Stress in the workplace – the facts

According to the Health & Safety Executive, employee absenteeism is running at 13 million days and is costing the economy £12 billion a year. They estimate that stress is responsible for one third of this cost, and that it is the single largest cause of occupational ill health.

Other impacts of stress on your organisation:

• Staff morale decreases
• Productivity decreases
• Mistakes & therefore costs increase
• Staff turnover increases
• Customer care suffers

What is stress & how does it affect my employees?
It is important to know that stress can be both positive & negative. Positive stress is generated by the body when the mind perceives the current task to be achievable, even if it is challenging. The body generates hormones that enable the employee to meet these challenges, by boosting brain function, physical strength and stamina as required. Once the challenge is over, the body returns itself to its normal state & the stress hormones are removed by natural processes.

Negative stress occurs when there is a sustained period of ‘challenge’ with seemingly no end or break in sight. It also occurs when the challenge is not perceived as reasonable or achievable by the person who is facing it.

In this instance the body starts to over-produce and under-remove the stress hormones, causing an overload of the physical and mental body systems. A destructive cycle is formed and, unless broken, results in short-term anxiety attacks, longer-term depression and in some cases complete mental and/or physical breakdown.

Use Quest Corporate Therapies to combat workplace stress