Stress in different industrial and service sectors

Stress can affect anyone in any job. However, (as set out above) HSE surveys have found higher than average rates of stress among a number of occupations. These include teachers, protective service occupations such as prison officers and security staff, housing and welfare officers, nurses, civil servants and local government workers.

The TUC’s 2012 safety reps’ survey provided important information on the sectors most affected by stress. Stress was considered the first health and safety concern by 86% of safety reps in banking, finance and insurance; 84% in education; 80% of safety reps in central government, 75% in the health service, 72% in local government and the same proportion in energy and water, 71% in the voluntary sector and 63% in transport and communications.

In central government and the health service, safety reps also reported increased concern about bullying and harassment, while in local government they reported increased concern about overwork. In both the construction and manufacturing sectors, stress rocketed to the number one health and safety concern, and in distribution and hotels it was second only to back strains.

In September 2013, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) published its Beyond breaking point? survey of over 2,000 nursing staff working in a range of settings across the NHS and in the private sector. This found that more than half (55%) had been made unwell by stress over the previous year. The most significant causes were being unable to deliver the care they would like, increasing workloads, feeling unsupported by managers and the rapid pace of change.

In addition, the vast majority of nurses (82%) reported that they had gone to work despite feeling too ill to do so over the same period, raising concerns that safe patient care could be jeopardised.

One nurse working in the community said: “We are over capacity working 62-hour weeks. When brought to managers’ attention they say it’s our fault saying ‘if you choose to work over your time that’s your choice’, ‘poor time management’, ‘driving like a snail’ or ‘being too thorough’. It’s totally unachievable every single day and worst of all it is affecting patient safety and care.”

The 2009 Boorman Review (which looked at how to promote and improve the health and well-being of NHS staff as a means of reducing sickness levels found that the NHS could save £555 million by working to reduce the rates of staff sickness. The RCN says that action is needed now to make that a reality before more money is wasted by driving staff to breaking point.

As well as calling on employers to take urgent action to protect staff welfare and patient care, the RCN says the HSE should take enforcement action where employers are failing to meet the legal requirement to assess and manage the risk of work-related stress (see Chapter 3).

The Bank Workers Charity, which provides information and advice to current and former bank workers and their families, recently warned that stress among bank workers is costing the industry £17 million a year. In January 2014, it published updated research, including the results of a survey of 5,000 bank workers carried out with business psychologists Robertson Cooper. This showed that three in five (60%) regularly experience poor sleep, just under half (47%) had troubling thoughts about the future, and two in five (40%) were concerned about financial security.

The journalists’ union NUJ has conducted a number of workplace-based stress surveys over the last few years. A survey carried out at multimedia company Johnston Press in 2012 revealed that over 50% of journalists felt they had unachievable deadlines at least sometimes; all felt they had to work very intensely at least some of the time, and 86% had to neglect some tasks because they had too much to do. Some 70% responded that they were unable to take sufficient breaks, and 68% were pressured to work long hours. Almost half said that relationships at work were strained, 59% said they had difficulty coping with their current workload, and 77% said they would not be able to cope with future responsibility. All felt they had to work very fast at least some of the time.

A follow-up survey on working hours carried out in September-October 2013 revealed that almost half of journalists did not usually take any breaks in the day, and only 16% did not put in additional working hours from home. All respondents consistently worked more than 10 hours on certain day(s) of the week. The union carried out similar surveys among journalists at the Clyde & Forth Press Group and at Scottish Provisional Press, with similar findings.

In December 2012, the Guardian newspaper reported that the number of teachers taking sick leave as a result of stress had increased by 10% over the past four years. A Freedom of Information (FoI) request based on 60 responses from local authorities found that 15 had seen a 50% rise in stress-related absences. In addition, 40 saw an increase in the number of teachers taking sick leave arising from stress between the academic years 2008-9 and 2011-12. The sharpest rises were in Tower Hamlets in London (up from 16 to 102 incidents), Oldham (up from 41 to 113) and Walsall (27 to 74).

