Stress And The Law

Stress at work affects a significant proportion of the workforce in the UK. In 2008/09, an estimated 415,000 individuals in Britain believed they were experiencing work-related stress at a level sufficient to make them ill, according to the Health and Safety Executive (2009c). Almost one in five of those at work thought their job was either “very stressful” or “extremely stressful”. Self-reported work-related stress, depression and anxiety accounted for an estimated 11.4 million lost working days in Britain. Certain occupational groups are reported to experience high prevalence rates of self-reported work-related stress. These groups include teachers, nurses, housing and welfare officers, customer service workers, certain professional and managerial groups, and those working in public administration and defense. There are high incidence rates of work-related mental ill health among these occupational groups, together with medical practitioners and those in public sector security based occupations, such as police officers, prison officers and UK armed forces personnel (HSE, 2009c).