EEF medical adviser warns on stress

Speaking at the 2009 health and wellbeing at work conference at Birmingham’s NEC, EEF chief medical adviser Professor Sayeed Khan warned employers that the current economic climate threatens to significantly affect people’s work life balance and lead to increased levels of stress in the workplace. Professor Khan also said the idea that problems with health and wellbeing were only confined to those out of work or made redundant was a myth. Current conditions could have an equal if not greater impact on those who remain employed, as the threat of redundancy either to an employee or a family member is often more stressful than redundancy itself he will warn, he said. “Sickness absence is not just confined to those out of work as the unknown is always more problematic than certainty,” he went on. “Those who remain can suffer from the so called ‘imposter syndrome’ and think ‘Why me? Why did they keep me and not the other person who is more talented than me?’ As a result, it is even more important that employers do all they can to assess and manage the health of their workforce.”