Demystifying Workplace Stress
If there could be a silver lining to the current pandemic, it is the fact that work related stress and poor mental health is finally being treated with the same significance as risks of physical health and injury. Stress is the number one cause of employee absence in the UK, so beyond their legal obligations or any altruistic visions, there is a strong business case for employers of all sizes to find simple and practical tools to manage stress in the workplace and mitigate the impact it has on employee performance. However, without a background in mental health, such as counseling or psychology, many managers, directors and business owners do not feel equipped to tackle stress in their workplaces and even fear being ‘duped’ by employees. Unlike most physical injuries, stress can seem subjective and hard to define. When we started working with companies 30 years ago, stress was heavily stigmatized: we regularly heard managers describe it as a weakness or as ‘the new back ache’,