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Stressed out?
At the end of 2004, The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) launched a new approach to help employers work with their staff to manage the risks associated with work-related stress. The toolkit and standards were designed to help organisations meet their duty of care to their employees and their duty to assess the risk of work-related stress.
Workplace stress has received a pletora of media exposure in recent years. It has also been the subject of a number of largescale research projects aimed at assessing the extent of the apparent problem.
This article aims to bring together recent research and consider whether or not the concerns about workplace stress are a genuine occupational health problem or actually a much smaller problem which is being exploited by employees.
What is stress?
The HSE defines stress as ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them’. Pressure is an essential part of all work and helps to keep us motivated. However, when this pressure reaches high levels it can make employees ill and undermine their performance.
What are the causes of work related stress?
Stress can be a major problem and can affect anyone. The conditions which may lead to stress include:
•Too much, or too little work to do
•Boring or repetitive work
•Role confusion
•Lack of control
•Lack of communication
•Blame culture
•Lack of support for individuals to develop their skills
•Inflexible work schedules
•Poor working relationships with other members of staff
•Bullying, racial or sexual harassment
•Physical danger (such as risk of violence)
•Poor working conditions (such as noise)
What are the effects of stress at work?
Of course, over short periods, stress is perfectly healthy, and virtually everyone can cope with it in small doses. However, over a prolonged period, stress can bring about major problems such as heart disease and stroke. Although some people appear to enjoy stress, for others, the outcomes can be devastating. One piece of Scottish research found that heart attacks were more likely to occur on a Monday than on any other day of the week. Some of the other consequences of stress can include:
•The development of stomach ulcers and increased blood pressure
•Over-indulgence in unhealthy habits, such as overeating, smoking and drinking
•Insomnia, which in turn can decrease performance at work, and increase the level of stress experienced.
•Depression
•Stress can also affect a woman's ability to conceive. A recent study which found high levels of the stress hormone cortisol in women whose periods had either stopped or were wildly irregular.
Different jobs and stress levels
Different careers present more stress than others. In particular, various professions are shown to cause different types of stress and these are generally put into three broad categories; physical health, psychological health and job dissatisfaction:
Top ten most stressful jobs in the UK based on physical and psychological stress, and job dissatisfaction (Source - *Source - Robertson Cooper 01/06/2004)
Physical health
1 Ambulance
2 Teachers
3 Social services, providing care
4 Customer services (call centre)
5 Bar staff
6 Prison officer
7 Management (private sector)
8 Clerical and admin
9 Police
10 Teaching assistant
Psychological health
1 Social services, providing care
2 Teachers
3 Fire brigade
4 Ambulance
5 Vets
6 Lecturers
7 Clerical and admin
8 Management (private sector)
9 Prison officer
10 Research (academic)
Stress at work and the law
There is no single or specific law governing workplace stress in the UK. However, employers do have responsibilities for their workers' stress levels under general health and safety at work regulations and through common law principles determined by a number of court actions. Below are the main regulations which concern workplace stress:
•1974 - Health and Safety at Work Act
This legislation gives employers a 'duty of care' to ensure that employees are not made ill by their work.
•1992 – Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations
This aims to help employers to assess the nature and scale of risks to health in the workplace and put adequate control measures in place.
•European Union Working Time Directive
Designed to limit the length of the working week and requires employers to adjust conditions to suit the employee.
Stress at work rising
According to the HSE, work-related stress is the biggest occupational cause of
working days lost through injury or ill-health, with an average of 29 days lost per case. In 2001/2, over half a million individuals in the UK experienced work-related stress at levels that made them ill.
A recent poll of the UK’s top 112 companies has revealed that 65% of them believe stress is a major factor in ill health in their organisations. Every day 270,000 people take time off work for stress-related illness and absenteeism cost UK businesses £10.2bn last year.
The impact of longer working hours
One survey which has followed a group of 5,000 British managers since 1997, confirms that long working hours are part and parcel of many people's jobs. A total 91% of managers regularly exceed their contracted hours, according to the Quality of Working Life Survey 2000, published by the Chartered Management Institute in 2001. 75% of the managers surveyed said working late or at weekends was the only way to deal with their workload, while two-thirds believed it was a part of their organisation's culture.
The survey also showed that almost three-quarters of executives claimed workplace stress was damaging their health, happiness and home life, not to mention their productivity and performance at work. The study also found a quarter of executives had taken sick leave in the past year as a result of their stress.
Lessons from France
In 2000, France introduced a 35-hour week with the aim of reducing unemployment by redistributing labour between the over-worked and the unemployed. It is still unclear whether this objective has been met, but there have certainly been positive benefits on the lives of French people. Gym memberships are up, as are travel and leisure, while DIY has taken off. This greater amount of leisure time has contributed to a less ‘stressed out’ society.
However, according to the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions, almost one third of French workers report to being more stressed out since the introduction of the 35-hour working week. This is an illustration that too little work, as well as too much work, can cause stress.
The future of stress at work
It is clear that, whilst low levels of stress can be motivating, a substantial level of pressure can have a negative impact for both employees and employers. Stress can make employees less productive which, in turn, costs businesses and organisations millions of pounds every year. More importantly, stress can have a profound impact upon the lives of the individual by instigating serious health problems.
It is now, with the help of a series of research projects, that we are able to see the scale of the stress at work problem. Despite huge media interest in stress and government backing for 'family friendly' workplace policies, the indication is that work-related stress has yet to peak.
There are likely to be some employees who are exploiting the serious issue of stress at work in order to take time off work, when in fact their stress levels are not high enough to warrant time off. Despite this, the problem of stress should not be tarnished by the actions of the few. In reality it is difficult to know which employees are suffering from stress and which ones are exaggerating the truth. It is important that the government encourages new ways of identifying the genuine from the not-so-genuine.
The new HSE standards introduced last year are another useful addition to the current legislation concerning the reduction of workplace stress, but evidently more needs to be done. As UK workers continue to work long hours and face difficulty in managing stress, it is vital that regulations and common laws develop at a faster rate to meet workers’ changing needs.
It is too early to assess whether or not the introduction of the 35-hour week in France has been a success. However, the UK should watch closely to see if this change does bring benefits in reducing stress in France. Such a policy is unlikely to work in the UK, but placing less pressure on people to work longer hours may not be the way forward.
The government needs to be more proactive, as oppose to reactive, in developing new and innovative ways of combating the causes and consequences of stress at work. It should work closer with businesses to propose methods of dealing with stress and support charities and organisations which are helping both staff and companies identify the root causes of stress and manage the problems associated with it.
About the Author
If you would like to know more about the services YouClaim offers to people suffering from stress at work, please contact: Paul Johnson, YouClaim, paul@youclaim.co.uk
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