Samaritans Highlight Work Related Stress

A third of UK workers cannot get to sleep at night through anxiety - and three-quarters cannot 'switch off' when they leave their office.

Samaritans releases these findings today to coincide with roadshows to launch its WorkLife training to help HR professionals and managers cope better with stress and emotional issues in the workplace.

When they were asked what contributed to a good working environment, the top factor selected was 'having management staff who were easy to approach' which polled at 81%.

Overall the survey found that 11% of us feel our bosses don't care about us and one in five believe their boss lacks training at handling employees' personal matters and over one in five say that their boss lacks the personality to do this.

The next highest factor was 'flexible working' at 74.7%. However, in the North East - the only area in the country which answered this way - this was turned around as flexible working was the most important factor at 82.8 % against 79.3% for approachable management.

The Scottish came out top when it came to preferring to have the radio playing in the background at work - giving it a rating of 34.5%!

Samaritans' internet survey asked which qualities staff felt were important in their managers.

The top response at 80% was that managers respected the staff's right to having a work:life balance. The next, at 77% was that a manager should be able to spot when a member of staff needs support.

In Yorkshire the top quality for being an effective manager was being a good communicator. In the education profession, staff rated it very highly - at 40.9% - that a manager shows an interest in their home life. In the financial world - one of the most stressed professions - staff thought one of the most important factors in their managers - at 74.3% - was that they tried to reduce staff stress levels.

Commenting on the survey findings, Samaritans Jonathan Moran said, "I believe the survey's findings show that not enough is being done at ground level to tackle stress in the workplace and highlights the need for the sort of training we are offering."

Samaritans

Source: Samaritans Press release

 
 
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