00:00If I asked you to name a job so stressful a director has arranged for on-site counselling
00:06you might think of a team of brain surgeons or firefighters. But for this estate agent in
00:12Rochester it's become a non-negotiable. Obviously as an estate agent you're dealing with one of the
00:18most stressful things in life you know moving home I think death and divorce are all up there so
00:23from a day to day if it's on the estate agent side people moving house is extremely stressful
00:29because of the reasons they may be actually moving so we deal with lots of traumatic stuff we might deal
00:34with you know people who are victims of domestic violence people who are again going through a
00:39divorce going through financial difficulties so all of that stuff has an impact on the staff and
00:45it's stuff we just have to deal with every single day. The managing director of Red Door employs 19
00:50staff members across its two branches in the county and each one has access to free drop-in sessions
00:57with a qualified therapist. I'm just part of the team like you said um some people I see more
01:05regularly some people like the routine and we've gone on a bit of a journey uh other people will just
01:12pop in some people say well I haven't got anything to talk about and then an hour later they're still
01:19here yeah it's really powerful people underestimate the power of listening. Sharon has been working with
01:27Red Door for two years and knows only too well the kind of unique pressures an estate agent might be
01:33under as well as the intense scrutiny that comes from being in the public eye. Red Door homes recently
01:40experienced lots of negative criticism when one of their company cars was found parked on double yellow
01:46lines in Canterbury except they had a permit to be there. That member of staff that drives a car
01:52said I don't want to drive that car anymore I don't want to drive it around town someone stopped and
01:57walked in front of their car and looked through the windscreen and somebody had threatened to
02:00burn the car smash the car up slash the tire all of this and you go that individual has to
02:05deal with
02:06that and then we have to sit and go how do I deal with that I went to walk across
02:09Canterbury across
02:10town and someone said I don't want to walk with you because I don't want to be associated with you
02:14because of the backlash on social media so we then said you know I put something out on social media
02:19and said you know we are human beings as well. The counselling available here seems to have opened
02:24doors for the staff yet Andy's mission to the public to keep that same open mindset for his team
02:30does not yet seem to be over. Megan Shaw for KMTV in Rochester.
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