Stress as a reason for absence from work

[Harlesden]

I used to be on Yahoo! Answers quite a lot until I realized that the integrity of the site has been totally destroyed by "trolls" and hateful self-centred teens with their hate posts.
One thing I did notice is that a lot of Americans appear to use "stress" (certified by a MD) as a reason for absences from work.
How is stress measured? How does a doctor know when the stress has eased to the point where the patient can return to work?
I was thinking that stress is something in the mind and therefore an ordinary medical docitor is not really qualified to diagnose it or treat it.
Is absence due to "stress" widespread in Britain or is it an American phenomenon?
The most bizarre post on Y/A on this topic concerned a woman who went to her doctor complaining of stress - caused by being told off by her supervisor for being late back from lunch - and when the doctor refused to sign her off,she became enraged and caused serious damage to his office. That must have stressed out the doctor

 

[Ascot]

It's very easy to be signed off work for stress for months at a time since it cannot be easily proven you are telling fibs, as long as you can talk the talk to the doctor. You can get caught out and about too since "you need to get fresh air".

You tend to find people go off just before a voluntary redundancy trawl as being off sick is usually full pay for X amount of time.

 

[MidnightFlyer]

I used to be on Yahoo! Answers quite a lot until I realized that the integrity of the site has been totally destroyed by "trolls" and hateful self-centred teens with their hate posts.

Any proof that it is teens in particular in that latter category? If anything, in my experience and research trolls tend to be usually roughly18-30 and is normally done 'for a laugh', especially ironic / humorous posts on Yahoo Answers and similar, not usually hateful. Please don't use the stereotype that it must be the young of today as we are responsible for all the other ills of the world too. It's baseless hyperbole, but also one of the very few things that really gets to me personally. So I will ask again, any proof other than your word that anyone making 'self-centred hate posts' are teens?

And yes, stress is hard to prove but also acts as a great basis for getting time off work and similar - I've heard some very interesting stories from people I know who work with people who put it on just so they can get a few days off work on full or reduced pay. But like others say, it's hard to counterprove that they're fibbing.

 

[Harlesden]

18-30 is young to me and to most other people.
If a 40-45 year old goes out in a group of people he/she describes (by their age) as something between 18 and 25 that is rather disturbing, especially when the post goes on to brag about the group's hostile intentions towards a different (racial/religious/gay) group for no reason other than the other group is "different"
If a similarly mature person posts being in their first job and everyone is so mean and the manageri is a real (expletive) that too is disturbing.
You cannot seem to face the fact that parents of today's young people grew up themselves in a free spirit society where discipline in schools had been made illegalm, police were to be challenged rather than respected and some parents chose to give their children freedom to express themselves irrespective of whether their method of expressing themselves was socially/legally acceptable or not.
This means that some of today's young people lack discipline and the training that previous generations got from their parents, added to which a minority of parents actually fear their teen children resulting in the parent/child relationship breaking down completely.
On a slightly different note, all of the criminals brought before a court in respect of graffitti on LU property and rolling stock were in their late teens early twenties.
In my part of the universe, mature people simply don't indulge in "pranks" inended to ridicule, embarrass or even injure another human being.
Apologies for the long post but MattE 2010 appears convinced that today's young people
can do no wrong

 

[High Dyke]

It's very easy to be signed off work for stress for months at a time since it cannot be easily proven you are telling fibs, as long as you can talk the talk to the doctor. You can get caught out and about too since "you need to get fresh air".

You tend to find people go off just before a voluntary redundancy trawl as being off sick is usually full pay for X amount of time.

Hmm funny you should mention that. I know someone that has struggled to cope with their job - not enough to occupy their mind; so they started to worry about things and before you know it they are off work with stress.

Oddly enough prior to this they asked to take voluntary severance from their job.

 

[Smudger105e]

I was off work last year for about three months with stress.

My GP was not entirely convinced, I don't think, and was giving me a week or two off at a time. My employer (DBS) referred me to the company medical mob, and the Doctor there saw a different side to it (I burst into tears a couple of times) and said I should be off for at least another six weeks. I cannot praise my employer enough for their support during this difficult time.

I do agree though, stress cam be used as the modern bad back, as it is difficult to prove or disprove.

 

[grid56126]

A subject close to my heart in both personal and work related terms.
About 20 years ago I suffered from some pretty bad anxiety problems triggered by having to appear as a witness in a fairly high profile court case with some fairly high ranking officers telling me they were concerned that I could be got at. This was not just some local villain, but it was a national news story which I will not go into here. This was, thank god sorted without my involvement in the end but the damage was done. I suffered for about a year until I eventually got the right help and I can genuinely say that I learnt a massive amount about myself from the experience. I wouldn’t say I am a better person because of it, but it has certainly moulded my views on people who suffer from mental health issues. I am, thank god as cured as anyone can be from this sort of thing and have used my experiences to help others both in my personal and work life.

It is worth noting of course, that both my good friends and very closest family were completely unable to comprehend that I had any sort of problems at all as I never took a day sick leave or changed my lifestyle (that they saw) as that was my way of dealing with it. Sitting at home brooding was the last thing I could have done so thankfully the hobby really helped as I was out and about bashing / cranking generally a massive amount at the time. This was a time when there was a massive stigma with any forms of depression / anxiety / stress.

Of course the stigma around “stress” has evolved to the point whereby people now “think” that most people are just trying it on. Now think about how many people you know and think have been trying it on, then look at the (current) stats published by the “Mental Health Foundation” (UK based). You might be surprised to learn that most people really do have problems, they just don’t tell you about them because they are rarely work related and mostly concern a number of different aspects of their lives.

One in four people will experience some kind of mental health problem in the course of a year

Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common mental disorder in Britain
Depression affects 1 in 5 older people

Suicides rates show that British men are three times as likely to die by suicide than British women

Self-harm statistics for the UK show one of the highest rates in Europe: 400 per 100,000 population

The most interesting thing to me is that the stats show that anxiety and depression are more common than “stress” and that matches my experience in the work place. Whilst colleagues will refer to people being off sick with “stress” the reality is quite different, the real reasons are often complex and rarely have anything to do with the job.

I have been (might soon be again!) a line manager and my take on the issue is that with correct procedures in place managing staff with these types of problems fairly quickly allows a more retrospective opinion on the reality of the situation. People who are playing the game in a properly managed environment will most often have a faster “recovery” than those in a less well managed system. Of those cases I have been involved in none have been trying it on and I have more than enough evidence to back that up (very mature adults crying in my arms etc). Also those that think that going sick with stress related sick notes when redundancy is on offer is a ploy, need to look again. Going sick for long periods of time will get your illness investigated and if you are pulling a fast one the chances are the company will go down a managing for attendance route and get rid of you (legitimately) by much cheaper means than a redundancy pay out. If there is redundancy on offer the company are looking to save money, not pay people off who are on the take. As I have eluded to, any decent employer will not simply accept a doctors note. It is more likely that some people will actually be genuinely bricking it wondering if they are going to be able to pay the bills in the next few months, which, unsurprisingly is a trigger for anxiety and depression. Unfortunately I speak from experience again on that subject.

I suspect if you look into this you will find that more people who pretend they are ill for a few extra days off, do so by having sudden bouts of man flu / trots / vomiting etc than ever do with stress as there is no requirement to prove it! Of course I never did anything like that when the 89 went to Leeds for the first time or No22 went to Norwich on a service train.

Take it easy and if you do suffer anxiety read the book “Feel the fear and do it anyway” by Susan Jeffers. It is a massively insightful read and is not like the normal self-prophesising books you often see, it’s an easy read and when I was just a few pages in I was doing face palms (before they were popular!) as the obviousness of it all smacked me round the face.

Grid

 

[PHILIPE]

You never heard the word stress when I was younger so it could perhaps be used for dubious reasons.

 

[90019]

Apologies for the long post but MattE 2010 appears convinced that today's young people can do no wrong

Meanwhile, you appear to be utterly convinced that all wrongdoing is done by young people and can never be anyone older as every single older person is absolutely respectful of everything.

 

[bronzeonion]

18-30 is young to me and to most other people.
If a 40-45 year old goes out in a group of people he/she describes (by their age) as something between 18 and 25 that is rather disturbing, especially when the post goes on to brag about the group's hostile intentions towards a different (racial/religious/gay) group for no reason other than the other group is "different"
If a similarly mature person posts being in their first job and everyone is so mean and the manageri is a real (expletive) that too is disturbing.
You cannot seem to face the fact that parents of today's young people grew up themselves in a free spirit society where discipline in schools had been made illegalm, police were to be challenged rather than respected and some parents chose to give their children freedom to express themselves irrespective of whether their method of expressing themselves was socially/legally acceptable or not.
This means that some of today's young people lack discipline and the training that previous generations got from their parents, added to which a minority of parents actually fear their teen children resulting in the parent/child relationship breaking down completely.
On a slightly different note, all of the criminals brought before a court in respect of graffitti on LU property and rolling stock were in their late teens early twenties.
In my part of the universe, mature people simply don't indulge in "pranks" inended to ridicule, embarrass or even injure another human being.
Apologies for the long post but MattE 2010 appears convinced that today's young people
can do no wrong

You do love your generalisations don't you?

 

[43021HST]

18-30 is young to me and to most other people.
If a 40-45 year old goes out in a group of people he/she describes (by their age) as something between 18 and 25 that is rather disturbing, especially when the post goes on to brag about the group's hostile intentions towards a different (racial/religious/gay) group for no reason other than the other group is "different"
If a similarly mature person posts being in their first job and everyone is so mean and the manageri is a real (expletive) that too is disturbing.
You cannot seem to face the fact that parents of today's young people grew up themselves in a free spirit society where discipline in schools had been made illegalm, police were to be challenged rather than respected and some parents chose to give their children freedom to express themselves irrespective of whether their method of expressing themselves was socially/legally acceptable or not.
This means that some of today's young people lack discipline and the training that previous generations got from their parents, added to which a minority of parents actually fear their teen children resulting in the parent/child relationship breaking down completely.
On a slightly different note, all of the criminals brought before a court in respect of graffitti on LU property and rolling stock were in their late teens early twenties.
In my part of the universe, mature people simply don't indulge in "pranks" inended to ridicule, embarrass or even injure another human being.
Apologies for the long post but MattE 2010 appears convinced that today's young people
can do no wrong

I dont think the younger generation are getting worse, things are just as they've always been, you had the teddy boys of the 50s, rockers of the 60s, Punks of the 70s, etc etc, every generation has its young tearaways, its probably because you're looking at the past through rose tinted spectacles where everything was better.

 

[user15681]

Remember that it is the minority that give the majority a bad name. I am an 18 year old myself and have worked tirelessly over the past few years with a group of 16-18 year olds to give back to the community. We have given up days and weeks of our own time to raise over £3000 for charities and good causes. Now try telling me all teenagers are self-centred and wrongdoers. We aren't. It is a very few that are bad, it's just that teenagers as a whole have the blame heaped on them. Throughout all groups in society, through all time periods, there will always be wrongdoers. I'm not arguing, just don't generalise all teenagers as bad.

On a separate note, stress can be measured through self report measures such as the SRRS (Social Readjustment Rating Scale) created by Holmes and Rahe. It looks at how long it would take to readjust to a life event that has occurred in terms of stress. Each life event is attributed a score. For example, death of a spouse is 100, whilst imprisonment is 63 and marriage 50. The higher the score, the more stressful the life event would be and the longer it would take to readjust to such life event. The person would add up all scores applicable to them. If their total was over 300, there is significant risk of illness due to stress and so time off work is likely. I hope that one example helps.

 

[Xenophon PCDGS]

I think that we should all be very aware of the current commercial climate that has prevailed in Britain for quite some time, where employers seek to obtain as much as possible from their employees, over and above the normal expectations, without regard to its possible effects upon a workforce who are so very well aware of the fragile nature that is now the employment raison d'etre that so applies and indeed of the fears than this can so engender.

I speak as although now retired for three years, I was very much aware of this situation and whilst being a Senior Manager who did at least try to understand how company edicts could affect the morale of an already hard-pressed workforce, I was most certainly in a minority of one in that respect when compared with other Senior Managers. I have always abided by the principle that people are human beings and not just "names and numbers" upon a company database.

 

[telstarbox]

You never heard the word stress when I was younger so it could perhaps be used for dubious reasons.

And there would have been a time when you never heard the terms DNA, AIDS or obesity crisis - our understanding of the human body and mind is always expanding.

 

[northwichcat]

You wouldn't go to the Doctor with stress but with a medical problem which is the result of being stressed. Doctors will be able to tell if you are sleep deprived or genuinely have chest pains as a result of stress.

 

[Butts]

One of the harsher aspects of modern employment practice is that a lot of genuine sufferers may have to avoid sick leave as it will be unpaid and they cannot afford to lose the money.

 

[ANorthernGuard]

Stress is a part of depression and Anxiety it can be caused by jobs for instance on the railway (Shift pattern has been proven to be one of the main causes for Stress/Depression/Anxiety) too many people right it off as laziness or similar. Which i s usually so far from the truth but the gutter press do not help in these matters.