrimination or choose not to and run the risk of being ‘found out’ later and potentially sacked’.
MDF the BiPolar Organisation, MIND and other mental health charities are calling on the Government to use the Equality Bill as an opportunity to restrict the use of pre-employment questionnaires and instead use a post-appointment survey after the job offer has been made. ‘This is already used effectively in the USA and a number of European countries, to identify any need for additional support’ says Farmer.
Robert Westhead, chair of MDF the BiPolar Organisation expands on the theme. ‘The Equality Bill is a great opportunity to enshrine in law recognition that people with mental health problems, including those with bipolar, have the same rights and entitlements as anyone else.
‘Employment is one key battlefield where this law needs to be put to the test. Our members know only too well how discrimination towards people with mental health problems is rife in the workplace. Six in ten employers freely admit that they would not employ someone with a mental health problem (Government Social Exclusion Unit 2004) This is wrong and it must change.
‘A key change that would help would be to make health questionnaires illegal when applying for jobs. So it would be that only after being offered a job that a member with bipolar would need to declare their condition or disability, making it much more difficult for employers to secretly weed out candidates on grounds of their psychiatric history. Instead the obligation would be on employers to see what help they could offer – reasonable adjustments – to someone with bipolar, for instance, to enable them to do their job better.’
I'm a married mum of one, living in Wirral. Interested in cooking, growing stuff to eat and fitness. Have Bipolar Disorder but it doesn't stop me leading a full and productive life. 
