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Union to probe stress levels among journalists

A survey to find out if journalists are more stressed than four years ago is being launched by the National Union of Journalists.

Journalists working for regional publishers across Scotland will be asked about stress levels at work after what the union claims is a huge increase in calls about the problem.

Surveys are being sent out by the NUJ this week to members working for four leading newspaper publishers in Scotland – Scottish Provincial Press, Newsquest, Johnston Press and Clyde and Forth Press.

A similar questionnaire by the union in 2008 found there were high levels of stress among those working in the media and this led to briefings at the Scottish Parliament with MSPs calling for employers to take action.

The union’s Scottish assistant organiser Dominic Bascombe said: “Essentially there was a survey done in 2008 which highlighted quite high levels of stress among a number of publishers and broadcasters. A lot was done at the time to highlight that and call on employers to do better.

“What we have found since then is that we are getting inundated by members who are suffering stress at work. People are developing illnesses as a result of the amount of stress they are under at work, so we decided to look at it again.

“We intend to look across the board at major employers in the industry to find out how their journalists are feeling and identifying ways forward for the future.

“The reality is that for many of them, the past couple of years have been quite difficult for our industry and in trying to deal with that, you have got employers that are not the most scrupulous who do look to take it out on staff by increasing their workloads. We expect to see very high levels of stress back.”

He said the surveys, which are based on guidelines by the Health and Safety Executive, would be sent to media companies where changes were taking place, such as at Johnston Press which has introduced a “digital first” strategy.

Added Dominic: “If it is not done properly and there’s more pressure on journalists, then something has to give.”

The NUJ’s previous stress survey was launched in September 2008 across the UK because union members had highlighted the problem as a major health and safety issue then.

Jim Chisholm, director of the Scottish Newspaper Society, said: “The SNS will be very interested in any survey of staff’s attitudes regarding stress levels and conditions at work, and would welcome the opportunity to assist in the methodology of the research.”

10 comments

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  • August 1, 2012 at 9:09 am
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    I think we all know the answer to this one. The people still in a job must be living in a permanent state of anxiety. They have the added pressure of trying to cover all the bases covered by their redundant colleagues plus the added stress of wondering when the axe will fall on them.
    For dedicated people of a certain age, it’s got heart attack written all over it.
    I took the money eventually. I was already snowed under with work and I was certain taking on a colleague’s work in a two-into-one scenario would have killed me!

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  • August 1, 2012 at 9:57 am
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    Why just do the survey in Scotland?
    I work (until the axe falls) in England and am already on medication.
    I identify with Curious and am sure I’m not the only one.
    The hideous JP company won’t be happy untill all the work is outsourced and there’s nobody with any experience, drive, professionalism, heart (unless it’s an attack), dedication, nous, ability or pride left.

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  • August 1, 2012 at 10:34 am
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    What a great use of union members’ hard-earned subs. What next – a survey on where exactly bears go to do their business? Of course we are more stressed than we were four years ago, the big question is whether it will ever get any easier or is this what we have got to look forward to for as long as our jobs continue?

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  • August 1, 2012 at 10:40 am
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    Of course we’re more stressed… that the NUJ is spending time and money on telling us the obvious.

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  • August 1, 2012 at 10:55 am
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    A survey is a good way to get the evidence that they need- what I want to know is how will they get the newspaper companies to change their ways?

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  • August 1, 2012 at 11:08 am
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    Yes indeed we are all stressed. I have more than 30 years in the job and it’s never been tougher. The transition back to the era of the sweat shop is nearly complete.
    Strangely, though, I’ve only encountered one journalist who actually took time off work with a doctor’s diagnosis of “stress”. We are still not able to admit that we are stressed as we feel it will be career death.
    I remember an editor telling me 15 years ago: “If you are not stressed, you are not doing your job properly”. Since then. we have lost about two thirds of our editorial staff.

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  • August 1, 2012 at 11:48 am
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    There’s a huge difference between the “stress” of doing your job properly, AKA tension caused by “will I get it right”, and the constant stress of an ever-increasing workload imposed on you from above by redundancies, fuelled by an apparently uncaring management (who all go home on time). The first is relieved by doing your job properly and leads to downtime to recover. The second has no relief because you have no control over it and it has no solution, and it is made worse by knowing that it is unnecessary and caused by greed and incompetence. The first is inspirational; the second is a killer.
    However, although we all know this, it takes a survey, words on paper, to make the point to managements. They can deny it when “we all know it”. They may still deny it when it’s a survey, but then the evidence will be there for all to see.

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  • August 1, 2012 at 11:53 am
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    Who has the time to answer a survey these days?

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  • August 1, 2012 at 12:29 pm
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    Newspapers are run by people who don’t actually know the intensity of the work involved in the sweat shops which they have created through cutting staff.
    Bigger papers, written and edited by much fewer staff, with the add-ons of doing a web version, facebook, twitter and, possibly, apps simultaneously cause much anxiety, unhappiness, overtime, all leading to stress in the workplace.
    I think managers are sitting on a time-bomb of stress absences and if it takes a survey to bring it to companies’ attention, then so be it.

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  • August 1, 2012 at 1:59 pm
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    regards ashley, how do you expect people to be stress free when the end of their jobs and impending redundacy is well sign posted?

    regards

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