Health and Safety Consultants

There is now convincing evidence that prolonged periods of stress, including work-related stress, has an adverse effect on health. Research provides strong links between stress and physical effects such as heart disease, back pain, headaches, gastrointestinal disturbances or various minor illnesses; and psychological effects such as anxiety and depression. Stress can also lead to other behaviours that are harmful to health, such as skipping meals, drinking too much caffeine or alcohol, or smoking.

Data Sound is pleased to support this year’s National Stress Awareness Day. Organised by the International Stress Management Association, the aim of the day is to help people suffering from stress, by highlighting the many coping strategies and resources available. So, I have answered some commonly asked questions about work-related stress.

What is stress?

Stress is people’s natural reaction to excessive pressure — it isn’t a disease. But if stress is excessive and goes on for some time, it can lead to mental and physical ill health.

Stress can be a good thing, can’t it?

No! Being under pressure often improves performance. It can be a good thing. But when demands and pressures become excessive, they lead to stress. And it’s clear from the recognised symptoms of stress that it’s actually bad for you.

As an employer, is it my concern?

It’s your duty in law to make sure that your employees aren’t made ill by their work. And stress can make your employees ill. Also, action to reduce stress can be very cost-effective. The costs of stress to your organisation may show up as high employee turnover, an increase in sickness absence, reduced work performance, poor timekeeping and more customer complaints. Stress in one person can also lead to stress in employees who have to cover for their colleague. Also, employers who don’t take stress seriously may leave themselves open to compensation claims from employees who have suffered ill health from work-related stress. Just last month a former employee of the NHS was awarded compensation for life, after he suffered from a psychological condition that was reported to be caused by stress at work. Fortunately, reducing stress need not cost you a lot of money.

Isn’t stress also caused by problems outside work? Are you saying I have to do something about that?

You’re not under a legal duty to prevent ill health caused by stress due to problems outside work, e.g. financial or domestic. The impact of pressures within personal life cannot be ignored and can make it difficult for people to cope with the pressures of work, and their performance at work might suffer. So being understanding to employees in this position would be in your interests.

Are some people more likely to suffer from stress than others?

We’re all vulnerable to stress, depending on the pressure we’re under at any given time. As an employer, you’re responsible for making sure that work doesn’t make your employees ill. If you notice that someone is particularly vulnerable because of their circumstances, look at how their work is organised. See if there are ways to relieve the pressures so that they do not become excessive.

Under health and safety law, what must I do about stress?

If stress caused by or made worse by work could lead to ill health, you must assess the risk. A risk assessment for stress involves: looking for pressures at work which could cause high and long-lasting levels of stress; deciding who might be harmed by these; and deciding whether you are doing enough to prevent that harm. If necessary, you must then take reasonable steps to deal with those pressures.

Find out if your business complies with HSE Stress Management standards, download Data Sound’s guide to Work Related Stress

I recently read on the Health and Safety Executive website that concert goers are being made to wear ear plugs. I couldn’t believe what I was reading, but then I noticed I was in the myth section of the website.

The aim of the Control of Noise at Work Regulations is to protect workers’ hearing from excessive workplace noise, which could cause hearing loss and/or tinnitus (permanent ringing in the ears).  While these Regulations now apply to the music and entertainment sectors, going to concerts is a matter of choice for the audience. The regulations do not apply to concert goers but they do protect the workers, who do face risk from noise at work.

So despite the myth about earplugs, the law is not there to take the fun out of concerts. It’s there so concert staff can face the music in safety.

Here at Data Sound we don’t want to keep our health and safety consultants’ expertise all to ourselves, we want to share it with as many health and safety professionals as possible, which is why we have started our own blog. We hope that the blog gives you ideas of how you can improve health and safety at your organisation.

Make sure you keep visiting for all the latest health and safety news and legislation updates. Our consultants will provide expert guidance on how to meet legislative requirements and how to ensure best practice in all areas of health and safety.  

Your contributions and comments play a vital part of the blog. We value your opinions, so we hope you are keen to share them with us. Even if you don’t agree with what we are writing, we still want to hear from you.  Maybe you have advice that you would like to share.  If you have a particular question or issue that you would like our consultants to address, please let us know, email blog@datasound.com.