Cases of workplace stress grow since COVID

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Hundreds of thousands more people are suffering from work-related stress and mental health conditions since the COVID-19 pandemic, figures show.

According to statistics from the Health and Safety Executive and Office for National Statistics (ONS), around 875,000 workers experienced job-related stress, anxiety and depression in 2022-23. This is a jump from 602,000 in 2018-19.

Cases of workplace stress

Experts are now urging employers to improve post-pandemic working conditions and offer more support to those who are struggling.

Alexa Knight, director of England at the Mental Health Foundation, explained that the introduction of home-working during the pandemic contributed to poor work-life balance and may have affected the mental health of workers in some jobs.

Alexa told iNews:

“During the pandemic, people’s work and home life started blurring, people started working longer hours, they were less able to switch off and some of that has carried on. Managers can play a key role in making sure that people are protecting their personal time.”

Meanwhile, Neil Greenberg, a psychiatrist and executive committee member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said going to work is healthy “unless you’re in a toxic workplace”. He highlights how bad leadership, poor relationships or too much work can impact you negatively.

“In that case, obviously, not being at work is likely to have a positive effect on your mental health because it’s taking you away from the stressors that are causing it in the first place,” he said.

Other reasons for the increase in work-related mental health issues include the increase in zero-hour contracts, as figures show 136,000 more workers are in zero-hour jobs in 2023 compared to 2022.

Meanwhile, some people might be struggling at work due to the change in environment, and social aspects after working from home.

Equality Act 2010

Under the Equality Act 2010, if someone has suffered an impairment to their day-to-day activities for more than a year, they are considered disabled and should be receiving “reasonable adjustments” from their employers.

“That might mean reducing workload, it might mean allowing more flexibility in how someone works so they can work at home some of the time, it might be changing their supervisor, it might be changing their role a bit,” Greenberg explained.

However, Greenberg highlighted how those in ‘safety critical’ jobs such as driving public transport or roles in the NHS should not be working if they are suffering with their mental health as they could put others at risk.

How employers can help people struggling with stress

By law, employers are responsible for ensuring workers are safe at work.

The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 puts a ‘duty of care’ on employers to protect their employees from the risk of stress at work

Meanwhile, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 requires all employers to make a ‘suitable and sufficient assessment’ of the risks to the health and safety of their employees at work.

Make an action plan

If an employee reports that they are experiencing work-related stress, they should agree with their employer on what they can do to reduce it. One way of doing this is to put in place an action plan.

This should include:

What the problem is
The proposed solution
What actions to take to achieve the solution
The dates by which to achieve each action
A date to review the plan and see if it has achieved its aim

What can an employer do to help?

Employers can help to reduce stress by implementing the following:

Implement flexible working hours
Allowing more rest breaks
Give the employee different responsibilities
Help them to prioritise their workload
Provide training or mentoring

When making any adjustments, managers should:

Review them regularly to check that they are effective
Consider how to support the rest of the team so that they’re not overloaded

Impact of stress at work

Stress can affect all aspects of your life, and as such, the symptoms can often be multi-dimensional. A little day-to-day stress is natural and most often necessary, but when it becomes prolonged and combines with other things like lack of sleep, it can have a huge effect on your health.

High levels of stress over a period of time run the risk of damaging mental health to the extent that medical intervention is required. Employers have a legal obligation to take measures to support both the physical and mental well-being of staff.

Common causes of stress at work

Stress at work, or work-related stress, is defined by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other demands placed on them.’

Each person who is suffering from Stress at Work may be doing so for different reasons. However, we have rounded up some common reasons that we see time and time again:

A lack of control of workload
High demands and lack of clarity about responsibilities
Fear of redundancy or changes
Poor line management and lack of support
Difficult relationships with colleagues
Bullying or harassment in the workplace
Workplace discrimination.

Stress At Work – How to make a claim

If you are suffering from stress at work which is affecting your health, you may be entitled to claim compensation from your employer for the damages.

For a successful legal claim to be awarded, you must legally prove that you have not only suffered workplace stress but that the stress meets the clinical criteria for a recognised psychiatric condition.

If this is proven, you would be able to claim compensation known as general damages – an award for the suffering and potential lost income

Here is a list of points that should be taken into consideration if you believe that your case may be bad enough to seek the help of a Solicitor.

These first three are the most important, as they prove that you have followed the correct process and official records have been made as a result:

Concerns raised with line manager and/or human resources

You have reached the point where the stress has affected you enough to report it to your manager or HR representative.

Company response was either unsatisfactory or non-existent

The issue has been officially recorded by your employer, but the solution they offered was either inadequate or the matter was disregarded altogether.

Doctors’ appointment made and stress recorded by GP

You felt it necessary to consult medical help due to stress, and your symptoms were logged in your patient record.

These final three points are things that may help your case going forward:

Sick note issued or medication prescribed by doctor

Your doctor deemed it necessary to prescribe medication to help manage the symptoms of stress or sign you off work with a sick note at some point.

Diary of work events and circumstances kept by employee

You have had the foresight to log anything that may have contributed to the stress you have been experiencing – late nights either at work or working out of hours at home, sleepless nights, lists of additional tasks, etc…

Work affecting personal life or time outside of work

Things have reached a point where you are forced to focus on work matters, or worry about them regularly outside of working hours in personal time and are thus affecting your everyday life.

If you have covered the first three steps of this checklist and maybe recognise any or all of the last three, chances are you may be thinking about escalating things to legal action.

If you can get some free initial advice that many legal firms offer, they will ask you questions that include the above points and should be able to advise you on if you may have a claim.

A responsible Solicitor should also tell you whether you need to take additional steps or if they believe that you are trying to take action too early, as it is in both of your interests to only escalate things when necessary and with the best chance of success.

275,000 more cases of workplace stress and anxiety since COVID, figures show