Getting help when you work on site

If you work on a building site, in the trades, or for yourself in construction, you have probably noticed that nothing about getting help fits the way you work. Appointments are weekday daytime. Phone lines want a private room and an unhurried half hour. Advice assumes you can stop when you need to.

That is a design problem, not a character flaw. This page is about the practical barriers, and the routes that work around them.

Nothing here is built for your working day

You are on site first thing in the morning. By the time the day is done, the offices are shut. Mid-shift, you are surrounded by people, noise and machinery, and there is nowhere to take a call without half the crew hearing it.

So the usual advice, "just ring someone", asks you to do the one thing the job makes hardest. If you have put off getting help because you could not find a moment that worked, that is not you avoiding it. The system gave you no moment to find.

A day not worked is a day not paid

"Take some time off" is not neutral advice when you are self-employed, on agency work, or on a day rate. Time off costs you money, and sometimes it costs you the next job, because someone else gets the slot and does not hand it back.

We are not going to pretend otherwise. What we can say is that getting help does not always mean stopping work. Plenty of support happens in the evening, at the weekend, or in short bursts. Start with the thing that costs you no wages, and keep time off for the point where it is genuinely the right call. If you are employed and wondering what to tell the office or the site manager, this page covers it.

The banter, and the person who would actually listen

Site humour is part of what makes the work bearable, and nobody is asking you to give it up. But if the rule is that you are always alright, the day you are not has no way in.

Here is the thing that gets missed: the person who would actually listen is often already on the crew. Someone who has been through a bad stretch themselves will usually recognise it quickly, and a quiet word at the van or over a brew costs nothing. You do not need a speech. "I've not been right for a while" is enough to start.

Moving between sites and towns

If you move around for work, nothing follows you. You may be registered with a GP in a town you left long ago. There may be no one who knows your history, and every new site means starting again with people who do not know you.

You can usually register somewhere near where you are living and working now, even if you expect to move on again. And crisis lines and text services do not care where your GP is. Our country pages list what is available where you are.

Routes that fit the job

• Text and chat instead of a call. You can do it from your phone in a second, without anyone hearing a word. Text and chat services are not a second-best option, and on site they are often the one that is actually possible.
• The van, or the walk to it. For many people it is the only private place in the working day. Use it. A short time with the door shut is enough to send a message.
• Out-of-hours services. Check the hours on the page for your country, but many crisis services run evenings and weekends, which is when a working week leaves you free.
• Asking for the appointment that suits you. When you book with a GP, say that you work site hours and cannot do the middle of a shift. Ask for the first or last slot of the day, or whether a phone appointment is possible. You are allowed to ask, and it is a reasonable thing to need.

Making a plan for the bad moments →

When work dries up and the money goes

A slow stretch, a job that falls through, a client who does not pay: for people in the trades, money trouble and mental health trouble tend to arrive together, and each makes the other worse. Debt can feel like proof that you have failed, when often it is just how an uneven trade behaves.

Letters you cannot open are a common reason people stop talking to anyone. There is practical help for that, and it does not require you to have your head straight first.

Money, debt and mental health →

If you are worried about a mate

On a site you will not say "I am concerned about your wellbeing". You will say something short, usually while doing something else. That is fine. It works better that way.

• "You've gone quiet lately. You alright, really?"
• "Fancy a brew in the van? Nothing to sort, just a chat."
• "I've had a rough patch myself. Happy to listen if you want to say anything."

If they say they are fine, leave the door open and ask again in a few days. If they say something that frightens you, stay with them, ask them plainly whether they are thinking of killing themselves, and do not leave it to someone else. Asking does not put the idea in their head.

More on what to say → · Supporting someone →