I was shocked to read on one day randomly the following:

January 2012 – workplace stress is at a four-year high, with 35% of UK employees experiencing unreasonable stresslevels at work (Study Kenexa)

Sept 2012 – Working is a stressful activity with 1 in  5 suffering from workplace stress, with half a million reporting they have become ill as a result (Source: DirectGov)

Research by the CIPD  finds that stress is the number one cause of long-term absence for non-manual employees and the fourth biggest cause for manual workers. In addition, stress-related absences are frequently long, averaging 21 days per spell of absence (Spurgeon et al 2007).

September 2012 – More than 56 out of 200 HR directors across the UK have no formal process in place to deal with stress and anxiety (Survey Office Team)

Recession

With recession comes lower pay and job insecurity and these facts are amongst the main causes of employee stress. People don’t feel in control over the fate of their jobs and in organisations where staff has been made redundant the average stress level was nearly 40 percent, compared to 25% where there had not been layoffs. Did you know that work stress spoils the weekend of 26%?

With stress levels that high, it should be a number one priority for HR departments to have support plans in place to look after their staff. It is shocking to read a survey that shows that 28% of HR directors admit that they have no formal process in place to deal with stress and anxiety for employees. Less than one 33% offer counselling services via insurance, less than 33% offer stress management training for their employees and less than one third offer individual programmes as and when is needed.

If you want to work, you better prepare yourself and make sure you have your own stress management tools in place.

To read more about different types of stress, click here,

If you want to tackle your stress, read more about Stress Management at your Desk: the easiest ever stress management programme. You can buy it online for £79.95.

If you want to discuss options for your employees, contact Dr Mariette Jansen, mariette.jansen.coaching@gmail.com or phone 07967 717 131.

 

 

 

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