Managing Stress At Work

Introduction

On-line guidance

Training and Development

Advice for Managers

Policy and guidance downloads

Mental Health in the workplace more generally

Part of the University’s commitment to creating a Positive Working Environment is reducing work-place stress.  This is a large and complex undertaking with many different stands.  Most people would probably say that the thing that creates most stress at work is having too much work to do and not enough time, people or resources to do it.  The University’s decision makers are aware of this and are committed to considering how work will be varied out before agreeing to any new projects or initiatives.   Managers are being asked to look carefully at their teams and to identify things that could cause stress and what could be done about them.

There are also things that individuals can do to get control of work-related stress and there are people, support networks and development opportunities that you can use to help. 

On-line guidance

You might find the online course ‘Under Pressure’ a useful starting point to learn more about stress and work and understand how it affects you.  To use the Under Pressure programme you will need to enrol by following these steps:

1. Go to www.ole.bris.ac.uk

2. Log on using your normal username and password

3. Click the ‘courses’ tab top left

4. Type ‘Under Pressure’ into the search box

5. Scroll down to Under Pressure and follow the enrolment instructions. 

6. If you have any problems email bb-help@bris.ac.uk

Can I learn to improve my well-being and avoid stress?

There are many factors that contribute to pressure at work and learning to control some of these may help you improve your well-being and keep stress at bay.  Staff Development offer free courses on different subjects so that you can choose which would make the most difference to your well-being.  Most of these courses are available for all staff, but some are designed to meet the particular needs of staff in certain roles where some demands of the job are unique, for example academic staff, line managers and senior managers.  All the courses available can be found in the Staff Development course directory.

Downloads

Positive Communications No.7 ‘Keeping work-related stress at bay’ (Issued to all staff Oct 06)

Your Health and Wellbeing at Bristol Z card (issued to all Staff Dec 07)

Staff Well-being: Policy for the Avoidance and Management of Work Related Stress

Staff Well-being: Avoidance and Management of Work Related Stress - Guidelines for Individuals

Staff Well-being: Avoidance and Management of Work Related Stress - Guidelines for Managers

Mental Well-being in the workplace leaflet

Help for managers

A first point of reference and guidance for all managers is the document Staff Well-being: Avoidance and Management of Work Related Stress - Guidelines for Managers and it is strongly recommended that colleagues with a 'people management' responsibility read this document.  The document guides managers through two possible routes, one to do with the avoidance of stress in employees, and the other how to deal with stress problems that arise.  Avoidance is clearly the preferable route and the clear advice to help this process is to undertake a Stress Risk Assessment within the department.  The Risk Assessment process is undertaken against six key heading, if the process highlights issues then further advice can be found below (see useful links for managers) on each of these headings to help facilitate positive change.

If you would like to speak to someone personally then help is also available:

Useful links for managers

Risk Assessment: Advice on 'Demands of the Job'

Risk Assessment: Advice on 'Control'

Risk Assessment: Advice on 'Relationships'

Risk Assessment: Advice on 'Change'

Risk Assessment: Advice on 'Role'

Risk Assessment: Advice on 'Support'

Letter to all managers (04.12.06) outlining the new policy, risk assessments and associated development activity.

Launching a departmental stress risk assessment