From a country in lockdown with schools closed for the foreseeable future, to queues around supermarkets and often contradictory media messages, the coronavirus, or covid-19, is causing significant disruption to day-to-day lives. Not surprisingly, this brings with it a host of additional stresses and anxieties.

Stress is defined by the Health & Safety Executive (HSE) as ‘the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them’, and can be caused by a lack of control over a situation, uncertainty, change, a lack of information, or too much to do.

It is fair to say that the impacts of covid-19 press all of these buttons.

How work can cause stress