Managing office stress

Jun 6 2008

Managers have been given some "badly needed" guidance on how to tackle stress among their workers and help develop healthy and productive offices and factories.

Companies were urged to make sure stress management was embedded into an organisation's culture in a bid to reduce the huge impact of the problem on industry.

Stress and other mental health problems are the second biggest cause of working time lost to sickness absence, costing an estimated £26billion a year.

The guidance was published by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, the Health and Safety Executive and Investors in People as part of a three year project.

Tuc general secretary Brendan Barber commented: "While this research is interesting and useful, the sad fact is that more and more people are having their health damaged by stress in the workplace. The only way the tide will be turned is if the HSE and local authority regulators start taking the issue seriously and prosecute the worst offenders.

"Until we treat stress the same way we treat other workplace hazards and prosecute the worst employers it will continue to be the biggest cause of work-related injury."