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Stress costs your company far too much
Workplace stress blamed as sick-days double
December 10 2002
Story filed: December 10 2002 FT.com
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T.L.C. Stress Management can help you to overcome these problems
By Dan Roberts, Industrial Editor
An epidemic of workplace stress has caused a near-doubling of days taken off sick by employees, according to a government study.
The Health and Safety Commission found 33m days were lost in the past year from work-related ill-heath, against 18m in the last comparable survey in 1995 and 550,000 days lost through strikes.
Stress is the biggest occupational health reason given on sick notes. The HSC said a lot of employees were taking off more than six months a year because managers were reluctant to challenge their claims or help "rehabilitate" genuine sufferers. The average time taken off to recover from work-related illness has risen from 14 to 23 days a year.
But the researchers found little to prove the workplace has become more stressful or whether employees are quicker to use it as a reason for absence.
"At the moment we are not 100 per cent sure whether this is an actual increase in stress or whether there are technical issues such as over-reporting," said Sandra Caldwell, director of the Health and Safety Executive's health directorate.
Unions blame employers but the worst rates of absence through stress are in the public sector.
The Confederation of British Industry said it was important that managers challenged claims of stress. "Although some public-sector jobs are undoubtedly very stressful, there seems a lot that the public sector can learn from the private sector about how to manage this," said Michael Roberts, director of business environment for the CBI.
The HSC's annual study is the largest and most comprehensive of its type, but its statisticians said the numbers should come with a warning because comparisons were difficult. Nevertheless, the research is supported by other studies, such as a CBI survey that found the total cost of absence to business rose from £10.7bn in 2000 to £11.8bn in 2001.