Source: Personnel Today – article
Date: Thursday, June 01, 2006

One-quarter have taken time off due to anxiety and half are never stress-free Ninety-five percent of staff in the public sector find their work stressful, new research claims.

Nearly 65 per cent of public-sector staff rated their anxiety levels as five or higher on a scale of one to ten and 25 per cent had taken time off due to stress, according to a survey by online learning provider SkillSoft. More than 50 per cent of the 1,500 workers questioned admitted they were never stress-free and 68 per cent said this sometimes caused restless nights. Monday was rated the most stressful day of the week.

“According to the Health and Safety Executive, stress is now the biggest cause of working days lost through injury or ill-health with an estimated 12.8 million days each year” said Kay Baldwin-Evans, vice-president of research at SkillSoft. “The TUC estimates that work-related stress costs the economy up to £7 billion per annum.” She urged employers to confront the issue. “By understanding what makes public-sector employees stressed at work, organisations are much better placed to manage it,” she said.