If you’re reading this article, it’s likely that you’ve experienced stress in the workplace. Stress is a normal human response to any situation, but too much stress can lead to serious health consequences and affect productivity levels.
This guide aims to educate leaders, managers, and supervisors about what causes work stress and the steps you can take to alleviate and manage it.
What is Stress?
It is hard to find an exact definition of stress, but you will probably know what it feels like due to the symptoms it can cause.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) defines stress as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them”.
According to Mind, the Mental Health Charity, when someone says they are feeling stressed they are most often feeling the effects of:
- Circumstances or events that are placing pressure on them – for example, situations where they have too much to do and not enough time, too much to think about, or are feeling like they don’t have control over what is happening to them
- The reaction they have when placed under pressure – for example, the feelings they experience when situations or events feel beyond their ability to cope
How Big is the Problem of Workplace Stress?
Covid isn’t the only pandemic in town, the problem of stress is a global workplace problem that affects the productivity of businesses and the health of their employees.
The CIPD’s annual ‘health and well-being at work survey 2020’ reports that:
- 37% of respondents said that stress-related absence had increased in the last year
- 60% of respondents said heavy workload is the top cause of stress
- 41% of respondents said management style is the second highest cause of stress
- 60% report an increase in common mental health conditions among employees
Many organisations are uncertain how they can tackle these issues, with only a third (32%) taking steps to discourage these unhealthy practices.
The HSE’s 2020 annual statistics on ‘Work-related stress, anxiety or depression in Great Britain‘ reports that:
- Over 11 million days are lost at work a year because of stress at work.
- 17.9 million working days lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2019/20 (Labour Force Survey (LFS))
- On average, 21.6 days of work lost by those suffering from stress, depression or anxiety
Clearly, stress is a sizable problem for organisations.
What is Stress Leave From Work?
Similar to sick leave, stress leave from work refers to time off for employees when anxiety and stress have caused them to feel overwhelmed and unable to perform their roles.
As there are many causes of workplace stress (we’ll cover these in a moment), time off may be taken for several stress-related injuries or illnesses.
Employees should take time away from stressful situations to recuperate and return refreshed. Meanwhile, employers should seek opportunities to mitigate those stressors. So that when the worker returns, they can do so without a recurrence of the issue.
These mitigation measures can include:
- Reducing workload
- Reviewing the employees’ job description
- Offering support
- Improving training provision
- Assessing workstation for musculoskeletal risks
Measures like this show why business owners, Line Managers, and Team Leaders need to understand the signs of stress.
They also need to know how to investigate the situation constructively and with sensitivity.
Our health and safety training courses are designed to help employers identify and manage signs of stress in their team.
What is Signed Off Work With Stress?
If an employee is suffering or exhibiting signs of work-related stress, they are entitled to take time off work.
However, they are also required to provide the employer with evidence from a general practitioner (GP) as to the reason for the necessary absence.
Having said this, employees can take up to seven days of sick leave for stress-related illnesses or injuries regardless of reasoning and without providing a note from the GP.
Once the period of absence has stretched beyond seven days (including weekends), a GP’s note is required.
Top 10 Causes Of Workplace Stress
The causes of stress at work are varied but normalised as a part of many working environments. At first glance, there are some obvious factors such as:
1. Deadlines – Stress from deadlines often comes from the pressure to complete tasks within a set timeframe, which may feel overwhelming due to the volume.
2. Time Pressures – Time pressures manifest when a constant race against the clock occurs. This can result from an overload of responsibilities or inefficient work processes.
3. Tight Budgets – Working within tight budgets can induce stress due to limitations, such as inadequate resources or staffing to effectively complete projects.
4. Unreasonable Expectations – Stress arises when bosses or colleagues set expectations that are too high or disregard an individual’s capacity, leading to feelings of inadequacy and a relentless push to meet these challenging standards.
All things that are part and parcel of businesses across the world.
In 1979, a US sociologist, Robert Karasek, explored stress and stress factors in the workplace. His work and that of others has identified the following workplace stressors.
5. Job and Workplace demands – this might show up as someone being unable to cope with the demands of their work. This often happens as a result of long working hours, work overload and pressure.
6. Control – this might show up when a person is unable to control the way they do their work. This may come from having a Manager that is highly autocratic and who micromanages the person. Control can also include a person’s lack of participation in decision making around things that affect them.
7. Support – this often comes from a person receiving a lack of management, peer, and social support. Poor management style can also have a big impact on levels of stress.
8. Relationships – brought about when a person’s relationships at work (and sometimes at home) are having a negative impact. This might be a result of bullying, personality clashes, or something else relating to relationships.
9. Job Role – this stressor shows up when people don’t fully understand their role and responsibilities. This is often referred to as role ambiguity.
10. Change – are not engaged when a business is undergoing change, so feel as though things are being done to them and not with them.
How Can Stress Affect Performance in Work and Business Results?
Stress can have serious detrimental effects on work performance. Some of these include:
1. Ignoring Work-Related Stress Can Be Hugely Detrimental to an Employer
Stress results in higher levels of workplace disputes, accidents, errors, absenteeism and staff turnover. Its stands to reason that an employer that courts high-stress levels will see an impact on their business results. Here are just some of the business outcomes of high-stress levels in the workplace:
2. Stress and Its Wider Impact
Stress is contagious, the negative effects of stress extend far beyond the person feeling stressed themselves: a person’s stress and its symptoms can affect all those around them, including their colleagues, customers and family.
One person’s stress, left unchecked, can pass like wildfire through an organisation, exacerbating the negative effects an employer will feel.
Because of this, work stress and poor mental health can have a major impact on individual and team performance, and not just in terms of the work itself. They are both linked to absenteeism and staff turnover, confirmed by CIPD’s latest absence survey, which reports that stress is the number one cause of long-term absence.
3. Stress and Absenteeism
Employees that are chronically stressed are more likely to take time off from work, causing them to be absent for long periods of time. Unfortunately, many organisations look upon work absence as an employee problem and fail to uncover the root causes.
Failing to deal with stress as a root cause of absenteeism can have the following effects on business:
- Increased pressure on colleagues, increasing the likelihood of them becoming stressed and experiencing self-doubt. This creates a contagious scenario where stress spreads and creates a widespread productivity decline
- Negative impact on the morale of those perceived as ‘reliable’ staff, who have to absorb the duties of their absent colleagues
- Negative impact on customer satisfaction due to detrimental impact on quality, project delays or frustration at being unable to contact their normal contact
4. Stress and Staff Turnover
Stressed employees are more likely to leave their jobs due to resulting unhappiness, dissatisfaction and ill-health. The business impact of this increased employee turnover and a failure to address the underlying issues are numerous. They include:
- Increased recruitment costs in having to replace and retrain new employees
- Decreased productivity due to people leaving and the time taken for new recruits to reach the required performance levels
- Increased legal costs and damaged reputation resulting from legal disputes
- The cost of lost knowledge and expertise sometimes referred to as institutional knowledge
5. Communication and Harmony
Highly stressed people tend not to communicate effectively, which can cause high levels of disharmony and lack of cohesion in the workplace.
The result of this is often disastrous, causing poor internal and external customer service, a higher frequency of workplace disputes and a whole range of productivity-related issues.
All of these things, and more, have a serious impact on business results. With that in mind, it is vital that you take hold of the problem, learning to recognise stress is one of the first steps.
Work Related Stress Symptoms
Without a doubt, the foundation of managing stress in the workplace is prevention and taking steps to minimise stress. However, it is impossible to avoid stress altogether, so managers need to be equipped to spot signs of stress and to provide appropriate levels of support.
The best way to spot stress in a person is by understanding their baseline behaviours and habits. The first signs that a person is suffering from stress can be seen through changes in their behaviour, and as a result changes in their performance. You should take care to avoid assumptions, but look for the following signs:
- Changes in a person’s behaviours and moods – observe how they are interacting with their colleagues and customers; has something changed compared to normal?
