95 per cent of people working in the public sector claim to find their life at work stressful

The poll of over 1,500 public sector workers, conducted by SWNS on behalf of online learning provider, SkillSoft, reveals that when asked to rank their stress levels on a scale of 1 to 10 - where 10 is the highest - 64.2 percent of public sector employees rate themselves at 5 or higher.

Even more worryingly, over a quarter of public sector employees have taken time off work due to stress. Not always legitimately though - 9.2 per cent admit that they have used stress as an excuse to ípull a sickieí.

Monday is overwhelmingly the day public sector workers find most stressful (56.6 per cent), And throughout the working week the majority say they feel more stressed in the mornings (37.2 per cent) than in the afternoons (26.3 per cent).

When asked what would help to alleviate stress levels at work, the significant majority of public sector workers (59.1 per cent) believe that more money is the answer. Other popular answers include: reduced workload (26.3 per cent); greater recognition (26.3 per cent); better working environment (26.1 per cent); improved work/life balance (24.7 per cent); more flexible working hours (21.9 per cent); more supportive managers (21.1 per cent) and better training (13.6 per cent).

Nearly a quarter of employees working in the public sector blame a lack of training for putting them under more stress. 12.5 per cent claim that they donít understand what they actually need to be doing.

Over half of public sector workers (52.2 per cent) can never imagine a stage in their lives when they are completely stress-free and 56.3 per cent think they probably spend most of their lives stressed in one way or another. 67.7 per cent of public sector employees admit to waking up in the night due to feelings of stress.

Commenting on the findings, Kay Baldwin-Evans, VP of Research at SkillSoft, says: According to the Health & Safety Executive, stress is now the biggest cause of working days lost through injury or ill-health (an estimated 12.8 million lost days each year). And the TUC estimates that work-related stress costs the economy up to 7bn per annum.

By understanding more about what makes public sector employees stressed at work, organisations are much better placed to manage its causes.

THE DIRTY DOZEN - TOP 12 WORK STRESSES FOR PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES
1. Workload
2. Feeling undervalued
3. Type of work
4. Deadlines
5. Having to take on other peopleís work
6. Lack of control over the working day
7. Frustration with the working environment
8. Lack of job satisfaction
9. Having to work long hours
10. Targets
11. Not receiving enough training to be able to do their jobs as well as they could
12. Organisational changes that impact on them and their jobs

TOP TEN COLLEAGUE IRRITATIONS
1. Seeing others not pulling their weight
2. Managers changing their minds about what they want doing
3. Lack of support from managers
4. Pressure from managers
5. Feeling put-upon by managers
6. Bullying behaviour by managers
7. Interruptions by colleagues
8. Interruptions by managers
9. Bullying behaviour by managers
10. Lack of support from colleagues