Stress: what is it?

When the demands placed on employees are greater than their ability to meet them, work-related stress arises. This stress is not a personal shortcoming, but a consequence of a work environment that is not efficient from a psychosocial perspective.

Stress also depends on the amount of resilience and burden an employee has. Visually, you can imagine this as a scale with on one side the resilience (energy givers) and on the other side the burden (energy takers).

Resilience vs burden

By burden, we mean things that take away energy, such as work pressure, too much work, emotional or physical strain, having to perform different tasks simultaneously, obligations (at work or in private life), stressful life events such as illness or death of a loved one,... 

Resilience then includes factors that provide energy, such as social support from colleagues, friends or family, control possibilities, physical and mental resilience, etc.

If the difference between resilience and burden becomes too great , your scale gets out of balance. If the burden is much higher than the resilience, an employee experiences overload. He or she is then above their normal stress level and can therefore experience stress.

Woman in Zen position

Stress at work

Organisations and employees find themselves in a rapidly evolving and uncertain world. This brings all kinds of challenges with it, such as ever higher expectations and workload, constant availability, information overload, work-life imbalance, etc. An ideal breeding ground for stress at work.

Did you know that 28% of European employees (source: OSH Pulse survey - EU-OSHA - 2022) usually or always suffer from stress at work? The main causes of work stress are: 

  • Not receiving recognition (more than 50% of Belgian employees)

  • Repetitive work (45%)

  • Fast work pace (43%)

  • Lack of autonomy (38%)

  • Bad atmosphere at work and among colleagues (12%)

What about chronic stress?

Everyone experiences stress at work sometimes, and in itself, this doesn't have to be a problem. Employees are indeed quite capable of dealing with an acute form of stress and looking for solutions.

Dealing with stress, however, requires energy. After a stressful period, the body needs a recovery period. There is danger in maintaining the tension level for a long time without sufficient recovery. Before you know it, an employee experiences chronic stress and you systematically consume more energy than you take in. You can tap into your emergency reserve for a while, but this reserve also runs out.

If your employees chronically struggle with stress at work, then (serious) psychological and physical health problems can develop. Individuals can suffer from:

  • burnout and depression

  • concentration problems

  • problems at home

  • disrespectful behaviour at work (including bullying, conflicts, aggression)

  • drug and alcohol abuse

  • poor physical health, cardiovascular problems and musculoskeletal disorders

It is therefore important to recognize stress at work in time and to proactively take measures to restore the balance between demands and capacity. If you don't, this can eventually lead to a chronic form of stress and even burnout.

Burnout symptoms

Researchers at KU Leuven (2017) state that a burnout has 5 main symptoms:

  1. Exhaustion: both physical ('your body is tired') and psychological exhaustion (feeling 'worn out' and 'empty')
  2. Cognitive loss of control such as memory problems, attention and concentration disorders, and performance problems (e.g., working slower or making mistakes)
  3. Emotional loss of control: intense emotional reactions (e.g., anger or crying spells)
  4. Depressive symptoms: a gloomy mood or feelings of guilt. This is likely why burnout and depression are often confused.
  5. Mental distance: mentally distancing oneself from work.

These burnout symptoms are often accompanied by tension-related complaints. These complaints are psychosomatic (e.g., heart, respiratory, stomach, intestinal, and pain complaints or a general feeling of malaise) or behavioral (e.g., sleep problems, worrying, or panic attacks).

happy woman at work

Back to work after burnout

Employees with burnout often have long-term absences. Usually, they are absent from work for several months. The step to return to work is therefore not easy.

The organisation can, however, lower this threshold by developing a good absence management policy that clarifies the various steps to be taken and by following the established absence management policy.

The following steps are crucial in the reintegration of a long-term absent employee:

  • Step 1: explore the situation

    It is advisable to maintain contact with the employee during their absence. Indicate that the employee needs to take time to recover and rest sufficiently. Furthermore, make clear agreements about the frequency and form of contact. Maintaining contact often happens via the supervisor.

     

  • Step 2: action plan - reintegration interview

    After exploring the situation, the supervisor, together with the employee, draws up an action plan for returning to work. This plan provides insight into the timeframe in which the employee can resume work and how this can happen.

    Let the employee, in consultation with the doctor and/or psychologist, decide when and how a return is possible. In a reintegration interview, the employee's expectations can be gauged.

     

  • Step 3: the reintegration

    After a long absence, the Premed occupational physician will assess whether the employee is suitable to resume their position. With a positive assessment, the further reintegration begins. The various parties involved in an action take on their role.

     

  • Step 4: follow-up on reintegration

    Document the agreements made in writing and follow up regularly. Even after returning to work, employee follow-up is very important to prevent relapse. If the adapted work does not yield sufficient results, it can also be investigated whether another position is available for the employee.

Prevention of stress & burnout

The importance of workplace prevention to prevent long-term stress and the development of burnout in employees, cannot be emphasized enough. Ensure that within an organisation someone is always available where employees can go with their concerns, such as managers, HR department and/or a confidential adviser.

Also work on a policy regarding the prevention of psychosocial risks. Laying down agreements on disconnection at an organisational level, to which companies with 20 or more employees are essentially obliged, is a good first step in that regard.

Employees who feel good in your organisation are less susceptible to stress, burnout or absenteeism. An integrated approach to stress – with attention to prevention, management, and recovery – brings peace and balance to your organisation.

Support via Premed

It is possible that an employee prefers to discuss stress and tension complaints with an external professional . The support via Premed can look like this:

  • Prevention Adviser Psychosocial Aspects (PAPA)

    An employee can on their own initiative and free of charge make an appointment with the PAPA of Premed. The PAPA then assists him or her with advice to prevent the stress experience from leading to overstrain or burnout.

  • Mediating role

    Premed can take on a mediating role between employee and employer to discuss any pain points. Also, an individual coaching trajectory with 6 one-and-a-half-hour coaching sessions is among the possibilities.

  • Support collective actions

    The PAPA can support collective actions, such as assisting the employer or HR employee in developing an attendance and reintegration policy or training courses to provide regarding stress and burnout.

Frequently asked questions

Premed supports by drawing up a psychosocial policy, conducting open conversations, and guiding reintegration processes. They offer consultations with a psychosocial prevention adviser, training, mediation, and advice during and after a burnout.

Five core symptoms are exhaustion, loss of cognitive control, loss of emotional control, depressive symptoms, and an increasing distance from work.

The main causes of work stress are related to an imbalance between carrying capacity (energy givers) and burden (energy takers). When the burden becomes too heavy in relation to the carrying capacity, overload and stress arise.

Premed emphasizes that stress is not a personal shortcoming, but often stems from an inefficient psychosocial work environment.

 

There can be both physical and psychological consequences when the body is under long-term stress without sufficient recovery. Stress in itself is not always problematic, as long as sufficient recovery follows. The danger arises when stress persists for a long time and the body does not get a chance to recuperate.

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