LAST year the number of sick days taken by staff at British firms rose for the first time in five years, according to figures from the CBI.
Workers took 176 million sick days, up 10 million on the previous year, with about three-quarters of sickness absence said to be work-related.
Indeed, the number of employees claiming to have been made ill by stress has almost tripled in the last ten years. But what are the main causes of stress at work? According to Harvey Nash, the recruitment firm, which conducted research among 500 office workers, longer hours, difficult clients and constant changes in strategy or management are common causes.
But the research also showed that it is often apparently insignificant factors that really cause stress to build.
The top ten most common occurrences that lead to office arguments and stress were found to be: