workplace stress is becomingincreasingly common but it's something many of us often keep quiet or don't know what to do about or even where to turn for help. what you might not know is that your employer is legally required to help you if work stress has become an issue in your life. an employer has a duty of care to their employees to ensure that there is a safe working environment and that includes in relationto minimising the risk of stress and stress-related illnesses.
there are a lot of things that employers can do to try and manage stress in the workplace. one of the first things they might want to do is to conduct a stress audit to find outwhat is causing employees stress and they could even do that on an anonymous basis so that employees feel freeto be frank in their answers. it's also important then to look at things like patterns of sickness absence and return to work interviewscan be very helpful for trying to find out what the underlying cause of absence may be because we know that employees don't always report stress as the reason that they're out sick.
employers should have a stress policy that makes it very clear to employees that they should raise concerns if they're stressed and how to do so. so that, really, there is a culture of being open about this kind of issue and it is communicatedto everybody. crucially, then trainingmanagers to identify situations that cause stress and can give rise to stress and what thesymptoms of stress in their employees are so that they can help to manage that too.
workers and employees have a right to take time off when they're sick and that can include if theyare sick by reason of stress, but it's really more about what can an employee do when they're in this situation in order to raise concernswith their employer and i would say in that scenarioit's important to raise your concerns early rather thansuffer in silence because what i've seen in my work is alot of employees who struggle on in difficult circumstances and it gets tothe point where they're at breakdown or they're diagnosed with aserious depressive illness.
it's important to speak out,whatever is happening, and to try and raise your concernsoften informally at an early stage. so, you canspeak to your line manager if the line manager doesn't want to takeaction or is the cause the problem, perhaps, then do speak to hr, talk to your union rep or other employee rep. you can seek advice fromthe citizens advice bureau, or indeed acas, or you can seek specialistlegal advice from an employment lawyer. we know that workers in the uk do some ofthe longest working hours across europe. stress does seem to be aparticular issue in this workplace culture.
there are other countrieswhere, for example, an employee can call in sickand say they're having a mental health day and that's recognisedand it's taken seriously because it's recognised by an employer that being open about your concerns and sometimes just taking some time out is going to be more beneficial to an employee and, therefore, to the employer, its morale andproductivity than soldiering onin a difficult situation. for more informationpeople should go to our website
slatergordon.co.uk
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