Stress and Mental Health – The effects on Lone Workers
HSE figures show that 776,000 workers suffered work-related stress, depression or anxiety during 2023 and 2024. Lone workers are among those most at risk. So how can we help?
Dawn McKenzie, Safehands Manager
7/8/20251 min read
Stress and Mental Health – The effects on Lone Workers
This month Safehands discussed lone working with some of our clients. Do you or other members of your team work on their own? For some, being a lone worker is a choice, such as those who work from home. However, for most, lone working will be a necessary part of the job. These roles include but are not limited to, carers, engineers, estate agents, warehouse operatives and retail workers.
Research by the British Occupational Health Research Foundation found that 64% of lone workers face psychological distress, which is significantly higher than employees working alongside colleagues in a secure environment. In total, 44% of the 1.4 million workers who experience work-related ill-health suffer from stress, depression or anxiety – i.e. mental health conditions.
Some lone workers can feel distanced and isolated from the organisation they work for. Remote workers can get forgotten about when it comes to company information and events. Working alone also means that these employees will miss some of the more enjoyable aspects of working in a team, such as laughter, comradery, support, sharing concerns, receiving encouragement and getting guidance.
It’s important to make sure that lone workers feel like part of the team by encouraging face-to-face contact where possible. Try to build in office time for catch-up meetings – these could happen every other month to discuss things that have been going well and what could be improved. In addition, having a monthly newsletter with regular updates about what’s going on within the business, staff achievements and events that get emailed out to all staff can help them to feel engaged and involved.
For more information: NHS https://www.nhs.uk/mental-health/ The Samaritans https://www.samaritans.org/
Building Mental Health is an online portal of information and initiative about mental health led by industry experts. www.buildingmentalhealth.net/tool-box-talk.html
These services offer confidential support from trained volunteers. You can talk about anything that's troubling you, no matter how difficult.