Work-Related Stress: Sources and Employer Measures

Is work-related stress an individual problem?

When work-related stress is discussed, the solutions offered are usually individual: breathing exercises, regular sleep, taking up a hobby. These can help a person cope, but they do not remove the source of the stress. If the line speed is unmanageably high, if the shift plan changes at the last minute every week, or if the foreman corrects mistakes by scolding, teaching the employee relaxation techniques leaves the problem where it is.

Work-related stress occurs when there is a prolonged imbalance between the demands of the job and the control, skills and support the employee has to meet those demands. Short periods of high workload exist in every job; the problem is when this imbalance becomes permanent.

The legislation also looks at the issue from an organisational perspective. Among the principles of protection from risks, Art. 5 of Law No. 6331 on Occupational Health and Safety lists adapting work to the individual, in particular preventing the adverse health and safety effects of monotonous work and the pace of production, and developing a prevention policy covering technology, work organisation, working conditions and social relationships. Art. 8/3 of the Regulation on Risk Assessment requires psychosocial hazard sources to be recorded when hazards are identified, and hazards that may arise from working procedures, shift patterns, organisation, the supervision system and the hierarchical structure to be taken into account.

Causes of work-related stress: organisational sources

The table below shows the causes of work-related stress together with how they appear in the workplace and which organisational measure can address them:

For bullying behaviour, see our article on workplace mobbing, and for the effects of night and shift work, our article on night shift work.

The effect of stress on work accidents

Stress is rarely recorded as a separate cause in accident reports, yet it plays a role in many links of the accident chain. The effect of stress on work accidents appears mainly through these mechanisms:

• Time pressure and shortcuts. An order running late paves the way for rule-breaking such as leaving a guard open, intervening without lockout or driving a forklift too fast.
• Attention and fatigue. Prolonged high pace and disrupted sleep increase distraction and the likelihood of error.
• Breakdown of information flow. In tense teams problems go unreported, near misses are hidden and shift handovers are incomplete.

So in accident and near-miss investigations the question "why did the employee choose this shortcut?" should be asked, and the answer sought in the organisation of work. For the method, see our article on root cause analysis, and for removing the obstacles to reporting, our article on the near-miss reporting system.

Job design: balancing demand and control

Managing work-related stress starts with reorganising the work itself. Concrete steps:

1. Set targets according to capacity. When production or sales targets are set, the available staff, machine capacity and leave are taken into account. If the target can only be met through constant overtime, the plan is not realistic.
2. Protect breaks. In busy periods the first thing given up is the break. Break times must be written into the plan, and the supervisor must enforce them.
3. Break up monotonous work. In jobs where the same movement is repeated for hours, rotation and job enrichment reduce both physical and mental load.
4. Give employees a say. Being able to express a view on the order of work, the method or the choice of tools makes the same workload less wearing.
5. Make the shift plan predictable. Announcing the plan in advance, distributing night shifts fairly and observing rest time at shift changes are among the lowest-cost stress measures.
6. Reduce interruptions. Constantly interrupted work produces both errors and tension; collecting non-urgent requests at set times helps.

Manager behaviour and communication

The person who most shapes an employee's daily experience is the first-line supervisor. The same workload is bearable with a supportive supervisor and becomes unbearable with one who scolds. The following behaviours can be taught and monitored for foremen, team leaders and shift supervisors:

• Discussing mistakes in terms of their cause, without blaming the person,
• Giving instructions clearly and from a single source,
• Recording and responding to problems reported by the team,
• Announcing changes before implementing them and explaining the reasons,
• Distributing workload and overtime fairly within the team.

Structural communication channels must also be set up: a short briefing at the start of the shift, a way for employees to raise problems anonymously, and an employee representative who represents employees on OHS matters. For the election and duties of the representative, see our article on electing an employee representative. The reliability of these channels is also the foundation of a safety culture.

A stress reduction programme: step by step

A stress reduction programme is not a one-off seminar but a cycle run as part of the risk assessment:

1. Measure. Use a validated psychosocial risk survey and small focus groups to identify which sources stand out in which unit. We explained the method in our article on psychosocial risk factors.
2. Interpret by unit. The factory average hides the problem; it is usually concentrated in a particular line, shift or team.
3. Choose measures according to the source. Write the appropriate organisational measures from the table into the risk assessment, with a responsible person and a date.
4. Involve the workplace physician. The physician assesses stress-related complaints during health surveillance and employee consultations, refers the employee to the relevant health service if necessary, and makes organisational recommendations to the employer without disclosing personal information. Employees' health information is confidential.
5. Monitor. Track changes in absenteeism, staff turnover, accident and near-miss records and complaints by unit.
6. Measure again. Some time after the measures, the measurement is repeated with the same method; an unchanged result shows that the measure did not touch the source.

Example: implementation on an assembly line

Suppose that a survey at an automotive supplier finds the assembly line's workload and control scores markedly worse than those of other units. In the focus group, three causes stand out: model changes made mid-shift without notice, the team being blamed for line stoppages, and break times being constantly shifted because of production pressure.

The action plan responds directly to these three causes. The model change schedule is posted on the team board one day in advance. Stoppages are discussed and recorded at the end of the shift in terms of causes and consequences, not individuals. Break times are fixed; during breaks the shift supervisor keeps the line running with a relief operator. A few months later the same survey is repeated and the result is assessed together with near-miss reports and absenteeism over the same period. None of these measures requires major investment; what changes is how the work is managed.

For businesses in Bursa and the surrounding provinces, we carry out the assessment of psychosocial risks as part of our risk assessment service and the health monitoring of employees as part of our workplace physician service.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does work-related stress have to be included in the risk assessment?

Art. 8/3 of the Regulation on Risk Assessment requires psychosocial hazard sources to be recorded when hazards are identified. Stress sources such as workload, shift patterns, organisation and the supervision system are assessed within this scope.

Is providing stress management training enough?

Not on its own. Training can increase a person's coping skills, but the Law requires risks to be combated at source. Organisational measures addressing sources such as workload, control, role ambiguity and manager behaviour should be at the centre of the programme.

What does the workplace physician do about stress?

The physician assesses stress-related complaints during health surveillance and employee consultations, refers the employee if necessary, and recommends organisational measures to the employer while protecting confidentiality. Personal health information is not shared with the employer.

How can you tell whether a stress reduction programme is working?

Improvement in the sources in a second measurement using the same method is assessed together with changes in absenteeism, staff turnover, accident and near-miss records. Results are compared by unit.