Stress in the workplace
Stress is emerging as a significant cause of ill health associated with modern working practices. There has been a noticeable increase in the number of stress-related personal grievance claims reaching the Employment Relations Authority and Court and the Department of Labour has successfully prosecuted at least one employer for failing to protect an employee from harm caused by stress.
Legal requirements
Employers are required to take all practicable steps to prevent harm from occurring to employees. The Health and Safety in Employment Act 1992 requires employers to adopt a systematic approach to identifying hazards, assessing which are the significant hazards, and controlling these hazards through eliminating, isolating, and/or minimising the hazards. The Act makes specific reference to stress as a cause of harm.
Under the HSE Act 1992, “hazard”:
- Means an activity, arrangement, circumstance, event, occurrence, phenomenon, process, situation, or substance (whether arising or caused within or outside a place of work) that is an actual or potential cause or source of harm; and
- Includes:
(a) a situation where a person’s behaviour may be an actual or potential cause or source of harm to the person or another person; and
(b) a situation resulting from physical or mental fatigue, drugs, alcohol, traumatic shock, or another temporary condition that affects a person’s behaviour.
“Harm” is defined by the Act as follows:
(a) Means illness, injury, or both; and
(b) Includes physical or mental harm caused by work-related stress.
Health effects
Excessive levels of work-related stress can cause short and long-term health effects.
- Short-term effects may include:
- Problems concentrating;
- Insomnia;
- Irritability; or
- Feelings of depression.
Long-term effects may include:
- Heart problems;
- Nervous breakdowns and other emotional problems;
- High blood pressure;
- Peptic ulcers;
- Allergies; or
- Alcoholism or drug addiction.
Identifying and dealing with stress
Employers should identify any employees who may be at risk of suffering from excessive stress levels. This could be done by asking employees to complete a questionnaire to find out whether they are experiencing any of the symptoms of stress and whether their job contains any of the factors associated with high stress levels.
Some examples of stress indicators are:
- Excessive work hours;
- Increase in workload with no change in staffing levels;
- Long-standing and repeated warnings by employees of excessive workload or stress;
- Unreasonable amounts of annual leave being accrued;
- High patterns of sick leave; and
- Role ambiguity.
The likelihood that someone may be suffering from levels of stress that will affect their health depends on a complex interaction of factors, such as the type of work, management styles, personality factors, and existence of stressors in the person’s personal life.
Where an employee is at risk of suffering from health effects associated with excessive stress, employers should eliminate the causes wherever practicable. This could be done, for example, by reducing their working hours, taking them off shift work, decreasing their level of responsibility or moving them to a job where they are not likely to suffer from boredom (which can be just as stressful as an excessively challenging job).
Where elimination of work-related stress is not practicable, employers should try to isolate the risks wherever practicable, eg by organising work so that angry customers and customer complaints are dealt with by those who are most able to cope.
Employers should also take steps to minimise the risk. Control measures may include:
- Developing a company culture that is supportive of employees who are suffering from stress;
- Encouraging relationships between employees and their managers that make the employee confident to approach their manager for help with work-related problems;
- Setting up support systems, such as counselling services, for employees and managers who are suffering from excessive stress;
- Providing rehabilitation and support for employees that have suffered from stress-related illness to return to work; and
- Providing staff with appropriate training, such as recognising harmful symptoms of stress, relaxation techniques, how to avoid or cope with stressful situations, time management, and employee relations.
Responding to stress complaints
There are certain events that should trigger an investigation into stress levels at work. The most obvious triggers are complaints and reports of excessive stress. This may be from the employee themselves, their manager, a colleague, or even other people who have regular contact with the employee, such as their family, a mentor, or a client.
Such complaints or reports may, for example, be made during a performance review or management audit. It may be made formally in writing, or informally during conversation. It could come about indirectly, for example, if a client refuses to deal with a particular employee because they find them “uptight and irritable lately”.
All complaints of excessive stress that could cause harm in the workplace should be investigated. There are a number of logical steps that should be followed.
1. Discuss the concerns
The first step is to discuss the concerns with the employee. The type of conversation (whether it’s an informal chat or a more lengthy, formal discussion in an investigation meeting) will depend on what’s appropriate in the circumstances.
If the stress is self-reported, the person investigating could ask:
- What the employee means by “stress”;
- What symptoms the employee has experienced that could be attributed to stress;
- Whether the employee has consulted a doctor, and if so what the diagnosis was and what recommendations the doctor made in relation to work;
- What areas of their life are causing them stress, ie work, personal life, or both; and
- What work factors the employee feels is contributing to their stress.
If an investigation has been triggered but the stress isn’t self-reported, the manager investigating could:
- Arrange a meeting with the employee concerned and encourage them to bring a friend or family member for support;
- Be open-minded and supportive – and make it clear that the aim of the investigation is to help the employee, not to persecute or punish them;
- Begin by raising the reasons for concern;
- Proceed by asking open-ended questions to find out the employee’s perspective;
- Give the employee plenty of opportunity to comment, explain, and ask questions; and
- Work with the employee to identify any work factors that may be causing them excessive stress.
2. Consider contribution of work factors
After the meeting, the employee’s feedback should be considered and further investigations carried out if appropriate. Are there indications that other employees are also experiencing stress problems demonstrated by, for example, high turnover rates, high levels of sickness and absenteeism, and workload issues raised by employees or unions?
A decision should be made about the extent to which work factors are contributing to potentially harmful levels of stress, to allow reasonable steps for controlling these factors to be identified. The employer only has control over work factors, but even so, if personal factors are making an employee more susceptible to stress at work, it’s likely to be in the employer’s interest to help the employee to cope.
Once the employer has become aware that an employee is affected by, for example, depression caused by problems in their home life, it is the employer’s responsibility to take reasonable steps to ensure their work environment doesn’t make their condition worse, or that their condition does not put them or anyone else at risk.
Agree on solutions
Once the extent to which work factors are involved has been established, the manager should meet again with the employee to discuss the situation and talk about possible solutions. There are many possible solutions that could be considered, but bear in mind the most effective ones are those that go to the source of the problem (such as changing lines of reporting where there’s a personality clash between a manager and a member of their staff) rather than patching up the problem without resolving anything (such as training in relaxation techniques for a member of staff who doesn’t get on with their manager).
The solutions that will be appropriate and effective really depend on the individual circumstances. They can range from giving the employee more control over their work, hiring more staff, making organisational changes to avoid conflict between two particular employees, altering the employee’s duties to better suit their personality and strengths, allowing flexible working hours, and so on.
Implement the plan
Once a plan has been formulated, effort should be taken to make sure it’s put into action. The manager should monitor the plan and make sure that the agreed measures are taken and that they are working. A follow-up meeting or informal discussion after a suitable period of time is a good idea to check on progress.
It’s also important to regularly review the situation – previous stressors could disappear and new stressors could evolve. A person’s emotional health, their ability to cope with their work, and the pressures of the job may fluctuate. Harmful levels of work stress that have been resolved may not stay resolved forever, so managers should stay alert. It’s even better to anticipate potential problems (such as an expected increase in workload) and to take steps before an employee finds themselves overwhelmed.
If you need legal advice on employment matters you can find a law firm in your area using the FindLaw Find A Lawyer directory.
