Can people really take time off work for "stress"?
TyreLever
Posts: 212 Forumite
Work is naturally stressful and I hear of people taking time off work for stress. Stress alone doesnt sound like a valid reason, if I phoned in work and said I wouldnt be in because I feel stressed, I know where I'd be told to get off (the jobcentre). How do people get long term sick pay for stress? Is our nation becoming intolerably weak?
Sometimes my advice may not be great, but I'm not perfect and I do try my best. Please take this into account.
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Yes there is often a level of pressure at work, call it stress if you like. There is a difference between having a challenging but manageable workload, and one where targets are impossible to meet. It's the stress created in the latter situation which can result in staff being off with 'stress'.
One person I worked with was a very good worker and something of a perfectionist. They wanted to do the job right, not chuck stuff onto the system in order to meet an otherwise unachievable target. They were disciplined for failing to hit the target shortly after being disciplined for errors in their work. A no-win situation.
They were signed off and when they tried to return to work were literally physically sick as they approached the office building. That is genuine stress.1 -
Different people react to stress in different ways - some thrive on it, some fail. What is stressful for one person is a walk in the park for another. But like depression, stress has become a trendy ailment - they are the bad backs of the current era. Low mood or having a bad day is not depression, feeling busy or pressured is not stress. But we have a culture of dramatization and exaggeration and some people claim depression/stress when its nothing of the kind because they can and it makes life more difficult for those genuinely battling a life with depression / stress.1
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IIRC tyre lever, you are a forkie? Used to be one myself for five years, none of this easy RDC stuff of lifting off racking and running into a trailer off the back of a bay, I was loading trailers and containers with no ramp, no bay, all handball. Which sadly, I actually liked:o That was hard work, but it wasn't stress.
Spool forward and running my own business, I can't take time off with stress, but I can see how it could happen, there have been times when things have been pretty bleak. And now that I deal with management at customers premises, some of the stuff they deal with, and their workload is silly. I think it's the relentless pressure to be 'on' all the time and to find 'solutions', when there aren't any to be found, or the solution is pretty unpalatable.0 -
Agree totally tizerbelle. I think you've summed the current situation up beautifully. It's like people claiming to be traumatised because the latest Boy Band has broken up! There are people genuinely suffering from depression, stress, PTSD etc who are getting lumped in with the 'snowflakes'.tizerbelle wrote: »Different people react to stress in different ways - some thrive on it, some fail. What is stressful for one person is a walk in the park for another. But like depression, stress has become a trendy ailment - they are the bad backs of the current era. Low mood or having a bad day is not depression, feeling busy or pressured is not stress. But we have a culture of dramatization and exaggeration and some people claim depression/stress when its nothing of the kind because they can and it makes life more difficult for those genuinely battling a life with depression / stress.0 -
I totally agree with tizerbelle. I've been saying for years now that depression/anxiety/stress has become the new 'bad back' because it's so easy to fake (not that everyone does of course).1
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Stress is a genuine medical condition so yes, like any other medical condition, it can result in people needing time of work.
Mental health issues are often not taken as seriously as physical health issues and I think that those who haven't ever experienced them are often dismissive.
There is a difference between the normal stress of daily life, and stress as an illness
Of course, as with any other health issue, there will always be a minority of people who abuse the system and claim to be ill when they are not.All posts are my personal opinion, not formal advice Always get proper, professional advice (particularly about anything legal!)0 -
I had other psychiatric problems but didn't want to disclose exactly what to my boss so I asked she write 'stress' on my sick lines. You might not know what is fully wrong with someone.
Its because of an attitude like yours where genuinely struggling people feel they shouldn't get help, that they carry on till they drop rather than nip something in the bud early, then worse problems won't develop.0 -
I had other psychiatric problems but didn't want to disclose exactly what to my boss so I asked she write 'stress' on my sick lines. You might not know what is fully wrong with someone.
Its because of an attitude like yours where genuinely struggling people feel they shouldn't get help, that they carry on till they drop rather than nip something in the bud early, then worse problems won't develop.
I think af, people develop 'hard' attitudes to stress because it can and is abused.
I've seen people with genuine stress that have really suffered because of it and I've seen people swing the lead to get a few weeks off. Lots of sympathy with the first group that should have, as you say, tackled it earlier and not felt that they should carry on to the detriment of their health, but it is the lead swingers that cause the attitudes.0 -
I think af, people develop 'hard' attitudes to stress because it can and is abused.
I've seen people with genuine stress that have really suffered because of it and I've seen people swing the lead to get a few weeks off. Lots of sympathy with the first group that should have, as you say, tackled it earlier and not felt that they should carry on to the detriment of their health, but it is the lead swingers that cause the attitudes.
But we shouldn't judge a majority on the actions of a minority.
It's the poor attitude to stress that stops people asking for help, that stops them asking for a reduced workload or more training before they become too ill to do anything.1 -
To the cynics who think all who suffer from stress-related illnesses are "swinging the lead", try if you can to picture the following scenario:
You are in a customer facing role in a technical or complicated (you don't think benefits legislation is technical or complicated?) environment, though you are given absolutely no technical training yourself. Everyone who could help is too busy swimming against the tide themselves. There is absolutely no team spirit because this is a sick system (google it) and everyone's prime concern is covering their own back.
You receive pressure from customers to deliver what they have allegedly or actually been promised (a giro, a circuit, could be anything) within a time frame you know is impossible. You tell them it cannot be done and try to give them an idea when they might expect what they have been "promised". They spit the dummy and you get the fall-out. They complain to your manager who, far from giving you any support, dumps on you some more for being unable to do what they know (or should know) is impossible.
Rinse and repeat indefinitely. As time goes on, of course you acquire more knowledge... Which serves only to show you that things are even less possible, let alone reasonable, than you thought. You know beyond a shadow of a doubt nothing will ever change. Every day you are told you are useless in a variety of ways. You have this dim memory of a time when you knew this was not true but the more you hear something, especially a constant barrage of negativity, the easier it is to believe.
Eventually, this constant exposure to a toxic environment manifests itself as a physical reaction, often vomiting; you are literally being poisoned. You realise your only hope of survival is to leave the mental cess pool you have been drowning in, whatever the consequences.
If that is your definition of weakness, I sincerely hope you have to work over a decade in a dole office then five years at the lowest level in telecoms. Get a clue!2
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