Stress at work

The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 place a duty on employers to assess and control the degree of stress in the workplace. If there is a ‘reasonable likelihood’ that stress could cause ill health, employers also have to provide health surveillance for affected staff.

If you need a policy about Stress and mental health in your workplace, Hardwick HR can provide one for you.

Good or bad?
Stress is a natural reaction to excessive pressure that is experienced by everybody. In the short term our normal response to stress helps to improve performance. When stress is experienced consistently over a period of time its effects can become harmful and lead to psychological and physical illnesses. Stress itself can be caused by an infinite number of factors, which will vary enormously in different individuals. Personal factors like family problems can easily affect an individual’s work, while work-based factors like bullying, lack of training or poor working conditions can just as easily spill over into the home. Reducing and managing stress in the workplace before it becomes a problem is the ideal approach.

Recognising Stress
Recognising stress can be difficult as its effects will vary from person to person but the following signs can sometimes indicate that someone is experiencing difficulty:
• Changes in behaviour
• Indecisiveness
• Absenteeism
• Increase in the use of tobacco or alcohol.

You can affect the way stress impacts on your staff through:
1. Demands made on employees
2. The level of control employees have over their work
3. The support employees receive from managers and colleagues
4. The clarity of an employee’ s role within the organisation
5. The nature of relationships at work
6. The way that changes are managed.

Coping tips
Make sure all staff take their full holiday entitlement.
Two weeks (or more) provide a better relief of stress and work may be delegated and not be left until your return.

Keep your first day back free of meetings to enable you to catch up.

Always take a lunch break – it improves total productivity.

Don’t take work home – finish something at the office if you have to and prevent work flowing into your home life.

Delegate – explain clearly what needs to be done, make sure your staff have the appropriate skills and resources, and let them do it.

Distinguish between ‘urgent’ and ‘important’ and do the important things. Help your employees to do this too in the way you delegate or request work to be done.

Don’t be ruled by your emails. Set specific times to read and respond only to those that are ‘important’.