The title of this article will divide opinion amongst readers. Some will view work-related stress as a ‘card’ that’s ‘played’ by employees whenever the going gets tough. To gain sympathy, get time off work, or make a few easy bucks from a compensation claim!
Others will say that in an era when mental health issues are being taken more seriously than ever before. It is incumbent on employers to look after their workers’ health, in both the physical and mental sense. If they don’t, and as a result, one of their workers goes down with a psychiatric illness caused by stress at work. They only have themselves to blame if the employee sues them.
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Is Stress At Work A Big Problem?
Work-related stress is a big issue, and don’t just take our word for it.
According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), in 2021, over 820,000 workers were suffering from new or long-standing work-related stress, depression or anxiety.
What Is Work-Related Stress?
There is a line between the type of stress that is part and parcel of the work you do and stress that’s so bad it causes you to become very ill.
The HSE provides a formal definition of what stress at work is:
“The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them at work.”
Stress occurs when the pressure of work becomes excessive – when the demands placed on an employee become too great. Some examples of the causes of workplace stress include:
- an excessive workload
- facing pressure to work to unrealistic deadlines or targets
- bullying in the workplace
- poor management style
- imprecise instructions as to what your expects of you
How do you know if you have grounds for claiming for stress caused by your work?
Employers owe their employees a duty of care to ensure they come to no harm whilst they are at work. They owe a duty under custom (common) law and written (statute) law.
For an employee to succeed in a work-related stress claim, they need to prove:
1. Stress at work has caused them to suffer a recognised psychiatric illness as diagnosed by a consultant psychiatrist, e.g. PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
2. Their employer has breached the duty of care to keep the worker safe whilst at work.
3. The employer has enabled a work environment where the risk of illness is real, and the employer knew or ought to have known their employee was vulnerable to that risk.
4. The psychiatric illness was foreseeable. In other words, the employer should have seen it coming.
How do you show that your stress illness was foreseeable?
The onus is on a claimant to substantiate their claim, and it can be difficult to prove ‘foreseeability’. Ultimately it comes down to whether the employer knew. Or ought to have known that their employee was facing pressure at work which was harming their wellbeing.
Do employers have a duty to keep asking their workers if they feel ok?
Probably not (although there’s no harm in them doing so, it’s a nice thing to do, and they might save themselves from getting sued in the process).
If they notice that an employee is upset, tearful or simply not themselves, does the employer need to ask after their welfare?
Yes, they should. If they don’t, and the employee brings a stress claim, a court would probably say the employer should have foreseen their employee was on the verge of getting ill.
Once an employer notices something is wrong, they will find it difficult to defend a work-related stress claim unless they do everything they reasonably can to rectify the problem responsible for the employee’s stress.
Claiming for work-related stress is not straightforward, and it shouldn’t be. There need to be safeguards to ensure that employers do not face a barrage of spurious claims every time an employee gets upset about something trivial that has happened at work
However, it’s equally proper that a claim for psychiatric illness caused by genuine problems which the employer ought to have seen coming, but didn’t recognise or did recognise but did nothing about, should succeed.
For more information about whether you have a viable claim caused by stress at work or to find out how much you might receive for a workplace stress claim, contact an experienced no win no fee solicitor, such as Mooneerams Solicitors. They will be happy to provide you with free legal advice about the possibility of making a successful claim.
Didn’t realise people could claim – the issue is widespread and underestimated
I did not until this post interesting to know, and wish I had known it when I worked in banking
Wow. I learnt a lot reading this article. I never knew the employee had such a responsibility for something that is so hard to find prove for a cause and effect.
I think a lot of people never realised this either
I think this is a much bigger problem than people know and people keep it hidden.
I agree and it is easy to hide it