GUIDANCE ON MANAGING PRESSURE AT WORK
Background 1. Developments in higher education, including the increase in the number of students, public funding constraints, increased accountability, i.e. greater external assessment, have led to greater pressure in the sector. This guidance seeks to recognise when pressure becomes stressful.
The importance of managing pressure 2. Excessive or prolonged pressure in the workplace is a health and safety issue; a cost to the organisation and the individual; and can be prevented and alleviated by individuals and their managers.
Responsibility for managing pressure 3. This guidance note aims to help managers and staff as individuals to manage pressure at work. It will form part of the School’s Safety Arrangements that accompany the Health and Safety at Work Statement of Policy, which has commitment from the Director. The Court of Governors of the School is ultimately responsible for the setting of health and safety policy concerning all persons under the control of the School. The duty to implement this policy has been delegated to the Director and day-to-day responsibility is further delegated to Heads of Department as defined in the Safety Policy.
The impact of excessive pressure on individuals 4. Challenging work is usually welcome. A high level of pressure can be motivating. However, if pressures become unmanageable or excessive, this may lead to stress shown as physiological or psychological ill health. People vary in how they react to pressure. What is stimulating for one may be stressful to another. Excessive stress can have an impact on performance, health and relationships. UK law on excessive pressure 5. Employers have a general duty of care to protect employees’ health. The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 places a duty on every employer to ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the health, safety and welfare at work of their employees. Under the Management of Health and Safety Regulations 1992, employers are obliged to assess the nature and scale of risks to health in their workplace, and base control measures on that assessment.
6. New guidance “Help on work-related stress – a short guide”, dated September 1998, from the HSE warns employers of their duty to ensure that employees are not made ill by their work and cautions against unreasonable dismissal of such people. The HSE plan to produce a Code of Practice on stress this year.
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Ill health due to stress caused at work has to be treated in the same way as that brought about by physical risks in the workplace. There is therefore a duty to take reasonable care to ensure that health is not placed at risk through excessive levels of pressure. Stress-related illness caused by sexual or racial harassment may be considered under the Sex Discrimination Act 1975 or the Race Relations Act 1976 respectively. If a stressrelated illness leads to a mental impairment that has a substantial or long-term effect on the ability to carry out normal day-to-day duties, it may be covered under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.
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The business case for managing pressure 9. For the School to be successful, it is important that everyone should be able to work effectively. Good health and low sickness absence contribute to this.
10. Excessive pressure can prevent staff working effectively. It can also mean the individuals work increasingly long hours for diminishing returns; lose motivation; and make mistakes. It can also trigger an increased staff turnover rate. 11. Recent court cases, and the advice given by the Health and Safety Executive, will mean that it is likely that courts will expect employers to assess the nature and scale of risks to health in the workplace, take stress alerts seriously, and take steps to prevent and alleviate pressure. The cause of harmful pressure 12. The following are examples of what cause excessive pressure at work:
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prolonged conflict with others, harassment or bullying; under or over-promotion and overloading or little to do; torn loyalties between work and home; a high degree of uncertainty about jobs and career prospects; uncomfortable working conditions and inflexible/over-demanding work schedules.
13. Research has shown that lower grades of staff are more likely than higher management to suffer stress related ill health. Working women with children have particular problems of pressure because of the need to juggle work, childcare and domestic responsibilities. 14. Significant life events outside work such as bereavement, divorce, ill health and death can cause stress. Although there is no legal duty to prevent stress caused by problems outside work, it is sensible to show understanding. 15. On an everyday basis, work, home life and health are interdependent. It may need to be acknowledged that sometimes it is difficult to assess whether the main cause of stress is work related or due to private circumstances.
Recognition of the symptoms of excessive pressure 16. Annex A outlines some of the behavioural and physical effects of when pressure can lead to negative stress. Most of these are usually short-lived. However, excessive pressure can lead to long term ill health. Management of pressure at work 17. Research has shown that there are three particular factors that put people under increased risk from stress: • • • lack of control over the job; quantitative or qualitative job overload or underload; lack of support from managers and colleagues.
