Jacinda Ardern yesterday announced her resignation citing burnout as the reason for this. Whilst positive in demonstrating the improvement we as a society have made in prioritising mental as well as physical health and speaking openly about this, her resignation serves to demonstrate the likely practical toll the last two years have had on workers at all levels of organisations.

The HSE figures for 2021/22 show that of the 1.8 million workers suffering from a work-related illness, 914,000 were stress, depression or anxiety. Over half of working days are lost due to work-related stress, depression or anxiety (17 million).

Employers have an obligation to ensure the health, safety and wellbeing of their employees so far as is reasonably practicable under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. To fulfil this obligation, employers must conduct an assessment of the risks of work-related stress and burnout and take suitable and sufficient measures to mitigate those risks. We have spoken previously regarding the HSE Management Standards and Working Minds campaign which serve to assist employers as they navigate their obligations - see our blogs on The Working Minds campaign and how employers can respond to increasing stress in the workplace.

The promotion of wellbeing at work has clear benefits for individual employees - but also for businesses - it will aid in reducing absences, increasing staff morale, attracting new talent and ensuring a productive workforce. We are also seeing an increasing focus from the HSE in this area and expect soon to see enforcement action taken when employers are not complying with their relevant obligations.