Stress prevention

Objective

This policy is to ensure a responsible work environment at DTU in which employees and senior officers enjoy a healthy dialogue and where both parties feel and accept responsibility for promoting well-being and preventing stress.

General

Stress is taken very seriously at DTU, and it is therefore important that this term is applied only to genuine stress and not to temporary heavy workloads. Stress is much too serious for that to be the case.

Prevention

One preventive measure against stress is to be aware of general priorities at work and in one’s private life. It is important for employees to be aware of the limits of their own resources and how they wish to prioritize them.

Senior officers have a special responsibility

Senior officers at DTU have a special responsibility in terms of well-being and stress prevention. To the extent possible, the senior officer is to ensure that requirements are clear and easy to understand and is to help alleviate any problems concerning prioritizing work tasks, situations with conflicting requirements and other situations that cause stress. Senior officers must initiate a dialogue on the opportunities in the office in question for promoting well-being and avoiding stress.

Employees are expected to take active co-responsibility

Initiatives for promoting well-being, a good psycho-social and responsible work environment and stress prevention are to be implemented continuously and may be discussed during annual employee appraisals. All employees are expected to take active co-responsibility for stress prevention.

Employees’ attentiveness toward a colleague showing signs of stress may help ensure that the colleague's situation is addressed. As good colleagues, employees should therefore contact a senior officer and/or a shop steward to draw attention to their concern that a colleague may be suffering from stress.

Management training

All senior officers at DTU are trained to deal with promoting well-being in their own office – partly through management training courses and partly through processes that focus on the special benefits and challenges evident in the research community and in a workplace with self-management. Senior officers at DTU are also trained to notice symptoms of stress and low job satisfaction with the aim of implementing initiatives at a stage that is early enough to avoid absence due to sickness, for example.

Notification of sickness absence and incidences of absence

If an employee is on sick leave due to stress, it is important to maintain contact with the employee and conclude agreements on both their leave of absence and return to work.
Agreements on leave of absence are to contain offers for treatment as a minimum, but may also include agreements on partial sick leave, regular visits to the workplace or the like, to ensure that contact with the workplace is maintained.

It is important to conclude balanced agreements on return to work that consider the employee’s work capacity. Good advice on returning to work includes a clean calendar, specific and limited tasks, set working hours and frequent status meetings with the immediate superior. A start-up period after a leave of absence due to stress normally spans three months.

Reference is also made to DTU’s sick leave policy and policy for employees in crisis.

Links

• DTU offers psychological counselling for work-related stress through DTU’s inhouse psychological counselling. The counselling can be contacted on phone no. 45257373 or by mail psykologhjaelp@dtu.dk
• The work environment office can help by providing contact with suppliers of broad stress treatment and with other general advice and guidance.
• HR offers management training. Contact psykologhjaelp@dtu.dk. 
• HR offers stress prevention courses. See the list of courses and training 

Entry into force

The policy for stress prevention was was approved by the Executive Board and discussed by the Cooperation and Joint Consultation Committee (HSU) in March 2017.

The policy becomes effective from the time it is published on DTU Inside.

Amendments

The policy may be amended at three months' notice following review by the Cooperation and Joint Consultation Committee. Amendments are communicated via DTU Inside.