18. Sometimes a degree of stress in unavoidable. Strategies can be used to respond to work pressures. Steps that managers can take to prevent or reduce excessive pressure are given in Annex B. 19. Stress levels can be checked by discussion as part of good line management. Sickness absence and annual leave sheets may also indicate an issue. 20. To minimise pressure, line managers can facilitate team support and model effective stress management themselves. Avoidance or reduction of excessive pressure by staff 21. Individuals are responsible for taking care of their own physical health and checking that the balance between their work and non-work activities is healthy for them. 22. Good time management can lead to effective workload organisation. Examples include: checking priorities on a daily basis; setting realistic goals; planning work to foresee particularly busy periods; taking steps to reduce conflicting priorities in good time; and delegating where possible and appropriate. Annual leave can be planned carefully to gain the maximum benefit from these breaks from work. 23. Training needs should be assessed to help to do the job more effectively and manage behaviour positively e.g. time management and assertiveness training may be helpful. Short workshops on managing stress are occasionally organised by Human Resources. 24. Talking through the pressures and getting support from others at work, e.g. managers, colleagues, Human Resources Officers, Trade Union representatives and a St Philips Medical Centre Doctor; and outside work, e.g. GP, family and friends, may be helpful. 25. If the workload is judged to be excessive, this should be brought to the attention of the manager, as should any ill health that is stress related.
Conclusion 26. The purpose of this guidance is for all staff to: • prevent stress occurring in the first place by identifying causes of unacceptable pressure and whenever possible taking action to eliminate or reduce the impact of the causes; increase awareness of stress related problems and encourage staff to work together to try and resolve these difficulties; provide support to staff feeling stressed. Annex C provides further guidance. If you need more advice please contact Human Resources. 27. Much of the emphasis of this guidance has concentrated on how individual managers and staff can help to avoid or manage excessive pressure. However, the emphasis on the individual does not mean that organisational causes should be ignored. 28. While not enough is yet known about setting detailed standards and requirements to reduce excessive pressure, in the meantime, work-related stress should be recorded in risk assessments and action plans produced to resolve the cause of pressure, where this is realistic. 29. Action plans, involving staff as much as possible, can address a number of different aspects of the School’s culture: induction training and professional development; job design and workloads; physical environment; management style; communication; external factors (political context and service expectations); decision making structure.
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30. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has made a general recommendation that if there is evidence of negative stress in the workplace, an audit covering people, processes, environment, culture and other influences should be carried out. 31. It should be acknowledged that preventing and managing stress is a continuing task rather than a one-off process.
Annex A Recognising excessive stress in ourselves and others The more obvious symptoms of excessive stress can include the following behavioural effects: • • • • • poor concentration depressed mood irritability anxious behaviour withdrawn behaviour • • • • • increased drinking of alcohol and/or coffee increased smoking inability to make decisions inability to deal calmly with everyday situations sickness absence that shows a pattern
The less easily seen symptoms include the following physical effects: • • • • • raised heart rate increased sweating headaches or migraines dizziness blurred vision • • • • • aching neck and shoulders skin rashes fatigue insomnia lowering of resistance to infection
Stress has been associated with the following ill health conditions: • • • • • • high blood pressure heart disease alcoholism thyroid disorders stroke ulcers • • • • • clinical depression anxiety including phobias rheumatoid arthritis nervous breakdowns digestive problems
Many of these symptoms could have causes other than stress and it may be difficult to establish a clear connection between a source of stress and a specific behavioural or ill health effect.
Annex B Guidelines for Managers Introduction 1. Stress management is part of managers’ normal personnel management responsibilities for the welfare of staff. The aim of these guidelines is to assist you in preventing and reducing unacceptable pressure for yourself and your staff. Bear in mind that managers who feel stressed may in turn create a stressful environment for their staff. Prevention is better than cure 2. Ensure that you:
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have, or quickly gain, the necessary skills to recruit, motivate and manage staff with appropriate competencies; exercise the appropriate management style, delegating clearly with proper direction in a supportive manner while at the same time allowing staff to plan their own work as far as is reasonably possible; are approachable, so that staff feel able to talk about everyday pressures and you are able recognise at an early stage physical or behavioural signs of pressure in your staff; use the appraisal system to discuss work with staff (e.g. the HSE advises asking staff to describe the three best and three worst aspects of their job, this is broadly in line with the CRA Appraisal System), and provide access to any necessary training; produce clearly defined job descriptions which include role interaction with others; state at interviews any potential job pressures, and arrange, in advance of arrival of new staff, effective induction; while recognising the constraints, take whatever steps you can to arrange for physical working conditions to be as comfortable as possible.
Monitor potential signs of stress 3. Signs include higher staff turnover; increase in sickness absence; reluctance to take leave; poor time-keeping; increase in customer complaints.
4. Where stress caused or made worse by work could lead to ill health, the Health and Safety Executive advises that under health and safety law, the risk must be assessed. Such a risk assessment includes: identifying work pressures that could cause high levels of stress for more than a short period of time; assessing who may be harmed by such stress; establishing how to prevent the pressures developing into excessive stress.
Action to reduce stress 5. You can help to prevent pressure developing into stress by:
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demonstrating a co-operative rather than adversarial manner, and engendering team spirit; taking action to tackle the causes of stress, including stopping any bullying, harassment or prejudiced behaviour; adjusting workloads, if necessary; being aware of the pressures outside work; advising staff that they can be referred to a St Philips Medical Centre Doctor or can make their own appointment for a session of counselling; seeking advice from Human Resources on how to manage staff suffering from excessive or prolonged stress.
6. A change in office environment, work reorganisation, or job description can be particularly stressful for staff. Pressure can be reduced by prompt and regular communication with staff. Support for staff suffering from stress 7. Unless known otherwise, it should be assumed, that all staff members are all capable of withstanding reasonable pressure from work. However, action should be taken when a member of staff:
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shows signs that pressure has developed into stress; states that work has become excessively stressful; suffers from stress related ill health.
8. In the event of this happening, an informal discussion should be held to establish the cause of stress. Practical steps should then be agreed to reduce or alleviate stress involving the member of staff as much as possible. If necessary, seeking help from the GP should be encouraged. Stress management training should be considered, bearing in mind that it concentrates on the individual and may not tackle the cause of pressure at work. 9. Whether or not others are also experiencing pressure at work should be established, and there should also be an awareness that staff covering for colleagues who are absent because of stress related illness may have to work harder and may in turn suffer from stress. Formal procedures 10. If a member of staff makes a formal complaint, e.g. about harassment or overloading, the Staff Handbook provides guidance on handling formal grievances. 11. Advice should be sought from Human Resources in handling grievances, underperformance, frequent short-term absence or harassment incidents.
Sickness absence 12. All absences should be noted, as regular absences may indicate stress. If a member of staff has been on prolonged sickness absence because of stress-related illness, it is strongly advised that the case should be discussed with Human Resources. 13. If a member of staff is due to return to work after a prolonged sickness absence which is stress-related their recovery can be helped by:
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considering whether work responsibilities can be adjusted or flexible working arrangements are possible; ensuring that the member of staff is fit to return to the same job by requesting that the GP confirms in writing that the person can deal effectively with the same job; trying to re-design the job, if the GP is not confident that the person can go back to the same job, and then closely monitoring behaviour and performance.
Annex C Guidelines for Staff In addition to the advice given elsewhere in this document, staff may also want to consider the following. Work management If carrying out work is difficult, it could be helpful to assess whether this is for quantitative or qualitative reasons. Quantitative measurement To ensure that work is carried out effectively and efficiently, it may be helpful to record for a short period of time how time is spent, e.g. for a Lecturer, time can be analysed using the following categories: • • • • • • • • lecture preparation; marking of work; teaching; tutorials; research; pastoral care; internal meetings; professional updating;
An overall analysis of work can highlight whether the work is loaded correctly or not, time is managed effectively and work is distributed fairly. If time is not managed effectively, the following tips may help: • • • • • • drawing up daily “To do” lists in order of priority and importance; abandoning recycling of the in tray (i.e. read items and decide to take action, file or throw away); negotiating deadlines; agreeing finish as well as start times for meetings; allowing thinking time e.g. between meetings; analysing best personal working times and using these to carry out complex tasks.
If it is felt that the workload is excessive, this should be discussed with the manager with any proposals for resolution. Qualitative assessment If work is difficult because of starting a new job, promotion or changes in job requirements, an assessment of training needs is advisable. Suitable on and off the job training should be identified and costed proposals prepared for discussion with line management.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development has recently stated that “an important and often overlooked cause of stress is the failure of individuals to take responsibility for self-management of their learning and development and their consequent loss of confidence and inability to do the job”. An ongoing assessment of whether or not personal competencies match those required of the job is therefore advisable. If there seems to be a gap, discussing whether or not training would help should be discussed with the manager or the Training and Development Manager. Working relationship with others Effective teamwork encourages fair distribution of work and support during times of particular stress caused by work or personal circumstances. More co-operative working relationships can be engendered by an assessment of the management or working styles of others. The Training and Development Manager, Human Resources can offer suitable team based training to facilitate this. Dealing with unacceptable behaviour Unwelcome and unacceptable sexual attention should, where possible and appropriate, be dealt with assertively by making a clear statement that the unwanted behaviour is inappropriate and must stop. Human Resources can give guidance. An assertive approach is also advisable for dealing with bullying behaviour. Again, Human Resources can give guidance. Wherever possible, it is better if an informal approach can be used to stop the unacceptable behaviour. If this is not possible, then Human Resources can provide advice on using the appropriate formal grievance procedures.