The Beatles were onto something. “The long and winding road that leads to your door,” they sang, “will never disappear”. Some things in life are constant and can be relied upon to appear again and again.

Just like stress.

Occupational or workplace stress is common – and it is constantly increasing. It threatens to knock at the door of any workplace, on every supervisor’s or manager’s office. It is a major cause of long-term work absence and costs the worker dearly. It is also one of the most expensive claims for employers.

Yet, there is little research on occupational stress, how to prevent it and identify it early and how to effectively manage the condition when it has developed.

Traumatic events at work tend to be less of a problem than workplace organisational factors. Sometimes a single event can be the cause. However, investigations of stress claims have shown that there is generally a gradual build-up before the problem is reported. The issues have either not been recognised or addressed for many months and a final precipitating event can leave the employer incredulous about the severity of the response to the incident.

A study of people lodging stress claims in the healthcare sector found that employees who launched their claims had on average about double the number of days off work in the preceding year than the rest of the workforce.

The type of stress reported by the employee had a strong influence on how much sick leave was taken.

About 20% experienced a single traumatic event, 40% a traumatic event and long-term work stress, and 40% reported long-term work stress only. Traumatic events included the death of a client and verbal or physical abuse. Sources of chronic stress included large workloads, inadequate training, conflict with co-workers or managers, the threat of violence at work, lack of support and job opportunities, and high management turnover.

Workers with chronic stress and those who were off work for a long period of time reported interpersonal problems with managers, supervisors and co-workers, and experienced the most difficulty with return to work. Negative relations typically resulted in the employees perceiving that the managers were cynical about their claim.

What are positive ways of dealing with these issues?

Firstly, employees experiencing stress are often hesitant to seek assistance before making a claim. Employees should be encouraged to report problems earlier rather than later. Employers may be frustrated at the number of claims and their associated costs, but early identification of problems makes management of the situation easier and more successful. An employee assistance program can often provide a confidential way of dealing with problems. Some organisations have implemented an employee hotline, where people have the opportunity to discuss issues confidentially and work out a way to deal with the stress.

Training supervisors and managers to identify issues early is cost-effective. If supervisors are aware of early signs such as people taking time off work, reduction in productivity, and deterioration in relations, they can identify and manage problems early. If the supervisor or manager is sensitive to the person’s needs and situation, it is more likely that good relations will be maintained and a successful outcome achieved.

Treating practitioners can encourage people to voice their concerns in a productive way. Staying off work and not addressing issues is likely to be counter-productive in the long term. Helping people work out what they can and can’t alter, assisting them to effectively communicate their concerns, and helping them deal with anxiety are useful strategies.

A claim assessment process needs to carefully explore underlying issues. Disbelieving a problem because the response is disproportionate to the precipitating incident complicates the issue, as the presenting problem may be the ‘tip of the iceberg’. A rejected claim may give the employer confidence they can relax, but this would be misplaced confidence. Claims are often accepted later and the person may have been off work for many months by that stage. Rehabilitating a person who has had a disputed claim is much more difficult. Often, the rehabilitation endeavour is months down the track and way beyond sensible rehabilitation timeframes. This makes it very difficult or even impossible to restore relations.

Stress claims that suggest poor relations should cause an employer to look at that particular department. Is this just an isolated issue or are there more problems bubbling? If the case is representative of broader issues within the department, the employer should take this as an opportunity to address the issue, which if left unmanaged is likely to cause further problems.

Turn the long and winding road of stress into a different Beatles song, like "Come Together", or "Getting Better", perhaps. We can all improve the way we deal with stress – our own or our employees’. Caring enough about the people we work with to learn about the causes and remedies of stress, is the best path to improvement.