Workplace stress is becoming
increasingly common
but it's something many of 
us often keep quiet
or don't know 
what to do about
or even where 
to turn for help.
What you might not know is that your 
employer is legally required to help you
if work stress has become
 an issue in your life.
An employer has a duty of care to their employees to ensure that there is a safe working environment
and that includes in relation
to minimising the risk of stress
and stress-related
 illnesses.
There are a lot of things that employers can do 
to try and manage stress in the workplace.
One of the first things they might want to do is to
conduct a stress audit to find out
what is causing employees stress
and they could even do that 
on an anonymous basis
so that employees feel free
to be frank in their answers.
It's also important then to look at things like
 patterns of sickness absence
and return to work interviews
can be very helpful
for trying to find out what the underlying cause of absence may be
because we know that employees don't always 
report stress as the reason that they're out sick.
Employers should have 
a stress policy
that makes it very 
clear to employees
that they should raise concerns
 if they're stressed and how to do so.
So that, really, there is a culture 
of being open about this kind of issue
and it is communicated
to everybody.
Crucially, then training
managers
to identify situations 
that cause stress
and can give rise to stress and what the
symptoms of stress in their employees are
so that they can help
 to manage that too.
Workers and employees have a right to
 take time off when they're sick
and that can include if they
are sick by reason of stress,
but it's really more about what can an employee do when they're in this situation
in order to raise concerns
with their employer
and I would say in that scenario
it's important to raise your concerns early
rather than
suffer in silence
because what I've seen in my work is a
lot of employees who struggle on
in difficult circumstances and it gets to
the point where they're at breakdown
or they're diagnosed with a
serious depressive illness.
It's important to speak out,
whatever is happening,
and to try and raise your concerns
often informally at an early stage.
So, you can
speak to your line manager
if the line manager doesn't want to take
action or is the cause the problem, perhaps,
then do speak to HR, talk to your union rep
 or other employee rep.
You can seek advice from
the Citizens Advice Bureau,
or indeed ACAS, or you can seek specialist
legal advice from an employment lawyer.
We know that workers in the UK do some of
the longest working hours across Europe.
Stress does seem to be a
particular issue in this workplace culture.
There are other countries
where, for example,
an employee can call in sick
and say they're having a Mental Health Day
and that's recognised
and it's taken seriously
because it's recognised by an employer
 that being open about your concerns
and sometimes just 
taking some time out
is going to be more beneficial to an employee and, therefore, to the employer,
its morale and
productivity
than soldiering on
in a difficult situation.
For more information
people should go to our website
Slatergordon.co.uk
