Balancing the Positives and Negatives of Stress at Work

a post by Brendan Street (Professional Head of Emotional Well-being, Nuffield Health) for ByteStart: the small business portal

Stress is an inevitable part of everyday life and our bodies are hard-wired to respond to it. However, it’s clear stress is taking a negative toll on businesses across the country.

Poor mental health costs employers between £1,205 and £1,560 per employee every year. This cost is for all employees, not just those who are ill, so we asked Brendan Street of Nuffield Health to show how employers can cut the cost of stress.

Last year, stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 44 percent of all work-related ill health cases and 57 percent of all working days lost due to ill health. 15.4 million days were lost due to work related stress in 2017/2018.

The main causes of stress in the workplace are workload pressures, mounting responsibility and a perceived lack of support from senior management.

Let’s start by exploring the difference between helpful and unhelpful stress and what this means for employers looking to improve the well-being of their workforce.

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Hazel’s comment:
I tend to skate over ByteStart’s blog posts because I no longer run a small business but every so often I come across a post such as this which may be applicable to a much wider audience.

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