Stress awareness month! Now lets look at stress in the workplace; …..

According to the HSE; Work-related stress, depression or anxiety is defined as a harmful reaction people have to undue pressures and demands placed on them at work.

The latest estimates from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) show:

The total number of cases of work-related stress, depression or anxiety in 2020/21 was 822,000, a prevalence rate of 2,480 per 100,000 workers.

In the recent years prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the rate of self-reported work-related stress, depression or anxiety had shown signs of increasing.

In 2020/21 the rate was higher than the 2018/19 pre-coronavirus levels.  The number of new cases was 451,000, an incidence rate of 1,360 per 100,000 workers. In 2020/21 stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 50% of all work-related ill health cases scary right!

Having conversations with people in the office over the coffee machine certainly used to help me to off load, as a business owner predominately working from home now, I have certainly experienced environmental stress, dogs, kids,  not getting my steps in, working longer hours than I normally would, as a business owner there’s always something to do! A word of advice take your breaks, time management is key!

MHFA England highlights that people with lots of supportive friends and colleagues tend to do better in times of crisis than people with fewer or perhaps no other people to turn too, keep connecting with people who’s got your back when your feeling stressed?

Talking therapies are key to reduce the stress inside our stress container.

Our landscape has certainly changed, today we have so many employees working remotely or hybrids.

Quick question, business leaders….. How are you checking in on your staff? Is it a quick Zoom or Teams chat, is this really enough?

Not sure where to start on your wellbeing strategy then get in touch the BMR team we can help you shape the work design of your company, we can help you, remember too much stress can be damaging!

A few top tips for destressing

Learn how to say NO!

Ask for Help!

Communicate - Tell people how you are feeling

Making time for positive, valued experiences

Avoid alcohol/caffeine/substances

Regular exercise

Meditation

Mindfulness

Good nutrition

Rest  and reflection

My final tip by changing that persons environment for the better it is a win win especially  for business leaders, we can most certainly start to lower absenteeism rates by identifying any workplace stresses, let’s start to show compassion,  we are all human at the end of the day!