What is Work-Related Stress?

Stress is the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them.  Pressure is part and parcel of all work and helps to keep us motivated. But excessive pressure can lead to stress, which undermines performance, is costly to employers and can make people ill.

How prevalent is stress in the workplace?

• About 1 in 7 people say they they find their work either very or extremely stressful.
• In 2005/06 just under half a million people in Great Britain reported experiencing work-related stress at a level they believed was making them ill.
• Depression and anxiety are the most common stress-related complaints seen by GPs, affecting 20% of the working population of the UK 
• When stress leads to absence, the average length of sick leave is 30.1 days (Labour Force Survey 2005/06).
• A total of nearly 11 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety in 2005/06. 

 What are my duties as an employer?

 - Under the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 - to assess the risk of stress-related ill health arising from work activities

 - Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 - to take measures to control that risk.

How will controlling the risk benefit my business?

As well as reducing sickness absence costs to an organisation, tackling stress can have a positive effect on: