1. What is stress and who does it affect?

What is and isn’t stress?

The HSE describes work-related stress as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them”. Workers feel stress when they can’t cope with pressures and other issues; although stress is not an illness, it can make you ill.

In its guide Organising and bargaining around mental health support in colleges, published in May 2021, the public services union UNISON explains: “Stress isn’t a psychiatric diagnosis, but it is closely linked to mental health in that stress can cause mental health problems such as anxiety and depression or make existing problems worse, while mental health problems can in turn cause stress.” The control of stress is a crucial component in creating a working environment that minimises the incidence of mental health problems, the union sets out in its branch guide Bargaining on mental health policies, revised in April 2021.

Stress is not the same as pressure, as the GMB general union makes clear. “We experience pressure every day, and it motivates us to perform at our best,” the union points out. “It’s when we experience too much pressure without the opportunity to recover that we start to experience stress.”