Guidelines to Management of Stress at Work
Introduction
This document aims to provide information on work-related stress and the measures in place
at Massey University to help prevent work-related stress or protect employees from it.
The University will endeavour to do its part, so far as is reasonably practicable, in preventing
work-related stress.
Examples of possible sources of stress are given in Appendix 1 and examples of possible
responses to stress are given in Appendix 2. Appendix 3 outlines hazard management control
in the identification and assessment of hazards in the workplace that can lead to stress.
Contents
Introduction............................................................................................................................1
Definition of Stress ................................................................................................................1
Mechanisms for Identifying the Risks ...................................................................................1
Mechanisms for Identifying and Monitoring the Incidence of Stress....................................2
Responsibilities ......................................................................................................................2
Measures to Prevent Stress or to Mitigate its Consequences.................................................3
References..............................................................................................................................4
Appendix 1
How (and why) does stress affect us? ...........................................................5
Appendix 2 Examples of responses to stress.....................................................................6
Appendix 3 Stress hazards and Solutions..........................................................................7
Appendix 4 Context and Content of Work ......................................................................10
Definition of Stress
Stress is the emotional, physiological or behavioural adverse reaction people have to
excessive pressure or other types of demand placed on them (adapted from UK Health and
Safety Executive).
Things at work or outside of work, or both, can cause stress. The information in this
document is concerned with work-related stress: that is, stress that arises from, or is made
worse by, work. Work-related stress is not an illness, but it can lead to increased problems
with ill health if it is prolonged or particularly intense.
Mechanisms for Identifying the Risks
Work-related stress and fatigue need to be included in the management of hazards, when
carrying out hazard assessments required by the Health and Safety in Employment Act. In
making these assessments, employers must consider the factors that are likely to cause
intense or sustained levels of work-related stress, taking into account the precautions/control
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measures that are already in place. It is reasonable to assume that employees are mentally
capable of withstanding reasonable 1 pressures at work.
It must also be recognised that there will be other external factors that cannot be controlled by
the University and that employees must, so far as is reasonably practicable, do whatever they
can to help prevent stress in the workplace.
Mechanisms for Identifying and Monitoring the Incidence of Stress
The issue of work-related stress should be raised and discussed, as circumstances require, or
at the time of the annual performance review and planning interview.
There is no one simple measure that can be used to identify the risk of stress. Information
from; sickness absence data, EAP use, grievances, staff turnover, and workplace satisfaction
survey results may provide guidance.
Responsibilities
The risk of individuals not coping is minimised where there is; mutual trust, promotion of
self-esteem, shared objectives and common goals. There is a shared management and
employee responsibility for dealing with stress concerns. In brief these are:
Employee’s Individual Responsibility
Employees have a duty to assist the University in minimising, so far as is reasonably
practicable, work-related stress. This duty includes the following:
ƒ Inform their line manager in early stages that he/she is feeling stressed, so the line
manager has an opportunity to resolve the problem.
ƒ Advise their line manager of any factors in the workplace that may be causing workrelated stress. Reflect on possible causes of stress (both work-related and non-work) to
determine most salient causes.
ƒ Request reasonable adjustments to working practices if these will assist in meeting
changed circumstances.
ƒ Obtain and utilize programmes offered through Training and Development on “Managing
Yourself Under Pressure” and “Time Management”.
ƒ Seek professional assistance through the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP). EAP
will deal with the matter in confidence, unless the individual concerned gives express
permission for information to be sent to others.
You should note you have a health and safety responsibility that “no action or inaction”
should cause harm to yourself (or others).
If you feel you need support then involving a colleague, trusted friend or elected health and
safety representative may help to make issues clearer, and canvas all possible solutions.
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A key element in the current New Zealand legislation is that all work can be stressful and that most employees
can expect to experience some level of stress at work. If the level of stress is unreasonable then the stress is
excessive and needs attention to protect health and safety.
