Survey

Diagnosed Stress

Many people claim to be stressed and the word ‘stress’ is glibly banded around to an extent that its true meaning is becoming lost in trivia.

We all need a certain amount of pressure to survive. Believe it or not boredom is also a stressor, so even doing nothing can stress us. The problem arises when pressure becomes excessive and starts to cause physical and mental damage.

We hear stories of people who claim to thrive on stress. Because they enjoy the feelings or ‘buzz’ associated with stress does not meant that when they reach ‘excess stress’ that they are not suffering the physical and mental damage associated with excess stress. ‘Burnout’ is now common in the ‘high flyers’ of industry, costing their employers considerable sums in compensation, re-training and other losses associated with key staff leaving.

The need to ensure that stress, or more accurately excess pressure, is properly diagnosed is becoming essential. Medical Doctors are so overloaded now that an appointment lasting over five minutes is rare. Even in ten minutes a Doctor is normally only able to diagnose a broad conclusion that the patient is suffering from stress. The usual result is a bottle of pills and a sick note for up to four weeks.

Normally the Doctor will make no professional appraisal to establish if the stress is work-related.

Once an employers becomes aware that an employee is off work due to a Doctor’s diagnosis of  stress they must then assume, unless proved otherwise, that stress is a work-related health hazard within their organisation.

The tendency for a many employers is to immediately deny  the existence of stress in their workplace. This is like the ostrich burying their head in the sand - their rear end becomes very vulnerable! There is an immediate need to establish the nature of the stress hazard in relation to the workplace. Professional help should be sought.

A full employee stress assessment will take between 90 minutes and 150 minutes. It should be undertaken by a competent Stress Manager who has University accredited post-graduate level qualifications in personal development, mentoring and stress management. They will provide a report indicating where the employees stress originates and what potential risk the employer runs of claims for damages and litigation.

Should you then be involved in a claim for damages or litigation you can prove you have undertaken, in-part, reasonably practicable measures to identify the stress hazard within your workplace. You should also ensure that you have completed your stress risk assessment.