subject: Why It Is Important For Employers And Employees To Be Aware Of Stress In The Workplace [print this page] Stress is something that we all feel from time to time and it is very much part of modern life. Not all stress is harmful. But when the pressure becomes too great and you do not know how to deal with it, stress can have a detrimental effect on your health - both mental and physical.
One area in life where stress is prevalent is at work. It is very important for employers and employees to be aware of stress in the workplace. Meeting production targets, striving to win bonus payments and merely producing enough business to keep the company a going concern is very stressful for management, staff and workers alike.
While workplace stress may be ideal for giving any business that extra edge in the face of competition, it can also lead to health problems and key workers having to take time off through illness. If the problem of stress is not properly dealt with it can have a detrimental effect on even the most efficient of businesses enjoying the best of industrial relations.
It is essential that employers are aware of the effects stress has on their employees and that they take the necessary steps to avoid it. Britain's Health and Safety Executive puts a large part of the onus on employers for avoiding stress on their employees.
Employers should strive to ensure that work practices and organisation within the business are structured to ensure that their employees suffer as little stress as possible.
It is also important that employers make their employees aware that they should be notified if they feel they becoming stressful due to work. Workers should also realise that their employers do have duty of care towards them.
In the UK employees are protected by the 1974 Health and Safety at Work Act. And under the 1992 Management of Health and Safety at Work regulation, employers must ensure that measures are in place to safeguard staff and workers health, which includes employees not being put under so much stress that they become ill.
Employees should also play their part by informing their employer when the stress in the workplace becomes too great.
It is important that both employers and employees are aware of stress in the workplace to ensure everyone stays healthy, and that production is not lost through key personnel falling sick. Should the employer refuse to acknowledge this basic, but vital fact, he could find himself falling foul of the regulations in place to protect the health of his staff and workers.
