Quarter of staff off work with stress hide truth from employers ⁰

A startling number of people in the UK who are suffering from stress hide from their employers, according to new research from Aviva to mark National Stress Awareness Day. A quarter of people (25 percent) surveyed admitted taking a day off work with stress but then blamed it on a physical illness. Based on the current number of people working in the UK, it indicates that almost eight million people are suffering in silence. The data also suggests that a third of people (33 percent) have taken a day off work with stress at some stage in their career. 25-34 year olds were the most likely to have taken time off (46 percent) with those aged over 55 seemingly the least likely to need time away from work (25 percent). More than half of men (53 percent) who had taken a day off work with stress at some stage in their career said they had done so in the last year, compared to just a third of women (34 percent).

Those who have needed time away from work with stress in the last year took an average of six days off, but stress can clearly impact people in different ways and for different lengths of time. When asked ‘how many days have you taken off work with stress in the last year?’ the most common response was 1-2 days (31 percent), but 6 percent of people who needed time away from work within the last year said they had taken 11 or more.

More than a quarter of people cited money as their main cause of stress (27 percent), followed by relationships (15 percent), health (13 percent) and work (13 percent). However, one in five people (20 percent) said that they have no causes of stress in their life at all.

The research provided more positive evidence that the stigma around stress and other mental health problems in the workplace is being reduced. A third of people (33 percent) said they would now feel more comfortable talking about it than they would have done five years ago, compared to just  1 in 8 (12 percent) who said they would feel less comfortable.

Steve Bridger, Managing Director of Group Protection at Aviva, said: “In 2016 people should not feel that they have to hide their stress away and suffer in silence. Feeling that you can’t be open about a problem is likely to make it worse, not better. People don’t raise an eyebrow if a colleague is off work with flu, but anything to do with mental health still appears to be taboo.

“The most recent government figures say that 15 million working days a year are being lost because of stress and mental illness so this is clearly something employers need to focus on.

“It’s really encouraging to see that some people are feeling more comfortable and confident about being open on mental health in the workplace. That trend needs to continue.”