Employers who Ignore Workplace Stress could be Liable
All businesses in the UK are legally required to ensure the health, safety and welfare of their employees. This includes a duty to control workplace stress: if an employee develops a stress-related illness as a result of a 'reasonably foreseeable incident', the employer may be held liable. ‘Foreseeability’ depends on what the employer knows (or reasonably ought to know) about the member of staff.
While the onus is on the employee to bring matters to the employer's attention, employers themselves will be in breach of duty if they have failed to take the steps which are considered reasonable in the circumstances.
Employers are usually entitled to assume that employees can stand the normal pressures of the job; and they are entitled to take what they are told by their staff at face value. But both these points are conditional on the employer not being aware of reasons for not doing so. However, in the case of stress, often employees will not disclose pertinent information to their employer because of the stigma associated with the condition.
Stress is usually linked to mental health problems, but recent research from scientists from the Helmholtz Zentrum Munchen in Germany has discovered that people, even those who are healthy, who have stressful jobs face ‘twice the risk of cardiovascular diseases’.
This new finding highlights the physical damage that excessive pressure can cause and this should sound a warning bell to business owners. Ignoring workplace stress could have serious consequences, including expensive long-term absenteeism. Therefore, it is in companies' best interests to ensure employees are as stress free as possible.
It is also important not to forget ‘presenteeism’ because of stress, when an employee is physically present, but psychologically disengaged, and so not fully productive. Lack of communication is another factor in workplace stress. One way this can happen is when there is no interchange between business sub-units so that employees in one department inadvertently, but routinely, make difficulties for colleagues in another. Another way is when employees feel their problems are not being heard and dealt with by their line managers and other leaders in the business.
Case studies have demonstrated repeatedly that in the management of stress, the most successful managers or supervisors are those who establish effective relationships with employees. Indeed, research has shown that how employees react to stressors is determined to a large extent by the reaction and behaviour of their managers or supervisors.
A recent EU study has found that work-related stress is not generally risk managed properly. The survey also suggests that there is a link between employees’ stress and their organisation’s policy to combat it: if there are no such policies, or employees do not know about them, stress levels are higher. Overall, the findings suggest that businesses and other work places need to do more to protect their workforce and, in turn, boost productivity.
To discover the likelihood of an employee being affected by stress, companies need to conduct an assessment of risk, and based on the findings of that, develop a stress policy as part of their Health and Safety strategy.
Businesses need to ask themselves:
• Are the demands being made of an employee unreasonable when compared with the demands made of others in the same or comparable jobs?
• Are there signs that those doing a specific job are suffering harmful levels of stress?
• Is there an abnormal level of sickness or absenteeism in the same job or department?
Within your own business or workplace,
• Do you have a policy on stress?
• Have you conducted a risk assessment for stress?
• Are your employees aware of the signs of stress and how to spot them in a colleague?
If your answer to any of these questions is ‘no’, you might like to contact me for a FREE consultation.
Dr. Katie Porkess
MSc MBA PhD FISMA
www.porkessconsultancy.co.uk
Dr. Katie Porkess is an organisational psychologist. She specialises in the behaviour of employees, both individuals and groups, and their leaders when they are working under pressure and stress and offers solutions for its management. Katie is a Fellow and Trustee of the International Stress Management Association (UK), an Affiliate of the Centre for Leadership Studies, and a guest lecturer on the Business Ethics module of the One Planet MBA programme, both at the University of Exeter.
