Work-Related Stress for Beginners: Where to Start

Harmful reactions to excessive pressures or demands at work.

Key takeaways

• Legal duty: employers must assess the risk of work-related stress
• HSE Management Standards: demands, control, support, relationships, role, change
• Most useful single change: Raise it early with a manager or occupational health.
• Commonest mistake: Waiting until you cannot work at all.
• See a doctor if any of the signs under "When to speak to a doctor" below apply to you.

Why bother

Employers have a legal duty to assess it, and it is the leading cause of long-term sickness absence in many sectors.

Start here

Just these two to begin with. The rest can wait.

• Raise it early with a manager or occupational health
• Use the HSE Management Standards to describe the problem specifically

Then add these

Once the first two are automatic, these are worth adding.

• Ask for a phased return or adjustments rather than a full sign-off
• Keep a written record of what you raised and when

The numbers, in one place

Common early mistakes

• Waiting until you cannot work at all
• Assuming it is a personal failing rather than a workload issue
• Alcohol as a way of managing it

Where to go next

• Work-Related Stress, Explained Without the Jargon
• The Work-Related Stress Checklist: What to Do and What to Skip
• Work-Related Stress — the reference entry
• Display Screen Equipment: What the Evidence Actually Says
• The Evidence on Occupational Asthma, Without the Hype

When to speak to a doctor

See a GP if low mood, anxiety or exhaustion has lasted most days for two weeks or more, or is present regardless of work. If you have thoughts of harming yourself, contact your GP, NHS 111, or the Samaritans free on 116 123 at any hour.

Where this comes from

• Health and Safety Executive — work-related stress
• NHS — Stress

How this page was put together

Every figure, recommendation and warning above is taken from the guidance named in Where this comes from. Nothing on this page is inferred, summarised or generalised beyond what those bodies publish: where they give a number, it is their number, and where they are silent, so are we. Pages are rebuilt whenever the underlying record changes. Sign-off by a named clinician, where it has happened, is shown at the top of the page along with the date.

Medical disclaimer

This article is general information, not medical advice. It cannot account for your own history, medication or circumstances. Always speak to a GP, pharmacist or another qualified health professional before making changes that affect your treatment, and never delay seeking medical advice because of something you have read here. In an emergency, call 999.