Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Join
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

Register
Log in
Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Join
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today

StressLegal Q&AOccupational HealthWellbeing

Stress in the workplace

by Personnel Today 16 Nov 2004
by Personnel Today 16 Nov 2004

Q What are the signs of a stressed employee?

A Employees will often not want to admit to their employer or themselves that the pressure of work is getting to them. However, because the law expects employers to predict and avoid reasonably foreseeable risks of injury to their employees, including the damaging effects of stress, employers must be on the lookout. It is not sufficient to wait for an employee to complain.

Some of the common symptoms of stress in employees are:

– a negative change in mood or behaviour

– a deterioration in relationships with colleagues

– longer hours being worked with no additional achievement

– indecisiveness

– absenteeism

– poor performance (more mistakes, missed deadlines and a reluctance to face up to or prioritise difficult tasks).

Q What should employers do to prevent stress at work?

A It is important that managers and colleagues are able to identify potential problems at an early stage, so training can be useful. There should be easy ways for employees to raise concerns about work pressure both informally and formally, perhaps via general supervision and management, as a specific part of a grievance procedure or even under a dedicated stress policy.

Giving access to trained confidential counsellors can be useful, though their role needs to be carefully thought through, particularly with regard to the action that they can and cannot take once they know an employee is stressed. Where an employee is suffering from stress a course of action should be agreed with them and the outcome monitored.

Q What should an employer do where it suspects an employee is stressed, but they deny it?

A Employers are under a duty to protect employees’ health and safety, regardless of whether an employee is willing to run the risk of harm. For this reason, it is important for an employer not to take such a denial at face value. Concerns should be raised in a way that makes it easy for the employee to be honest – for example away from a particularly tough manager. If the employee continues to deny that they are stressed, the employer should make a dated note of all conversations on the subject and ensure the situation is monitored.

Q How does it affect the situation if an employee’s stress is caused by problems not related to their work?

A An employer’s duty of care does not extend to preventing ill health caused by problems in employees’ personal lives, such as divorce, bereavement or money worries. Legally, because such a stress-related condition is not caused by the employer, an employee would not normally be able to bring a personal injury claim.

However, it is possible that a failure to take such matters into account in dealing with poor performance and/or increased absence might render any dismissal unfair. It might also amount to a breach of the implied duty of trust and confidence and, if the breach was sufficiently serious, the employee might resign and claim unfair constructive dismissal.

If an employee is known to be having problems outside work, this must be taken into account when carrying out risk assessments as it could make them more vulnerable at work.

Q How should employees who just cannot handle the pressure be treated?

A If an employer has identified that a worker is at risk from, or is suffering from, stress due to the type or amount of work they are doing, it is under a duty to take reasonable measures to alleviate the problem. If those reasonable measures do not solve the problem, disciplinary or poor performance procedures can begin.

However, where a stress-related illness amounts to a disability under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, or the stress is caused by unlawful discrimination or harassment, the employer must take steps to make reasonable adjustments to the employee’s workplace or prevent the discrimination as appropriate.

By Vince Toman, Lewis Silkin/provided by XpertHR

Personnel Today
Personnel Today

Personnel Today articles are written by an expert team of award-winning journalists who have been covering HR and L&D for many years. Some of our content is attributed to "Personnel Today" for a number of reasons, including: when numerous authors are associated with writing or editing a piece; or when the author is unknown (particularly for older articles).

previous post
Jubilee line tube drivers threaten strike action on Christmas Eve
next post
Be safe, be secure

You may also like

Mental ill-health at work: the evidence for action

16 Aug 2022

Expert urges Covid-19 autumn booster expansion amid waning...

11 Aug 2022

Working in a heatwave: what should employers consider?

11 Aug 2022

Zero-hours contract benefits ‘can outweigh negatives for workers’

11 Aug 2022

Hybrid working: do the costs outweigh the wellbeing...

10 Aug 2022

Personnel Today Awards 2022 shortlist: Health and Wellbeing...

10 Aug 2022

Something new to get stressed about: hello Premier...

5 Aug 2022

Long Covid develops in one in eight of...

5 Aug 2022

How can OH start difficult conversations about loneliness?

3 Aug 2022

CPD: supporting the health needs of university staff

1 Aug 2022

  • 6 reasons why work-based learning is better than traditional training PROMOTED | A recent Fortune/Deloitte survey found that 71% of CEOs are anticipating that this year’s biggest business disrupter...Read more
  • Strengthening Scotland’s public services through virtual recruiting PROMOTED | This website is Scotland's go-to place for job seekers looking to apply for roles in public services...Read more
  • What’s next for L&D? Enter Alchemist… PROMOTED | It’s time to turn off the tedious and get ready for interactive and immersive learning experiences...Read more
  • Simple mistakes are blighting the onboarding experience PROMOTED | The onboarding of new hires is a company’s best chance...Read more

PERSONNEL TODAY

About us
Contact us
Browse all HR topics
Email newsletters
Content feeds
Cookies policy
Privacy policy
Terms and conditions

JOBS

Personnel Today Jobs
Post a job
Why advertise with us?

EVENTS & PRODUCTS

The Personnel Today Awards
The RAD Awards
Employee Benefits
Forum for Expatriate Management
OHW+
Whatmedia

ADVERTISING & PR

Advertising opportunities
Features list 2022

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Linkedin


© 2011 - 2022 DVV Media International Ltd

Personnel Today
  • OHW+
  • Join
  • Resources
    • Clinical governance
    • Disability
    • Ergonomics
    • Health surveillance
    • OH employment law
    • OH service delivery
    • Research
    • Return to work and rehabilitation
    • Sickness absence management
    • Wellbeing and health promotion
  • Conditions
    • Mental health
    • Musculoskeletal disorders
    • Blood pressure
    • Cancer
    • Cardiac
    • Dementia
    • Diabetes
    • Respiratory
    • Stroke
  • CPD
  • Webinars
  • OHW Awards
  • Jobs
  • Personnel Today