A 2013 survey of teachers by the financial services provider Teachers’ Assurance revealed that stress levels within the profession were affecting their ability to successfully perform their roles. It found that 76% of teachers believed their stress levels were having repercussions on their health, and 56% said they would definitely be better at their job if they were less stressed. More than half (51%) admitted to “severe” levels of work-related stress, and 64% indicated that the threat of Performance Related Pay had increased their stress levels. The survey also found that classroom teachers were more likely to feel the repercussions of stress than those in middle or senior management roles.

A 2012 survey of stress among higher education (HE) staff for the university and college lecturers’ union UCU, showed that nearly three-quarters of respondents found their job stressful. More than half indicated that their general level of stress was high or very high, and more than one third said they often or always experienced levels of stress they found unacceptable. Only 2% reported that they never experienced unacceptable levels of stress at work.

The survey also found that working hours remain high in HE. More than three-quarters of respondents employed on a full-time contract worked over 40 hours a week, and more than one third worked in excess of 50 hours a week. More than a quarter exceeded the 48-hour maximum number of working hours stipulated by the Working Time Regulations. It also found that work-life balance among UCU members in HE is generally poor.

On all but one of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) stressor categories (see page 42), UCU members in HE reported lower than average well-being. The biggest “well-being gaps” related to work demands, change management, management support and role clarity.

The Labour Research Department (LRD) carried out a stress survey for the public and civil service union PCS at the end of 2013. Almost 8,000 staff in two departments, HM Revenue and Customs and the Department for Transport, responded to the online survey, based on questions drawn up by the HSE and trade unions for work-related stress surveys. These covered the six primary sources of stress at work: demands, control, support (managers’ support and peer support), relationships, role, and change (see page 42). The survey findings overall suggested that PCS members in the HMRC/DfT and their agencies, are experiencing stress levels well above average. The research revealed four very poor areas:

• the worst stressor for staff was change — defined by the HSE as “how organisational change (large or small) is managed and communicated in the organisation”;

• the second worst area was control — defined as “how much say the person has in the way they do their work”;

• the third area of particular concern was role — “this includes issues such as workload, work patterns and the work environment”; and

• the fourth very poor area was managers’ support — which includes “the encouragement, sponsorship and resources provided by the organisation [and] line management”.

Other findings include:

• the only area in which the performance is above average (though still not in the top fifth) is relationships — which includes “promoting positive working to avoid conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviour”;

• one in six respondents report that they are “always, often or sometimes bullied” (one in five respondents in the DfT and agencies);

• administrative staff and those in unspecified “other” grades/jobs are overall the most stressed groups, but different grades of staff tend to be stressed by different aspects of work;

• male respondents are on average slightly more stressed than women, except in the area of control, where women are slightly more stressed than men;

• younger members (aged 21-40) are more stressed than older members, except that the small group of under-21s in the survey appear to be the least stressed group;

• disabled respondents are considerably more stressed than non-disabled respondents, particularly in the area of relationships;

• respondents from unspecified “Other” ethnic backgrounds and those of mixed ethnic background are considerably more stressed than white respondents and black respondents, with Asian respondents slightly more stressed than white and black respondents;

• carers of adult relatives had considerably higher overall stress levels than those without such responsibility.

In March 2014, an analysis of annual NHS staff survey findings by the online social care organisation Community Care found that the number of mental health social workers suffering work-related stress has doubled in the past five years.

The survey found that 56% of social workers in mental health trusts suffered work-related stress in 2013. Community Care says that this figure is the highest recorded stress level among social workers since the survey launched in 2003, and is more than double the 25% that reported suffering stress five years previously.

The research also found that frontline social workers overtook doctors, nurses and occupational therapists as the profession suffering most stress in mental health services. The 2013 survey is based on responses from 281 social workers and 142 social care managers working in NHS mental health trusts.