- Looking tired and lacking interest or enthusiasm for work that normally engages them
- Anxious behaviours, including a negative outlook and seeing the worst in situations
- Changes in work standards and attention to details of the job
- Changes in a person’s appetite, drinking more alcohol, smoking more or starting to smoke
- Changes in a person’s sickness and/or absence levels and/or punctuality
According to WebMD, symptoms of stress can fall into the following categories:
1. Emotional Stress Symptoms
- feeling tense or anxious
- being irritable, angry or moody
- having trouble relaxing, sleeping and/or having nightmares
- low self-esteem
2. Physical Stress Symptoms
- headaches
- lacking in energy
- muscle tension or pain
- stomach aches
- frequent illnesses like colds
3. Cognitive Symptoms
- having difficulty remembering things
- high levels of anxiety and worrying
- increased pessimism, thinking the worst
- difficulty making decisions and concentrating
- brain fog
4. Behavioural Symptoms
- being restless, pacing
- avoiding certain types of people or social situations
- doing too much at once and not taking breaks
- increased procrastination and work avoidance
- social withdrawal
These changes in a person’s baseline can impact their work performance on a day-to-day basis, so it is recommended that employers create cultures and environments where team members can openly talk about how they’re feeling, especially when these signs become apparent.
How To Manage Stress At Work
Employers have a legal obligation to ensure the health and safety of their employees. To do this, an employer must conduct risk assessments for work-related stress and take necessary action to prevent staff from experiencing a stress-related illness because of their work.
For more information on how you can conduct a risk assessment for your organisation, go to the HSE guidance on stress or go direct to HSE’s risk assessment template.
If an assessment identifies areas for improvement, an employer should work with its employees to develop practical and realistic approaches to improving those areas.
Legal implications aside, there is a bulletproof business case for reducing work-related stress. The impact of reducing causes of stress and managing it effectively are many.
The result of targeted strategies can be a decrease in the costs associated with stress-related illness and an increase in productivity. They can make work more enjoyable for staff, which in turn makes it easier to recruit and retain talent.
Here are some strategies that organisations can use to reduce and manage stress:
1. Stress Awareness and Self-Care Training for Employees
When employees have a good understanding of stress and self-care they will become better able to manage stress and its effects.
Employees should be trained on how to recognise the signs of stress and what steps to take when they identify them. This will allow them to take action early before more serious health complications arise from prolonged periods of stress at work.
Employees should be encouraged to adopt a healthy approach to diet, relaxation and sleep – these self-care actions can reduce stress levels. A quick google search on ‘self-care for stress’ will provide loads of ideas, but here’s one self-care article I found earlier.
2. Develop Leaders and Managers to Manage Stress Effectively
A good leader and manager should be able to recognise when their employees might be feeling stressed. Stress awareness training can help them to better understand the signs and to provide appropriate support, a key step in creating an organisation that supports its people.
Leaders and managers need to take notice of their people, getting to know what motivates them and how they behave on a normal basis. By better understanding your employees you will spot any deviations from their baseline behaviours.
You should be on the lookout for things they don’t normally do (or do as much) like being absent from work more frequently, being more irritable than usual, being overly negative etc.
As a manager, being able to spot stress is just the first step; it is vital that you learn how to provide confident stress support; you need to know the level of support you should provide before signposting to professional support services, such as HR, counselling and psychotherapy. You can only impact the things under your control, do not become a ‘pop-up counsellor’!
A key skill for stress management is the ability to engage in difficult conversations and to listen empathically. By really understanding the root cause of the stress someone is feeling, you will be better equipped to consider changes that you can affect and better able to provide targeted support.
Once stress is identified and initial actions are taken managers should regularly check in on whether the person experiencing stress is feeling better. This could be through one-to-one meetings or informal chats with them.
Management support should continue even after the employee resumes their normal work patterns and determines that their stress levels are now controlled. The manager should continue to observe their stress levels and wellbeing and offer support as needed.
3. Create Policies and Systems That Prevent and Reduce Stress and Support Those Who Experience It
Senior leaders must lead by example, modelling openness with their own direct reports and signalling their ongoing commitment to supporting their employees by developing policies that directly tackle the problem of stress.
