Employees in shared offices will be interested to know that acute illnesses such as cancer have been overtaken by stress as the number one reason staff take sickness leave.
Two-fifths of employers reported an increased number of sick days taken due to stress over the last year, according to a survey carried out by the Chartered Institute of Personal Development (CIPD) and Simplyhealth.
The economic climate, money worries and job cuts have been blamed for the rise with half of organisations in the public sector reporting increases compared to a third of manufacturers.
Many workers find it hard to balance their work and home lives and with added pressure to put in more hours for less reward stress is a big factor with a recent WorldatWork survey finding that more than half of managers thought an ideal employee did not have outside commitments.
Jill Miller, CIPD adviser, said: “Stress is a particular challenge in the public sector where the sheer amount of major change and restructuring would appear to be the root cause.”
