Stress at Work - some facts that may surprise you…

Work can be one of the most common places that people experience stress, this being said, it doesn't mean that we can't experience stress in other parts of our lives. Employees may feel stress when they cannot cope with pressure, feel under-trained, have tight deadlines and more.

Employers have a legal duty to protect employees from stress at work. They can do this through risk assessments. 

What are the main areas of work design that affects stress?

The HSE defines these 6 areas as: 

• demands
• control
• support
• relationships
• role
• change

According to a study by Forth in 2018... 

• 85% of adults experience stress regularly
• 39% of adults admit they feel too stressed in day to day life
• The most common causes of stress are money, health and work
• Over a third (37%) of UK, residents feel stressed at least one full day a week
• 54% of people worry about the effect stress has on their heart.
• Stress is more prominent in public service industries, like education; health and social care; and public administration and defence.
• 32% of people use exercise as a stress relief
• Women appear to experience stress more than men, by suffering from stress 3 more days a month than men
• Women appear to be more stressed in regard to money whereas men feel more stress surrounding work
• People studied from the ‘Unversity age bracket’ appear to experience the most stress
• Students appear to experience stress around 12 days of the month and a lot of students appear to use music as a stress relief

There is no easy fix for stress - the best solution is to try and prevent it from happening in the first place! As individuals, you need to have effective strategies in place to reduce and control pressure before it turns into stress and becomes a problem. Employers should also be aware of individuals that are not coping with stress at work.

Becoming more aware… 

We have also provided information about what work-related stress is in one of our most recent blogs.

Our Stress Awareness Training is interactive, so you have a great chance to look at your own stress levels. You can then sort the coping and prevention strategies into an order that you feel will benefit you, in order to suit you personally. The training clearly explains how and why stress happens, how to spot it and what to do about it. Simply recognising that it may happen to you (or may be happening to you now) may be all you need to nip it in the bud!