Last Wednesday was National Stress Awareness Day. With the following advice from International Stress Management Association and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), you can make steps to help you avoid boiling over.

What is work-related stress and why do we need to tackle it?

There is a difference between work-related stress and pressure. We all experience pressure on a daily basis and need it to motivate us and perform at our best. It’s when we experience too much pressure without the opportunity to recover that we start to experience stress.

What is the legal position on work-related stress?

Under UK law, employers have a ‘duty of care’ to protect the health, safety and welfare of all employees at work. This includes work-related stress. The HSE has identified six key areas, or management standards, that can be causes of stress at work to help employers to perform a risk assessment:

* The demands of the job

* Your control over your work

* The support you receive from managers and colleagues

* Your relationships at work

* Your role in the organisation

* Change and how it’s managed

What does this mean for me as an employee?

As an employee you have a right to have your health and safety at work protected, so familiarise yourself with these risk factors and talk to your manager if you feel you are in danger of being a victim of work-related stress.

As a result of the new management standards, your manager should have access to advice to help improve their understanding of stress, and if you’re experiencing work-related stress you should be listened to and offered help by your manager or an employee representative.

What should I do if I’m becoming stressed?

Try to identify the causes (see above) and tell your manager at an early stage if possible. If your stress is work-related, this will give them the chance to help and prevent the situation getting worse, and if it isn’t work-related, they may be able to do something to reduce some of your pressure.

Many employees are reluctant to talk about stress at work, due to the stigma attached to it. Remember, stress is not a weakness, and can happen to anyone. If you get the chance, attend stress management courses arranged by your employer, which will help you understand stress and how to deal with it.