WorkStreams Newsletter

Work Related Stress

What is stress?

Stress is people's natural reaction to excessive pressure - it isn't a disease. But if stress is excessive and goes on for some time, it can lead to mental and physical ill health (e.g. depression, nervous breakdown, heart disease).

Why stress matters

Pressure can be a good thing when it helps provide both motivation and stimulation. It becomes a problem when it leads to stress, resulting in ill health or an individual's poor performance, and sickness absence can mean lost productivity. Then stress is bad for business.
Ill health and lost productivity are an unnecessary drain on organisations' resources and these costs are growing.

Employers have a duty of care so far as is reasonably practicable to ensure that workplaces are safe and healthy. Workplace stress, which may lead to mental ill health, may be regarded like any other hazard in the workplace.
But it does not have to be like this. If the costs are real so are the benefits of overcoming the causes and effects of stress. Quite simple changes in your company structure and working environment can produce significant improvements in workforce morale and productivity. Companies with a positive attitude to mental health issues can enjoy:

Advantages

Higher morale
A happier and more stable workforce
Better working relations
Increased productivity
Improved performance
Growing profits.

Disadvantages

Sickness absence
Compensation
Poor public relations
Retraining
High staff turnover
Lost productivity.

The purpose of this guide is to provide you with key information on stress in the workplace and to provide guidance on appropriate action.

When pressure becomes stress

Most people come to work wanting to do a good job and any job worth doing is likely to involve a certain amount of pressure. Some sense of urgency is needed to meet deadlines and produce results. But too much pressure creates prolonged stress and this chronic stress can lead to the destructive cycle of poor performance, declining confidence, inefficiency and decreasing productivity.

The challenge for every company is to motivate employees and stimulate a sense of purpose without causing stress - getting the balance is crucial.

Symptoms of stress

Stress can damage physical health, social relationships and the way we function at work and at home. It is important to remember that the following symptoms may have nothing to do with stress but they are often danger signals which should not be ignored:

Physical signs like headaches, insomnia, indigestion, high blood pressure
Behaviour aspects such as poor work performance, accidents, poor relationships at home and work, dependence on tobacco, drugs and alcohol
Emotional factors such as irritability, lack of concentration, anxiety, depression.

Mental and physical ill health are a personal loss to your employees and a cost to your company whether they mean sick pay for those who stay home or poor performance from those who come to work. A quick response can prevent the situation deteriorating further and may well lead to considerable improvements for both you and your employees.

Causes of stress

Anyone can suffer the effects of stress, whatever job they do. Mental well-being is not simply a matter of personality.
Certain studies and reports suggest that stress at work is the product of the working environment and its effects on individual personalities. Others show that although some employees bring family problems to work, far more take work worries home with them, and that for the majority of employees work worries are increasing. Job security is an obvious source of anxiety which is affected both by the employee's personal circumstances and by company culture. Anxiety can lead to distress if the company has no clear communication with employees.
Causes of stress vary from company to company, job to job and department to department but are likely to involve one or some of the following:

working environment (physical surroundings, office/factory design and facilities)
the job itself (too much/too little to do, conflicting roles and responsibilities, badly designed shifts and rotas)
company culture (poor communication, unsupportive management, feeling of change, uncertainty, lack of control over workload and workplace)
Interpersonal relationships at work
Home/work interface (dual career problems, conflicting demands of work and home)
Role in organisation (role ambiguity, role conflict, high responsibility for people)
Career development (career uncertainty, stagnation, status, pay and conditions, insecurity and low social value of the work).

Turning theory into practice

Action plans designed for large organisations can sound ridiculous when applied to small companies. You don't need to do everything at once. It is important to match plans to circumstances. There is no point in creating elaborate management structures and 'steering' groups when you are dealing with a handful of people working in two rooms. But even the smallest organisations need to be clear about aims, roles and responsibilities, just as larger companies need to set budgets appropriate to their resources. Good communication is fundamental to any successful business.
So although the basic principles underlying any healthy organisation are the same no matter how many people are on the payroll, it may be useful to acknowledge a difference in scale relevant to the size of the company.

Tips for Large organisations