With sufficient social support, even very difficult environments can be weathered, Bright says, however, the finance industry will probably find its professionals do not easily ask for help when they need it. Peculiar to the finance industry is that is it still male dominated, and many of those are ‘alpha males’ who like to be in control, and have a ‘master of the universe’ or invincible mentality, according to Bright. It’s also an industry with very intelligent, very clever people who are used to being successful, and used to solving problems, making it harder for them to admit their struggles and seek assistance, he says.

Also, given managing money does not “inherently” require people skills, Bright suggests some managers may not know how to talk about their concerns. The head of fund-of-funds manager St George Investment Solutions, Patrick Farrell, is acutely aware of the impact the state of the equity markets can have on the managers to whom he has assigned money. So much so, he jokes the markets stress him out more than they do the managers. “When you see volatility and corrections of this nature, managers can be tempted to change how they do things,” Farrell says diplomatically. “When markets are in the state they are in, they’re not driven by fundamentals. But many managers have built their models on fundamentals – so they can end up throwing their models out the window.”

In volatile markets Farrell says he stays closer to his managers than usual, “looking over their shoulder more”. “I don’t think they feel more comfortable with that, but we do. And that’s part of our role because if we were to see signs that a manager was under pressure then we have all the more time to react to that if necessary.”

Thankfully, no such action is necessary at this point, he says. Farrell even feels somewhat sorry for the new listed property managers who were introduced into St George Investments portfolios last September. “In hindsight, we would prefer a less volatile time for the managers to be able to get comfortable. As it was, property was all over the place at the end of September.”

The founder of boutique incubator Pinnacle Partners, Ian Macoun, says while he has no formal processes in place to deal with manager stress at the moment, he is aware of the current circumstances they are working under and tries to be closer to them. “It’s more at a personal level of talking more frequently with them, so they just know there’s another friendly, interested, and understanding person around.”