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 issue affecting 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 a 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 about how to 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‘ report that:
- Over 11 million days are lost at work each year due to work-related stress.
- 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 are lost by those suffering from stress, depression or anxiety
Clearly, stress is a sizable problem for organisations.
What is Stress Leave From Work?
Stress leave from work is similar to sick leave. It allows employees to take time off when they feel overwhelmed by anxiety and stress, making it difficult for them to perform their job duties.
There are various causes of workplace stress, which we’ll discuss shortly. Employees may need time off for several stress-related conditions or illnesses. Taking a break from stressful situations can help them recover and return to work feeling refreshed.
At the same time, employers should look for ways to remove or reduce those stressors. This approach ensures that when employees do return, they can do so without facing the same issues again.
Some measures that an employer might take include:
- Reducing an employee’s workload to more manageable levels
- Reviewing the employee’s job description (Are they doing more than they are paid to do? Has there been job creep?)
- Offering support when and where they need it
- Improving training provision to ensure employees are equipped with the necessary skills and knowledge to deal with situations they are faced with
- Assessing the employee’s workstation for musculoskeletal risks
Measures like this require business owners, Line Managers, and Team Leaders to understand the signs of stress and have the skills to provide support when it is needed.
This includes knowing how to investigate the situation constructively and with sensitivity.
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, to do so, they are 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 the reason, 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 12 Causes Of Workplace Stress
There are many causes of workplace stress, some more obvious than others. ACAS, in their article on Managing Work-related Stress, lists some of the common causes. We have shared them below, plus a few more:
- Conflicting demands – When competing priorities pull an employee in multiple directions. It creates stress and makes it challenging to meet expectations effectively.
- Too many demands – ‘Not enough hours in the day’ is a common phrase you’ll hear when this stressor comes into play. Too much to do and too little time.
- Deadlines – Pressure to complete tasks within a set timeframe. Multiple deadlines and conflicting demands can compound the impact of this stressor.
- Poor working conditions – They often manifest as inadequate safety measures and uncomfortable environments.
- Little control over how and when they do work – Lacking the freedom to choose when and how to tackle tasks.
- No freedom to make decisions – Characterised by a lack of autonomy, where employees are unable to make choices or influence outcomes in their role.
- Lack of support or encouragement from managers and colleagues – When employees don’t receive recognition, guidance, or connection.
- Bullying and conflict – Disruptive behaviours and disputes that create a hostile environment, undermining teamwork and productivity and creating emotional distress.
- Lacking knowledge, understanding or skills to do the job – Not having the expertise or comprehension to perform required tasks, often resulting from a lack of training or support.
- Feeling unclear about roles and responsibilities – Ambiguity in roles and responsibilities breeds confusion and insecurity.
- Trust/fear issues – Absence of trust is a key dysfunction in many teams, where employees don’t feel safe to speak up or weigh in without fear of reprisal
- Organisational change – When a business undergoes change and fails to actively engage employees. They feel as though things are being done to them rather than with them.
The Stress Layering Effect
It is easy to see how each of these workplace stressors can have a significant impact on employee well-being and performance. However, it’s essential to recognise that adverse effects, such as underperformance, lack of motivation, and increased absenteeism, are often the result of multiple stressors rather than a single issue.
This ‘layering effect’ highlights the importance of identifying stressors early and providing ongoing employee support to prevent a compounding situation that can worsen outcomes over time.
Ultimately, consistent management practices (and, consequently, management development) and adequate resources are essential to reducing stress and fostering a healthier workplace environment.
How Can Stress Affect Performance in Work and Business Results?
Stress, unchecked, can have serious detrimental effects on work performance and business results.
Here’s a breakdown of what you can expect to see if a business doesn’t take steps to reduce it.
1. Ignoring Work-Related Stress Can Be Hugely Detrimental to an Employer
Stress leads to higher levels of workplace disputes, accidents, errors, absenteeism, and staff turnover.
It 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 adverse effects of stress extend far beyond the person experiencing stress 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 adverse effects an employer will feel.
Because of this, work stress and poor mental health can have a significant impact on individual and team performance, and not just in terms of the work itself. They both link 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
Chronically stressed employees are more likely to take time off from work, leading to prolonged absences. Unfortunately, many organisations view work absence as an employee problem and fail to identify 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 increases the likelihood that they will become stressed and experience 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 effects on quality, project delays or frustration at being unable to contact their regular contact
4. Stress and Staff Turnover
Stressed employees are more likely to leave their jobs due to the resulting unhappiness, dissatisfaction, and ill health. The business impact of this increased employee turnover and a failure to address the underlying issues is 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 recruits to reach the required performance levels
- Increased legal costs and a damaged reputation resulting from legal disputes
- The cost of lost knowledge and expertise is sometimes referred to as institutional knowledge
5. Communication and Harmony
Highly stressed individuals tend not to communicate effectively, which can lead to high levels of disharmony and a 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 profound impact on business results. With that in mind, you must 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 identify stress in a person is by understanding their baseline behaviours and habits, as individuals react differently to various situations and stressors. The first signs that a person is suffering from anxiety can often be seen through small (sometimes significant) changes in their behaviour, not changes in their performance (which usually come later).
You should take care to avoid assumptions, but here are some signs you can look out for:
- 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 the work that typically engages them
- Anxious behaviours, including a negative outlook and seeing the worst in situations
- Differences in work standards and attention to the details of the job
- Shifts in a person’s appetite, drinking more alcohol, smoking more or starting to smoke
- Increased sickness and/or absence levels and/or punctuality
Remember that you are looking for changes specific to each individual, so this list is by no means exhaustive. Take time to observe and listen, and you’ll see the symptoms and signs.
Similarly, you may be experiencing symptoms of stress. It’s just as important to spot signs in your own feelings and behaviours.
Stress Symptoms to look out for by category
According to WebMD, symptoms of stress can fall into the following four 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
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 directly 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 the causes of stress and managing them effectively is significant.
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 more effective in managing 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 for ‘self-care for stress’ will provide numerous 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 understand the signs better 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 regularly. 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 usually do (or do as much of), such as being absent from work more frequently, being more irritable than usual, or being overly pessimistic, etc.
As a manager, being able to spot stress is just the first step; you must learn how to provide adequate 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 truly understanding the root cause of the stress someone is experiencing, you will be better equipped to consider changes that can be made and provide more targeted support.
Once stress is identified and initial actions are taken, managers should regularly check in to see if 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 regular work patterns and determines that their stress levels are now controlled. The manager should continue to monitor their own stress levels and well-being, 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 note about stress risk assessments is that they exist and operate in a manner similar 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 their mental and physical well-being.
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 an excellent 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 a 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 communicate with their 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 ideal for recording instances of work-related stress.
Reporting is also essential for tracking stress patterns.
For example, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) may need to investigate work-related stress incidents where multiple staff members experience ill health, as per Section 2 of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974.
What Training Courses are Available for Stress Management?
There are a plethora of management development and health and safety courses designed to support organisations and their managers and employees in 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.
