Why do we need to be concerned with stress?
Stress is the number one reason for absence from the workplace. Research has found that stress has overtaken the common cold as the major reason for absence from work.
The CBI estimates that in the UK 360 million working days are lost each year through illness. The Health and Safety Executive calculates that at least 50% of these lost days are attributed in some way to stress, and that the cost to British industry is over 11 billion pounds a year.
Employers have a legal responsibility for the mental and physical health and safety of their staff. The 1995 Health & Safety at work directive stipulates that organisations care for the psychological as well as the physical health of employees.
The TUC are seeking compensation for stress in approximately 780 individual cases.
A survey in 1998 of 4500 randomly selected members of the Institute of Directors showed that:
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