Stressed out!

Tuesday 09 August 2016

Stress levels amongst States workers seems to be on the up.

In 2011, 2012, and 2013 around 7,000 days were lost due to workers being signed off with stress or anxiety related illnesses.

There was then a massive jump to just over 10,000 days in 2014, before a slump the following year to just over 9,000.

In the first six months of this year almost 5,000 days have been lost. So, if the trend were to continue it’s likely 2016 will be a near record year for days lost.

But you have to delve deeper into the statistics to uncover the real trends. If there are fewer States employees now than there were a number of years ago then the percentage increase in stress is higher than the figures might at first indicate.

What the statistics also show is the number of people who are being signed off. In the first six months of this year that stood at 231. The total for the whole of last year was 390. So, again, if the trend of January to June this year continues there’ll be a record number of people signed off.

Dividing the number of days lost by the number of people signed off, the ‘average’ time someone is signed off for is 21 days.

The bald statistics show the most stressful departments to be Health and Social Services, and Education. So far this year 2,330 days have been lost at Health and Social Services, and 1,176 days at Education. About 70% of the total.

Again though, the figures need to be interpreted with caution. These two departments are the States biggest employers, and the range of jobs is vast from consultants and surgeons to porters and cleaners, from head teachers to teaching assistants.

The States acknowledge stress is a serious problem and have been working with unions and departments to try and tackle the issue.

Commenting on the figures released in the Freedom of Information request the States says: "It is important to note that during 2014 'managing attendance' was a priority for mangers across all States departments which raised awareness of the accuracy and reliability of reporting employee absence data."

The statement then goes on to say: "This increased capture of data is likely to have contributed to the increase in reported days off in general but also the more accurate categorisation of reason for sickness: i.e. previously managers may have selected the 'miscellaneous' category rather than stress or anxiety."