Stress causes third of Sheffield workers to take time off work

Third of Sheffield staff too stressed to work

Stress Awareness Day research (here soundtracked by Queen and David Bowie's live Under Pressure) reveals eight million UK workers suffer stress.

Aviva found 32 per cent of local folk have taken time off work with stress, ranking Sheffield 11th worst of 17 cities, but blamed it on a physical illness.

Too much pressure? Pressure got to stop!

TOP TIPS TO BUST STRESS: http://www.thestar.co.uk/news/stress-busting-top-ten-tips-1-8214095

Across the country a quarter of those surveyed have taken a day off due to stress at some stage during their career with cash then relationships most common causes.

Findings revealed 25-34 year-olds are most likely to have taken time off (46 per cent) with over-55s least likely to need time off work (25 per cent).

More than half of men (53 per cent) who had taken a day off work with stress at some stage in their career said they had done so within the last year, compared to a third of women (34 per cent).

Those who took time off work with stress in the last year took an average of six days off, Most common response was one to two days (31 per cent) but six per cent had taken 11 days or more.

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

There is some evidence stigma around stress and mental health problems is being reduced - a third of people (33 per cent) said they would now feel more comfortable talking about it than five years ago, compared to just 1 in 8 (12 per cent) who said they would feel less comfortable.

Aviva Group Protection MD Steve Bridger said: “In 2016 people should not feel that they have to hide their stress away and suffer in silence. Feeling 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.

“Most recent government figures say 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.”