Stress Awareness Month: Avoiding ‘The Boiling Frog Syndrome’ in the Workplace

As the UK faces a rise in people of working age being economically inactive due to long-term sickness, welfare reforms are being put into place to alleviate pressure on the system.

Economic inactivity has been rising, exacerbated by the pandemic, with millions of people unable to return to work due to health-related issues. Government reforms aiming to reduce dependency on benefits and encourage those who can work to seek employment may help, but these efforts also highlight the increasing strain on councils, the NHS, and communities, which face rising costs linked to disability and long-term sickness benefits.

At the same time, the mental and physical toll of stress at work is pushing many workers to the brink, especially in environments where job security is unstable, and benefits systems are being restructured.

It’s clear that managing the balance between welfare support and work participation is key to promoting overall well-being in the workplace. But doing so effectively is certainly a challenge.

How Does Stress Affect Us At Work?

Stress is a constant factor in our workplaces, and in itself is not necessarily a bad thing. In fact, a certain amount of stress is actually healthy and can help us to be productive.

However, too much stress can have a negative effect across an entire business, affecting productivity, absenteeism, team dynamics and decision-making. With the average person feeling stress for a combined total of 123 days a year, it's not something that we can afford to overlook.

The ‘Boiling Frog’ analogy perfectly showcases how stress can affect employees at work. Burnout often creeps up on employees, with gradual stress increases going unnoticed until it's too late. Just like the frog in slowly heated water, we tend to adjust to rising stress, thinking it’s normal or manageable, until the pressure becomes overwhelming.

Understanding The Risks

Stress going unnoticed is the biggest risk factor. When we think of physical health, if someone is starting to get the flu, there are noticeable signs - the runny nose or sneezing, aches and pains - but with stress, the signs can often be subtle at first.

By the time the signs of stress are becoming clear, it can already have taken hold and be having a big impact on our well-being and productivity.

Another hidden risk is the link between stress levels and accident rates. There is a proven correlation between high stress levels and increased rates of accidents and injury, with poor judgment, decreased levels of concentration and the inability to process information quickly when stressed being a key factor in this.

If a business operates in an industry where the risk of accidents or injuries is already a concern, increased stress levels can exacerbate this risk. Those operating machinery were found to be more at risk of accidents when under stress, while those in sports or athletic professions are more likely to incur physical injuries when under stress.

What Does This Mean For Businesses?

Even when acute risks aren't present, the cumulative impact of stress still affects businesses. An employee who experiences a 10% reduction in productivity due to high stress levels might not be aware of their productivity suffering, or their stress levels being elevated, but is continuing to be less effective in their role, often for long periods of time.

When stress is increased across the business, for instance due to significant changes or uncertain markets, we're less likely to notice our own stress levels rising as they are rising in line with everyone around us.

Actionable Steps For Organisations

What we can do is make sure that we're stress aware. This comes with training, whether that’s more general mental awareness training or training around managing stress, coping with change and other circumstances that are unique to the business.

This is vital in providing our employees with the knowledge and skills to spot signs of stress within their teams, understand when this stress is healthy and productive and when it is harmful, and then be able to take action to support their colleagues.

Mental health training can help us to understand the early warning signs that might be there, but without it, signs like fatigue, irritability or withdrawing from others can often go unnoticed.

Making sure our line managers and senior management have received relevant training also helps set the tone and culture around stress, reducing the risks of it becoming an issue within our workplaces.

To learn more about our unique mental health training offering, get in touch:

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