The pressure and stress of my time at IRIS left me physically and mentally unwell.
The company says all the right things...they tell you not to work late. They tell you not to worry. They tell you mental health support is there. But what they don't do is anything that addresses the root of the problem. It is assumed that if you work at IRIS you will be overworked and stressed. Never more so than over the past year, where furloughs and redundancies have simply left the remaining staff with even more work to do.
Presenteeism is a massive issue at IRIS. People are scared to take time off due to the fear of what work will have built up when they return. I knew several people who were working through work-related mental health crises because they knew time off would result in more stress when they return. We were regularly reminded to use our annual leave, only to know we would probably end up having to check emails and work on those days anyway.
Everyone is under so much strain that we all know that it's inevitably only a matter of time until we make a mistake. And we just have to pray it won't be too consequential. Living in fear of slipping up takes its toll mentally, especially at a company so willing to get rid of people at the drop of a hat.
IRIS employees are worked into the ground. There is no value placed on wellbeing (a weekly support group is run, but ironically many people who would like to attend cannot because they don't have time. Additionally, a company should probably start questioning things if they have to have a support group at all) and people are tired. There has been no grace given during the pandemic, and despite the extra stress we were expected to maintain even higher levels of output and productivity, even when we were seriously struggling with external factors.
I believe middle management is just as stressed and under pressure as the rest of us. And everyone is scared of being the next redundancy.
I thought things would improve for me once I left IRIS, but the years of stress have taken a longer term toll. Months after leaving I am still kept up at night tossing and turning about workload and what I might have missed and what the consequences may be.
I would not recommend working at IRIS to anyone.
