Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
While the PTSD suffered by lead character PS Budd was a result of his military experience, HR practitioners will probably know that it can be triggered by common personal events such as the sudden death of a loved one or a traumatic birth experience.
The symptoms of PTSD can vary enormously and may lead to issues at work such as poor concentration or a perceived bad attitude. If an employer knows or suspects that someone is suffering from PTSD, they should assess whether the condition is a 'disability' for the purposes of employment law. If it is the individual will be protected by discrimination legislation and the employer must consider what reasonable adjustments can be made to help them.
Excessive working hours
Did anyone else notice how PS Budd seemingly worked ridiculously long hours? Working time legislation limits the number of hours that should be worked in a week to a maximum of 48, unless the individual opts out (which Budd had presumably done).
However, even if he had opted out of the weekly limit he should still be getting appropriate rest breaks or, where that is not possible given the nature of his job, compensatory rest. Employers should remember that excessive workloads are potentially in breach of their health and safety obligations too.
Relationships at work
Many employers will be all too familiar with the problems caused by romantic relationships at work, ranging from a dip in productivity to sexual harassment claims, especially if the relationship turns sour.
Even if PS Budd’s employment contract had expressly prohibited him from having a relationship with home secretary Julia Montague, the storyline shows how difficult it is to prevent work romances. An attempt at an outright ban is more likely to lead to relationships being conducted in secret and could also cause potential Human Rights Act challenges because of the right to a private and family life.
A more sensible approach would be to have a relationships at work policy in place, requiring employees to disclose these. There are many reasons an employer would need to know; for example they might need to put steps in place to safeguard confidential information and avoid conflicts of interest. Employers may want to make it clear that disciplinary action could follow if an employee fails to report their relationship.
RIPA in the workplace
HR professionals will probably know that the RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act) is a real thing and not just something that Julia Montague dreamt up. Essentially RIPA prevents an employer from having free reign to snoop on its employees’ use of their telecommunication systems.
So if an employer wants to monitor employee telephone calls made on the work phones, they either need the employee’s consent or the reason for the interception must fall within one of the purposes prescribed by law, such as detecting misuse by the employee. HR will want to ensure that a monitoring policy is in place and appropriate consent wording is included in the contracts of employment.
Steps to reduce unconscious bias
How many of the 10.4 million viewers watching Bodyguard would have guessed that the bomb-maker was... major spoiler alert… Nadia Ali, the Muslim woman PS Budd naively assumes is a weak downtrodden wife? Why did viewers and Budd jump to this conclusion? Well it could be down to unconscious bias.
Employees and job applicants are protected on a number of grounds (such as sex, race, religion, age) from being discriminated against, whether that discrimination occurs consciously or not.
While it is difficult to completely eradicate unconscious bias, HR can take steps to minimise its impact. For example, personal information (such as names) can be removed from application forms and steps can be taken to make sure that more than one person is involved in decision-making processes such as redundancy selection.
So while PS Budd exposes police corruption and thwarts terrorists and master criminals, HR personnel can take away some lessons on how to protect their workplace from HR disaster.
Katee Dias is a senior associate in the employment team at Goodman Derrick
