Hands up if you can remember the strikes of the 70s that resulted in three-day weeks and millions of working days lost? Now hands up if you realised that the UK is currently in the grip of a similar problem… caused by stress?
The industrial disputes of the 1970s were widely documented and now researchers from Warwick University are warning that the rising problem of stress is resulting in just as many lost working days, if not more, as the strikes did, and that the recession may be piling on the pressure further. According to the research team during the worst of the 70s strikes 12.9million working days were lost each year. Compare this to the estimated 13.5million days lost as a result of stress-related illness and you can begin to see just how widespread the problem is. With one in five employees complaining of stress at work it seems that employers should be tackling the issue if they want to improve morale, productivity and levels of absence.
