Manager Mental Health Toolkit

Recognising and responding to stress in your team

As a line-manager, you should do all you reasonably can to create a safe and positive work environment and minimise the risk of work-related illness and workplace stress. Realistically, some things are beyond the control of the manager and there may be occasions where some of your team will feel stressed, whether about work, their home life, or a combination of the two. It is important for a manager to be able to recognise signs of stress within their teams and take steps to manage this.

What is stress?

A manageable level of pressure can help to energise and motivate us. Stress is defined by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) as an adverse reaction people experience to excessive pressure. Stress can also occur when an individual perceives that their level of pressure outweighs their resources and ability to deal with that pressure.

As a manager, please bear in mind that a team member’s capacity for work pressure may reduce when there are other things going on in their life that are taking up physical or emotional energy. There are many examples of this, including childcare issues, relationship difficulties, financial worries, and carer responsibilities. This is one reason it is important to get the know individuals within the team. Although you have no responsibility for resolving their personal concerns, there may be scope for support or adjustments at work to make the situation more manageable. The HR Advisor team can provide guidance if required.

Stress is not in itself a medical condition, but symptoms associated with stress can be debilitating and have an adverse impact on both attendance and performance at work. If not managed it can lead to health problems, including depression and anxiety.

What are the signs of stress?

There are many signs and symptoms commonly associated with stress, but they tend to fit into four main categories:

Emotional – how we feel (for example, anxious, angry, or irritable)
Cognitive – the impact on our mental functioning (for example, reduced concentration, poor short-term memory, difficulty making decisions)
Physical – changes in our body (for example, muscular tension, increased heart rate, sweating)
Behavioural – changes in the way we behave (for example, normally good time-keepers become late for work or miss meetings, colleagues who are normally sociable become more withdrawn, a colleague with a good attendance record starts taking frequent sickness absences).

There can still be stigma associated with stress and mental illness. Colleagues may find it difficult to disclose to you that they are struggling. Also, people are not always aware that they are feeling stressed and colleagues may notice changes in their behaviour before they do.

Sometimes, people are not aware that they are feeling stressed and colleagues may notice changes in their behaviour before they do.

It is important for a manager to be able to recognise signs of stress within their teams:

Have you noticed that a colleague appears more anxious or irritable than normal?

Are they making mistakes or are they less productive than normal?

Do they seem distracted?

For a more comprehensive list of the things you can be looking out for, please refer to the below:

Signs of stress (MIND)

Signs of stress within a team (HSE)

How do I respond to stress in my team?

A good first step is to explore the situation with the colleague in more depth using the Workplace Pressures Risk Assessment (WPRA) tool (see here for a step-by-step guide). This should be completed sensitively and privately, allowing the colleague to share their perception of work-related concerns openly with you. You might wish to refer to ACAS Tips to approach having sensitive conversations 2018 before you begin.

Resources

Tackling Workplace Stress using the Management Standards approach – a step by step workbook (this includes examples of good working practices to help prevent or alleviate stress at work).

The HSE Competency Tool for Line-managers is a self-assessment tool for managers, which will help you understand if you are adopting behaviours found to be effective in the prevention or reduction of work-related stress.

Spectrum Life – the University’s Employee Assistance Programme is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to all colleagues. This includes support for managers who would like to talk about managing a difficult situation at work or to colleagues who would like to access some support with coping strategies.

The University’s Occupational Health service welcomes queries from managers regarding stress in the workplace.

The Colleague Wellbeing pages have guidance and links to materials for all colleagues which could benefit both you and your team members.

Visit the Learning and Development pages which includes courses relating to mental health and wellbeing.

Professor Barney Dunn, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Exeter, has created a series of videos demonstrating conversations between a line manager and a member of his team who is seeking guidance and support. (Please note that the videos are role play only but draw from real experiences.)

Video 1 - Setting up wellbeing as part of every line management meeting

Video 2 - Exploring stress and signposting

Video 3 - Reasonable adjustments

Video 4 - Reviewing progress and the next steps on the journey

Other Resources