ABSTRACT
The financial costs of stress can be considered and measured at a national, organisational and individual level. Similarly, the cost benefit analysis of stress prevention and stress reduction activities can be assessed from these three different perspectives. Depending on which perspective is selected, the results and economic consequences can vary. For example, what is measured as a cost at the level of public administration need not mean costs at the level of private enterprise. In the United Kingdom, hospital treatment costs for workers who develop stress-related illness are typically borne by the National Health Service and are not a direct cost to the employer. At an organisational level, the direct costs of stress-related absence are reflected in productivity losses, lost opportunities, increased recruitment and retraining costs and the like. In the same way, employees loss of welfare, i.e. inability to continue to work in the same job, does not necessarily imply costs for the organisation.