Defining ‘reasonable’ stress is subjective and subject to individual differences as illustrated in Figure 1. If most
people will not cope with the stresses, they should be regarded as excessive.
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You are expected to manage pressures and demands of matters which lie in your personal
control, and let your manager know the impacts of demands over which you have no control.
Manager’s Responsibility
Managers at all levels have a key role to play in considering the workload and health
implications of decisions involving staff. It is a formal responsibility of managers to ensure a
safe workplace by;
ƒ Identifying and responding to issues of work-related stress.
ƒ Monitoring workload and addressing workload issues collectively in compliance with the
University Workloads policy and in individual performance review and planning.
ƒ Ensure that hazard assessment is completed to evaluate stress issues for each position.
Some positions are more inherently stressful than others. The law distinguishes between
a position’s natural stress, and additional, unnecessary stress that can be avoided by an
employer taking appropriate preventative action.
ƒ Watching for signs that a staff member may be stressed, and follow up. For example, this
could include their attitude at work, or the person taking a large number of sick days.
ƒ Organising work so the job context and content place reasonable demands. Context and
content are explained in more detail in Appendix 4.
Other factors that may be involved with work related stress
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Stress is minimised in an organisation where there exists mutual trust, promotion of selfesteem, shared objectives and common goals.
More vigilance may be needed of employees who are required to work in more stressful
situations.
Employees in naturally stressful positions may be pushed ‘over the edge’ more easily.
Some individuals are more susceptible to suffering from stress than others.
If someone informs a manager that someone else is stressed, the manager has a
responsibility to follow it up in an appropriate and sensitive manner.
Adequate staff support in stressful times will help.
Interpersonal relationships at work may influence coping ability.
Measures to Prevent Stress or to Mitigate its Consequences (From Department of
Labour, Stress and Fatigue; their impact on health and safety in the workplace)
Four broad types of strategy for preventing stress are listed below.
Primary prevention (elimination) - reduce the extent of and/or impact of stressors.
Secondary prevention - increase the goodness of fit between people and tasks by selection or
training, and provide support for people at work.
Tertiary prevention (minimisation) - alter the way people perceive and deal with the demands
(and the effects of these demands) placed on them – the typical “stress management”
approach.
Appendix 3 outlines hazard management control in the identification and assessment of
hazards in the workplace that lead to stress.
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References
Information in these pages has been drawn from the following sources, which should be
consulted for more detail.
Department of Labour (1998). Stress and Fatigue; their impact on health and safety in the
workplace.
UK Health and Safety Executive. Tackling work-related stress - a guide for employees.
University of Huddersfield, (2000). Staff policy and procedures document for the
management of stress at work.
Department of Labour, (2003). Healthy Work: Managing stress in the workplace.
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Appendix 1 How (and why) does stress affect us?
Stress is a complex issue and no two individuals will be affected in the same way by either
work requirements or the work environment. Employers should be alert to signs of stress in
their employees. But employers can only manage stress or fatigue situations they can
reasonably be aware of. So employees experiencing workplace stress should tell their
employers about the stress they are experiencing. There should be systems in place that give
employees confidence that if they report their situation to their employer, manager, or
supervisor everything possible will be
done to deal with their problem. In
practice, it can be helpful to think of stress
in terms of a simple ‘bucket’ model:
The bucket model suggests that stress and
fatigue result when a person’s reservoir of
personal resilience is drained faster than it
is replenished. Things like interesting
work, supportive relationships, good
health and rest fill the bucket. Difficult
working conditions, conflict at work,
emotionally draining work, excess (or not
enough) work and difficulties at home can
drain the bucket. You are coping when
you maintain the balance between these
factors.
As the bucket model shows, there’s no point in ‘filling the bucket’ if stressors keep draining
it quickly. Control of stressors is frequently needed – to ‘plug the holes’, or at least reduce
their size – in order to prevent stress building up.