Company policies should focus on stress prevention, reduction and support. Systems and processes should be implemented in line with your policies to keep stress high on every manager’s agenda. If you get it right you should see these signs:
- regular stress risk assessments with clear direction on improvements and control measures
- every employee will know where to go and who to speak to when they experience stress
- people will openly discuss their health and wellbeing, taking steps to prevent escalation and long term stress
- management meeting agendas will cover employee wellbeing, looking for ways to continuously improve
- employees will have access to occupational health and other support mechanisms
- managers will spot signs of stress and take immediate action by having supportive conversations and identifying appropriate ways in which they can help and signpost to professional support
How to Perform a Workplace Stress Risk Assessment
The first thing to say about stress risk assessments is that they exist and operate in a similar way to standard workplace risk assessments.
They are designed to identify, measure and mitigate the hazards and risks facing your employees and highlight the impact those risks could have on mental and physical ill health.
A robust workplace stress risk assessment comprises five core steps:
- Identify any stressors or risks of stress
- Decide how to remove stressors
- Define how to mitigate future risks
- Record your findings (an Accident Book could be a great option for this)
- Complete regular checks or audits
Regularly implementing these checks could help define how to manage stress at work more effectively.
Ensure your management team is completely up to date with risk assessment techniques and strategies with TSW Training’s market-leading health and safety courses.
How to Use a Stress Bucket Worksheet
Brabben et al. (2002) define the stress bucket theory as a recognised way to help people manage their stress levels.
In the analogy, the person is encouraged to draw a bucket with a tap or release on the side. The bucket fills up with water (or stresses) and will overflow if they cannot find a way to open the tap or release the valve.
Defining the process further, Brabben et al.’s theory states that the size of the bucket is a product of each individual’s genes, personality, and experience and can vary from person to person.
Effective use of the analogy will see the person asked three core questions:
- What fills up your stress bucket?
- How can you tell when your bucket is overflowing (or about to overflow)?
- How do you release water from the bucket?
The three questions encourage people to define their stressors and suggest mitigation tactics. Additionally, between those two areas, the analogy aims to highlight the person’s “stress signature”. More specifically, what actions or behaviours do they exhibit when their bucket is overflowing?
Not only does this exercise help them recognise and manage their stress levels more effectively, but it also offers insights to employers about what causes stress and signs to be aware of when levels rise.
How to Report Stress In the Workplace
Employees should be encouraged to highlight to employers when they are feeling stressed. This is best completed in writing so both parties have a record of the incident.
As we mentioned earlier, the Accident Book in your workplace is perfect for first registering instances of work-related stress.
Reporting is essential for tracking stress patterns, too.
For example, it may be necessary for the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) to investigate work-related stress incidents where several staff members suffer from ill health – under Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
What Training Courses are Available for Stress Management?
There are a plethora of leadership development and health and safety courses designed to support organisations, and their managers and employees, with managing stress in the workplace.
TSW Training offers the following courses:
- Stress awareness
- Stress awareness for managers
- Mental Health First Aid
If you’d like to know more, get in touch today.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Here are some frequently asked questions about managing stress at work.
What Proportion Of Work Related Illness Is Due To Stress?
According to statistics from the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), stress, anxiety, or depression made up 49% of new and long-standing cases of work-related ill health in 2022/23.
What Is The Average Amount Of Working Days That Are Lost Per Individual Case Of Stress?
Stress, depression, or anxiety contributed to 17.1 million days lost due to work-related ill health in 2022/23, with the average person taking 19.6 days off for workplace stress-related issues.
What Are 5 Signs Of Work-Related Stress?
Everyone is different, so there are many signs of stress. However, these are five core indicators:
- Lack of motivation
- Self-doubt or paranoia
- A sense of dread
- Fatigue
- Irritability, anger, or low mood
What Can Managers Do To Reduce Stress In The Workplace?
Managers can have a lasting impact on reducing workplace stress in employees. Regular review of workloads, helping to facilitate a positive workplace culture, and fostering opportunities for feedback between employees and management are core stress-reduction techniques.
Conclusion
The statistics we mentioned above highlight that managing stress at work has never been more important.
With that in mind, ensuring your management team has the skills required to recognise and reduce stressors and the signs of stress in employees is essential.
Our host of health and safety training courses define and strengthen these skills in your team.
Helping reduce staff absence and champion wellbeing in your workplace – while also enhancing productivity.
