Samaritans is looking for people to get involved with its Stress Down Day on 1 February 2007.
According to the charity, up to 5 million people in the UK feel "very" or "extremely" stressed by their work and a total of 12.8 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety in 2004/5.
It says that a third of UK workers cannot get to sleep at night through anxiety - and three-quarters cannot switch off when they leave their office.
Stress in the workplace is frequently cited as the number one issue affecting employee productivity with the cost to the British economy being estimated at £3.7 billion per year, but added to this figure is the immeasurable amount of personal cost that stress and economic inactivity brings.
Ways to support Stress Down Day include:
- Stress free zone: Dedicate one suitably-furnished room in the office to chilling out for the day.
- Email chill-out: Sponsor people to turn their email off for a few blissful, email-free hours.
- Encourage everyone to wear their slippers at work or run a range of other ‘stress down’ activities.
- Confess the stress: Set up a post-box where people can drop off their secret stress confessions.
- Run a stress auction: Stress-busting activities like a massage or even a day off.
To find out more about Stress Down Day go to www.stressdownday.org.
