Introduction
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) define stress as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them”. Recent research shows that this ‘adverse reaction’ can seriously undermine the quality of people’s working lives and, in turn, the effectiveness of the workplace.
Stress takes many forms. As well as leading to anxiety and depression it can have a significant impact on an employee’s physical health. Research links stress to heart disease, back pain, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances and alcohol and drug dependency.
This guide aims to help organisations and individuals reduce stress at work – as well as preventing it happening in the first place. This means doing something about the main underlying causes of stress – like poor communication and lack of training – and coping with the symptoms of stress – like anxiety and ill health.