Employers not doing enough to address stress Stressed workers are suffering in silence and employers aren’t doing enough to tackle stress, according to new figures from Mind. The mental health charity’s survey of over 2,000 workers found 45 per cent of those polled said that staff are expected to cope without mentioning stress at work and almost a third (31 per cent) said that they would not be able to talk openly to their line manager if they felt stressed. Mind also found a huge difference in the perceptions of managers and their staff about how mental health is addressed in the workplace. Only 22 per cent of workers felt that their boss takes active steps to help them manage stress. Many managers, however, seem to think that they are doing enough to support staff, with over two-thirds (68 per cent) saying that they would find ways of helping staff who were stressed or experiencing a mental health problem. Paul Farmer, chief executive of Mind, said: “These figures show that stress remains the elephant in the room in many workplaces. It also highlights the worrying disparity between how managers and other members of staff view their organisation’s approach to mental wellbeing. It is vital that managers are equipped with the tools they need to be able to confidently and effectively support their staff, whether they are experiencing stress or mental health problems as a result of work or other factors. He added: “There is a real danger that companies are neglecting workplace mental health, with huge implications for staff wellbeing; not to mention productivity, motivation and sickness absence.” Public sector union UNISON has produced a suite of new campaign materials on a ‘Cut stress, not jobs’ theme.
Posted on: Sat, 19 Oct 2013 09:16:32 +0000
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