The causes of stress at work

The Scottish teachers’ union EIS says that it is important to establish the origins of workplace stress. It says that these can be rooted in unacceptable workload, deadlines or targets; in poor, untrained or over stretched managers or in a workplace culture which encourages blame or is subject to constant and unnecessary change. The teaching union NUT adds that, for many teachers, excessive workload is a key cause of the deterioration in their mental health. For others, bullying or harassment is a major factor.

Public services union UNISON says that all the following factors can cause stress or make it worse:

• long hours;

• shiftwork;

• unrealistic targets or deadlines;

• too much or too little work, lack of control and conflicting demands (especially among the lower grades);

• poor management;

• bad relations with other work colleagues;

• repetitive work, boredom and lack of job satisfaction;

• working alone;

• job insecurity;

• job or organisational change;

• low pay;

• jobs with heavy emotional demands;

• bullying, harassment and either actual or threatened violence;

• a poor working environment (such as excessive noise, the presence of dangerous materials, overcrowding, poor facilities, or extremes of temperature or humidity).

Recent research has identified new forms of performance management as a significant source of stress. Performance management and the new workplace tyranny, a report based on a three-year study by Professor Phil Taylor at the University of Strathclyde, focused particularly on the telecoms and finance sectors in Scotland. It found “a significantly negative impact” on workers as a result of “unrelenting intensity” generated under new forms of performance management; overwhelming evidence of the stressful consequences of these new regimes; and that performance management practices “are not merely unjustifiable on grounds of welfare, decency, dignity and well-being, but also counterproductive from a managerial perspective.”

The specialists’ union Prospect reported that a member, Graham Vare, won an unfair dismissal claim against telecommunications giant BT after he was dismissed for poor performance. The employment tribunal found that BT had failed to take sufficient account of medical advice and offer alternative employment.

The Whitehall II study, Work, stress and health (2004), provided important insights into the causes of stress. The study found that it was a combination of high demand and low control that caused stress-related illness. Workers in jobs characterised by low control had higher rates of sickness absence, mental illness, heart disease and pain in the lower back.