East Suffolk Council
Work-Related Stress
What is stress?
Stress is defined by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as 'the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them'.
Work related stress and poor mental health in the workplace has a direct impact on workers, businesses, and the economy. If not properly managed, stress is associated with poor health, lower productivity and increased accident and sickness absence rates.
What employers must do
The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 – puts a 'duty of care' on employers to protect their employees from the risk of stress at work.
The Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 – requires all employers to make a 'suitable and sufficient assessment' of the risks to the health and safety of their employees at work. Employers should assess the risk of stress, and its impact on mental and physical ill-health, in the same way as they assess other work-related health and safety risks. Then take steps to prevent or reduce work-related stress.
Employers should work with employees to identify:
- Demands – workload, work patterns and the work environment
- Control – how much say the person has in the way they do their work
- Support – encouragement, sponsorship and resources available to workers
- Relationships – promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour
- Role – whether people understand their role within the organisation and whether the organisation ensures that they do not have conflicting roles
- Change – how change (large or small) is managed and communicated
There is help for managers to work with their employees in Stress at work - Stress Talking Toolkits (hse.gov.uk)
Signs of Stress
Employers should look out for signs of stress in teams and workers and think about whether the stress could be linked to work pressure. Stress affects us all at different times and in different ways.
A change in the way someone thinks, feels or acts can be a sign of stress, for example:
- taking more time off
- Arriving for work later
- twitchy or nervous
- mood swings
- being withdrawn
- loss of motivation, commitment and confidence
- increased emotional reactions – being more tearful, sensitive or aggressive.
Signs of stress in teams can look like:
- arguments
- higher staff turnover
- more reports of stress
- more sickness absence
- decreased performance
- more complaints and grievances
Working Minds Campaign
The ongoing Working Minds Campaign brings together a range of tools and support to help businesses and workers understand the best ways to prevent work related stress and encourage good mental health. ‘Working Minds’ is relevant to all businesses but is aimed particularly at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and is encouraging employers and employees to use the five ‘R’ approach to:
- make stress and mental health ROUTINE, as part of employee engagement,
- REACH out to their colleagues,
- RECOGNISE the signs of stress,
- RESPOND to reduce the risk and
- REFLECT on how these experiences can be used to improve the workplace
Where can you find more information
Further information and guidance on stress can be found at: