British Workforce under Tremendous Work Pressure

The recession has hit the work force of Britain in more ways than one. In addition to the economic downturn, it has resulted in the spread of a stress pandemic among workers, who are also worried about losing their jobs. With the advent of recession, more than 44% of workers have admitted to increased pressure in the work place and about two thirds of them are worried about their job security.

According to Nattasha Freeman, the President of the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH), in such difficult times, it is the duty of the employers to assist the employees in coping with stress and related depression as they can lead to the loss of millions of work days in a year, and thus cause serious financial loss for businesses. Therefore, employers need to reduce the pressure on their employees as well as mitigate their fears of job loss. For anyone managing people, or those in human resources take advantage of the Certificate in Personnel Practice courses operated by reputable companies such as Workplace Law to learn how to best boost your team’s performance.

In a survey, more than 13% of workers said that the work pressure on them was excessive and many of them also believe that despite the increase in cost of living, employers are not ready to increase salaries, thus adding to their stress and depression. This work related stress is also forcing workers out of work for a long period. Last year, around 450,000 employees reported work related illness and around 13.5 million working days were lost due to the same.

The employees in public administration, social services, health and education have been found to be more prone to work related stress. Employers have therefore been advised to encourage their employees to access medical and health care benefit schemes and keep themselves healthy and free of stress.