How to deal with stress

Identify signs of stress in employees

Individuals suffering from stress often display a range of outward signs that may be noticed by colleagues and other managers.

These signs include:

• tiredness and irritability
• reduced quality of work
• indecisiveness and poor judgement
• loss of sense of humour
• physical illness such as headaches, nausea, aches and pains
• employees seeming jumpy or ill-at-ease, or admitting to sleeping badly
• increased sick leave
• poor timekeeping
• staff changing the pattern of their working days - perhaps by staying late or taking work home with them

You should also look for signs of more widespread problems among groups of employees. For example:

• arguments and disputes between staff
• general absenteeism
• more grievances and complaints
• greater staff turnover

You also need to watch out for signs that your own stress levels are rising. See the page in this guide on dealing with your own stress.

You can read about mental health in the workplace on the Mental Health Foundation website. You can also read about work-related stress on the HSE website.

Businesses in Northern Ireland can get information on health and safety issues from the HSENI website or from the HSENI Enquiry Line on Tel 0800 0320 121.

Subjects covered in this guide

• Introduction
• Why tackling stress in your business is important
• Common causes of stress at work
• Assess whether stress is a problem for your business
• Identify signs of stress in employees
• Tackle the causes of workplace stress
• External causes of stress
• Stress-management training and counselling
• Dealing with your own stress
• Here's how we tackle stress to create a healthier working environment

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