How often do you feel stressed about work? Perhaps when a deadline looms — or when you get that all those all-too-familiar Sunday night blues?
It emerged this week that stress is now the biggest cause of long-term absence among public sector workers— and that is before the 500,000 job losses still predicted to come.
So, to tie in with National Stress Awareness Day on 3 November, we're running a live Q&A aiming to give you practical advice about coping with stress at work, plus advice about your rights as workloads rise, in a live Q&A. Join our experts online on November 3 at 1pm.
Our panel:
Yasmin is a manager in the public sector. Yasmin has personal experience of stress at work, which lead to her being signed off and eventually leaving her job as a tax accountant. Yasmin is also a volunteer with Shift, an initiative to tackle the stigma and discrimination surrounding mental health issues.
Victoria Miles-Keay and Stuart Gee are joining us from Acas, a service which aims to improve organisations and working life through better employment relations. Victoria is from Acas Helpline Cardiff and Stuart Gee is helpline area manager. The Acas Helpline provides confidential, independent and impartial advice for employers and employees who are involved in an employment dispute, or who are seeking information on employment rights and rules.
Derek Mowbray is director of the Management Advisory Service and visiting professor in psychology at Northumbria University.
Emma Mamo is policy and campaigns manager at Mind. Emma leads Mind's work on employment. Mind launched a new campaign in May called Taking Care of Business: Mental Health at Work, which hopes to raise awareness of mental health problems at work.
Ian Barratt is the founder and director of Mind Strengths and a qualified stress management consultant. Ian's expertise is teaching positive and preventative stress management techniques, either in groups or on a one-to-one basis.
Hugh Robertson is the senior policy officer with responsibility for prevention, rehabilitation and compensation at the TUC. He is also a non-executive director of the Health and Safety Executive.
Nerina Ramlakhan is a physiologist who specialises in maximising individual and organisational performance for almost two decades. Nerina runs her own consultancy, Equilibrium Solutions, and is a sleep and energy coach at London's Capio Nightingale hospital. She is author of Tired But Wired.
Tarani Chandola is professor of medical sociology at the University of Manchester. Professor Chandola is the author of the recent British Academy Stress at Work report.
Alastair Merrill is a health and safety adviser at Thames Valley University. Alastair provides the university's management team with advice on compliance with health and safety law, the prevention of injury and ill health, and the promotion of wellbeing. He has worked with the university's senior managers and trade union representatives in the development of a management of stress policy.