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Appendix 2 Examples of responses to stress
(adapted from Department of Labour, 1998)
Responses to stress
Personal Symptoms and Signs
Physiological
Raised blood pressure
Chest pains
Palpitations
Hyperventilation
Headaches
Gastro-intestinal
disorders
Sleep disorders
Fatigue
Behavioural
Poor sleep patterns
Reduced reaction
times
Erratic behaviour
Cognitive
Difficulties in
concentrating and
with memory
Inability to make
decisions
Emotional
Depressed mood
states
Anxiety
Irritability
Loss of confidence
Emotional exhaustion
Cynicism
Organisation Symptoms Changing organisational factors may be more productive than
concentrating on personal factors
Physiological
Behavioural
Not applicable
High
absenteeism/sick
leave
High staff turnover
Poor industrial
relations
Poor quality and
productivity
Increased accident
and illness rates
Increased stress
claims, retirement
rates, utilisation of
EAP services and
grievance
procedures
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Cognitive
Poor decision making
Emotional
Low morale
Loss of employee
contribution to
planning and process
improvement
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Appendix 3 Stress hazards and Solutions
(adapted from Department of Labour, 1998)
Stress hazards and Solutions
Identified Hazards
Suggested Solutions
Intensity and duration of physical and mental effort
Excessive physical work
Discussion with staff and
examination of accident and injury
rates will indicate when work is
exceeding the physical abilities of
the people doing it. A number of
practical alternatives are available.
Elimination
Isolation
Too little mental and physical
activity
Complete inactivity is a stressor in
its own right, leading to boredom.
If elimination or isolation is impracticable, a simple
solution may be job rotation to other more active jobs.
Redesign the job/work to provide more stimulation or
challenge.
Excessive mental activity
Evidence suggests that people are
able to cope in the short term with
very high mental demands, but that
a lack of recuperative periods leads
to chronic mental fatigue with
deterioration in job performance.
If elimination or isolation are impracticable, possible
solutions to minimise the hazard will include ensuring
that there are enough staff to do the job, job rotation,
planning work to minimise peaks in workloads, enforced
rest periods, introduction of training routines at preset
periods and ensuring staff take appropriate holidays.
Environment comfort factors
Lighting, noise, workstation design
These basic aspects of workplace hygiene are more
straightforward to identify, assess and control, compared
to the complexities of the other factors relevant to stress
in the workplace. See Occupational Overuse information
on lighting and design in health and safety homepage.
Lack of mental and emotional
well-being
Support and resources in the face of
responsibilities, worries, conflicts
and social interactions
The positive aspects of work, when catered for, increase
the enjoyment of work. Managers should be aware of the
risks of placing impossible demands on employees. If
employees are expected to accept added responsibilities
and accountabilities, this must be accompanied by
appropriate training and resources so that employees can
meet these additional expectations.
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Minimisation
Mechanisation of manual tasks.
Restricting physical work to
specially trained individuals
Increasing the staffing, increasing
rest periods or changing the work
process to avoid excessive peaks of
demand or excessive sustained
physical effort.
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Where the home and work interfaces are combining to
upset an employee’s mental and emotional well-being,
the EAP should be used to allow the employee access to
appropriate services to help resolve these conflicts. A
flexible approach to sick/holiday leave will often allow
people to resolve these problems themselves.
The organisational demands of
work
Factors to consider in the design of work and tasks to
eliminate or minimise stress are listed below:
Control
The provision of some control over the appropriate
aspects of the work and the workplace, through;
ƒ participative decision-making;
ƒ performance monitoring with feedback to
individuals.
ƒ greater autonomy where appropriate and feasible
Uncertainty/ambiguity
ƒ clarity in work assignments
ƒ clarity in reward systems
Support
Support for those with;
ƒ a high responsibility for people,
ƒ continued exposure to client/customer groups;
ƒ social or physical isolation
ƒ excessive work pressures and demands
Conflict
ƒ Clear and stable job descriptions and task
assignments,
ƒ Supportive supervisory styles,
ƒ Participative decision-making,
ƒ Prior agreed mechanisms to reduce conflict,
ƒ Open discussion of potential and real conflicts,
ƒ Resources equal to demands.
Demands
ƒ Jobs with a variety of skills, abilities and knowledge;
ƒ Boring and/or paced work reduced to a minimum or
shared equally among staff,
ƒ Demands of the job and the abilities of the individual
are equated,
ƒ Constructive feedback about performance is given to
all.
Employment, redundancy,
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Open communication between employers and employees
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tenure, security
about these issues allows both groups to plan ahead with
a clear picture in mind. Timely and free flow of
information, to reduce uncertainty.
State of health and physical wellbeing
Managers should encourage the early reporting of health
problems by the employee. Other initiatives include;
ƒ Sympathetic and active rehabilitation programme for
those with illness or injury,
ƒ Healthy living information to staff,
ƒ Encourage such positive health actions as getting
adequate exercise (e.g. supporting workplace sports
teams),
ƒ Ensure meal breaks are taken,
ƒ Smoke-free workplace.
Health, nutrition, exercise
Circadian rhythm
Where shift-work is a requirement of the process shift
rosters are designed in consultation with staff.
Information provided about the impact of shift-work
(including its effects on circadian rhythm and rest time)
and about coping strategies, to all staff entering shiftwork, as well as providing updated information for those
already in shift-work, and for roster designers.
Sleep
Ensure that rosters and demands permit adequate rest
time for employees to be able to arrive at work well
rested. For shift work this will require consideration on
the circadian variation in the person’s ability to obtain
sleep. Rest breaks between shift-cycles need to be
sufficient to permit full recovery from any sleep loss
accrued during the shift cycle.
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Appendix 4 Context and Content of Work
The context in which the work takes place
Work characteristic
Conditions predisposing to stress
Organisational function and culture
•
Rigid work practices – people unable to work out their
own solutions to the day-to-day problems they
encounter (in the workplace).
•
Poor communication within the workplace.
•
A non-supportive work culture – concerns and requests
are dismissed without consideration.
•
Role or task ambiguity / uncertainty – (for example),
people are unsure about what they should be doing.
•
Role conflict (from) imprecise or conflicting job
descriptions.
•
Role overload either in direct reports or job dimension.
•
Career uncertainty or stagnation (where the employer
has no jobs with greater responsibility or content to
offer).
•
Poor status or status incongruity – a mismatch between
qualifications and job demands.
•
Poor pay.
•
Job insecurity and fear of redundancy.
•
A low social value of the employee’s work.
•
Lack of rewards (status, self esteem, recognition).
•
Low participation in decision-making.
•
Lack of control over the speed and scheduling of work.
•
How decisions are made in the organisation.
•
Control over the types of work performed.
•
Physical isolation.
•
No formal employee participation system.
•
Poor relationships with supervisors and fellow workers.
•
Interpersonal conflict and violence at work.
•
A lack of social support at work or home.
•
Conflicting demands of work and home life.
•
Low social or practical support at home.
•
Dual career problems (having two jobs or juggling
schedules with a working partner).
•
Low supervisor support
•
Lack of relevant and useable procedures to resolve
work/home responsibility imbalance.
Role in organisation
Career development
Decision latitude / control
Relationships at work
Home / work interface
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The content of the work
Work characteristic
Conditions predisposing to stress
Task design
•
Lack of variety and/or short work cycles
•
Fragmented or meaningless work.
•
Under-utilisation of skill.
•
Continual dealing with customers
•
Task exceeds person’s resources or ability to perform.
•
Lack of control over work rate/pacing.
•
Work overload or underload.
•
High work rate or time pressure.
•
Shift working. The disruption to body processes
caused by changes in shift work patterns especially
when these are badly designed.
•
Inflexible work schedules.
•
Unpredictable working hours.
•
Long or unsociable working hours.
•
Inherently hazardous work.
•
No two-way communication on workplace issues.
Workload or work pace
Work schedule
Work context
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