Stress-related Absence Research Articles

What is the relationship between resilience and perceived levels of workplace stress among middle leaders in education?

ABSTRACT According to the UK’s Health and Safety Executive (HSE), there has been a 36.5% rise in reported cases of work-related stress between 2018/19 and 2019/20, to over 822,000 individual cases. Europe stress-related absence was second only to musculoskeletal disorders, with estimated work-related stress costing European companies 20 billion euros per year and accounted for nearly 60% of lost working days. This paper focuses on the under-researched area of stress among middle leaders in education. While it is widely reported that teachers face high levels of stress, as a result of organisational pressures, there is a paucity of research on middle leaders. This paper considers whether there will be a significant negative relationship between self-reported levels of resilience and self-reported levels of stress amongst 61 middle leaders. The two sets of data were subjected to cross-correlational quantitative analysis to establish the strength of the relationships between each of the six dimensions of resilience on perceived stress. Among the findings, a key result was that the question in the title was answered, namely that high resilience results in low stress in middle leaders in education. However, it was more nuanced than this and there were factors such as levels of peer support and an individual’s perception of their future which did contribute to a reduction in perceived levels of stress. The findings suggest that senior leaders in education have a greater impact on middle leaders’ levels of resilience and perceived levels of stress than they may think.

Quantifying the impact of environment factors on the risk of medical responders' stress-related absenteeism.

Medical emergency response staff are exposed to incidents which may involve high‐acuity patients or some intractable or traumatic situations. Previous studies on emergency response staff stress‐related absence have focused on perceived factors and their impacts on absence leave. To date, analytical models on absenteeism risk prediction use past absenteeism to predict risk of future absenteeism. We show that these approaches ignore environment data, such as stress factors. The increased use of digital systems in emergency services allows us to gather data that were not available in the past and to apply a data‐driven approach to quantify the effect of environment variables on the risk of stress‐related absenteeism.We propose a two‐stage data‐driven framework to identify the variables of importance and to quantify their impact on medical staff stress‐related risk of absenteeism. First, machine learning techniques are applied to identify the importance of different stressors on staff stress‐related risk of absenteeism. Second, the Cox proportional‐hazards model is applied to estimate the relative risk of each stressor. Four significant stressors are identified, these are the average night shift, past stress leave, the squared term of death confirmed by the Emergency Services and completion of the safeguarding form. We discuss counterintuitive results and implications to policy.

Stress-related absence on the rise among NHS staff in Scotland

Stress-related absence on the rise among NHS staff in Scotland

Public service stress and burnout over 12 months.

Research indicates that workplace stress has the potential to harm employee health with stress and stress-related absence increasing significantly during economic recession and times of organizational change. To explore whether psychosocial hazards and burnout changed over a 12 month period in a public sector organization during a period of severely reduced organizational finances. The Management Standards Indicator Tool (MSIT) and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-General Scale (MBI-GS) were administered to employees of one local government department in July 2011 and July 2012. A total of 128 employees completed the questionnaires in July 2011 (response rate 67%) and 57 in July 2012 (response rate 54%). MSIT factor scores of demands, peer support and role worsened significantly over the period of study. Furthermore, all psychosocial hazards scored worse than the recommended level set by Health and Safety Executive. Two burnout dimensions, 'demands' and 'cynicism', significantly worsened over the 12 month period but professional efficacy increased. The MSIT and MBI-GS appeared to have utility in this comparison. Psychosocial hazards appeared to worsen over the 12 months of the study, as 'demands' and 'cynicism' increased. However, an increase in professional efficacy was also seen, which requires further investigation.

Rise in stress-related absence among nurses

Rise in stress-related absence among nurses

Psychosocial factors and economic recession: the Stormont Study

Little research has explored changes in workers' psychosocial hazard exposures, work-related stress and stress-related absence associated with the onset of unprecedented severe economic recession. Knowledge of these could inform psychosocial risk management measures appropriate to austere economic times. To examine civil servants' psychosocial hazard exposures, work-related stress and stress-related absence during a period of economic recession, relative to levels prior to the onset of this period. Analyses compared the findings of two surveys of employees of the Northern Ireland Civil Service conducted in 2005 (n = 17,124), prior to the onset of recession, and in 2009 (n = 9913), during a period of economic recession. Psychosocial hazard exposures were significantly worse during the recession than prior to it. These results are considered in relation to UK government exposure targets. Work-related stress and absence ascribed to work-related stress were significantly greater during recession than prior to it. This study demonstrates adverse changes in psychosocial hazard exposures, work-related stress prevalence and stress-related sickness absence associated with the onset of an unprecedented economic recession. Its findings indicate the need for a concerted focus on psychosocial risk management activities during austere economic times as a means by which to promote worker health and minimize sickness absence.

Risk-factors for stress-related absence among health care employees: a bio-psychosocial perspective. Associations between self-rated health, working conditions and biological stress hormones

Background: Stress is a major cause of sickness absence and the health care sector appears to be especiallyat risk. This cross sectional study aimed to identify the risk factors for absence due to self-reported stressamong health care employees. Methods: 225 health care employees were categorized into two groupsbased on presence or not of self-rated sickness absence for stress. Questionnaire data and stress sensitivehormones measurements were used.Results: Employees with stress related sick leave experienced worse health, poorer work satisfaction as wellas worse social and home situations than those employees without stress-related sick leave. No-significantdifferences were identified regarding stress-sensitive hormones. The risk for employees, not satisfied atwork, of becoming absent due to stress was approximately three fold compared to those who reported beingsatisfied (OR 2.8, 95% confidence interval; (CI) 1.3 - 5.9). For those not satisfied with their social situation,the risk for sickness absence appeared to be somewhat higher (OR 3.2; CI 1.2 - 8.6).Individual factors such as recovery potential and meaning of life as well as work related factors such as skilldevelopment and work tempo predicted employee’ s work satisfaction.Conclusions: Based on cross sectional data, work-site and individual factors as well as social situationsappear to increase the risk for absence due to stress among health care employees. Lower recoverypotential, higher work tempo and poor leadership appeared to be related to the high degree of work relatedexhaustion experienced by employees.

Stress, Absence and Reintegration: Perceptions and Practice of Professionals in Six European Jurisdictions

AbstractAs part of a larger study into stress, absence and reintegration (Stress Impact 2003–2005), semistructured interviews were carried out with a range of professionals including general practitioners, occupational health physicians, health and safety officers, human resource professionals, general managers, mental health professionals and return-to-work coordinators. The aim of the study was to explore professional perceptions of stress recognition/diagnosis, experiences, stress factors, interventions, referrals, the return-to-work process and disability management in six European Union jurisdictions (Austria, Finland, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). The most striking characteristic of the responses was the lack of congruence in views and beliefs within the same professional group across jurisdictional boundaries and between professionals within the same jurisdiction. There was little evidence that any clear message is getting across to professionals. Professionals need to respond more flexibly to stress-related absence, particularly in the use of psychosocial and work-based disability management supports or interventions.