Stress In The Workplace
What Is Stress?
Stress is the natural reaction people have to excessive pressures or demands - it isn't a disease. If it is prolonged or intense it can lead to mental and physical ill health, such as depression, back pain, nervous breakdown and heart disease. Work-related stress can affect anyone in any sector and in any size of organisation. Being under pressure can improve performance and give satisfaction when challenging objectives are achieved. But when demand and pressure are too much they lead to stress.
The problem with stress is that it cannot always be seen. Most employees will suffer in silence. This does not mean that employers can or should do nothing.
Some of the factors that cause stress include poor work organisation, lack of communication and lack of acknowledgement or recognition for work done.
How Big Is The Problem?
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In the UK as many as one in five people report being exposed to high levels of work-related stress. An estimated half-million individuals report experiencing stress at a level they believe made them ill. This equates to 6.5 million working days lost per year costing society between about £3.7 billion and £3.8 billion (1995/1996 figures).
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1999 figures estimate that work-related stress costs European Member States at least ?20 billion annually.
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Work-related stress accounts for more than a quarter of two week or longer absences from work (1999 figures).
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28% of European workers reported work-related stress health problems (the second most reported problem after back pain with 30%). This amounts to about 41 million EU workers affected by work-related stress each year equating to around 600 million working days lost per year across the EU (European Foundation Survey on Working Conditions in the European Union 1996).
The potential costs of work-related stress to an employer include:
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Cost of absences including disturbances in production, creativity and competitiveness
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Reduced effectiveness of employees suffering from work-related stress
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Punitive fines from the Health and Safety Executive, and
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Awards of damages from the courts arising from Personal Injury claims.
Stress is a major concern and challenge not only because of the effects on the health of the individual workers, but also because of the costs or economic impact on business, and social costs to European countries. The total costs to business cannot be quantified.
What Can Employers Do?
The HSE have made it clear that employers should be measuring stress in the workplace and should produce risk assessments identifying the risk of stress-related illnesses in the workplace.
"The HSE is to introduce work-related stress audits in its routine health and safety inspections by the end of 2003, and will ultimately have the power to fine organisations that fail to introduce minimum standards."Personnel Today Magazine Article 14th January 2003
To deal with this issue, the HSE have employed a substantial number of new inspectors and are training all of their inspectors to recognise stress-related problems.
Many organisations appear to have reacted to these developments by putting into place a variety of support services and activities. These efforts however only deal with the issue of stress when it is made manifest, they do not address the real issue of preventing stress in the first place.
The first step for any organisation when tackling this issue should be to identify the problem. This can be done in a variety of ways, for example:
- Personal interviews with all members of staff
- Internal staff surveys
- Focus groups with small groups of employees
These are all valid tools but may be difficult to conduct for a variety of logistical reasons, such as time, expertise, lack of confidentiality, etc. The HSE have identified stress audits as an effective first stage in tackling the issue of work-related stress.