It may sound like inviting a trouble, but a new study claims that telling the boss what one think of him is good for health.
According to the research recently presented at the British Psychological Society's conference in Brighton, the relationship between staff and line managers was the most commonly reported cause of stress in the workplace.
The authors said that giving feedback to managers was more likely to make employees happy, healthy and stress-free.
A study of 150 managers and 500 workers by Emma Donaldson-Feilder and her colleagues from Affinity Health At Work, found that when bosses received feedback from their staff, they were more likely to change their style and be seen as more effective.
Managers who did not receive any feedback were less likely to change their management behaviour, the research said. Donaldson-Feilder said, "Without holding a mirror up to a person, they can have blind spots about how they come across and, if they think they are already good enough, why should they change?"
"The consequences of stress are pervasive -- those under stress may experience psychological symptoms, such as anxiety or depression, physiological symptoms, such as palpitations or raised blood pressure, or cognitive symptoms such as reduced mental capacity".
"Stress is a significant cause of sickness absence and this puts pressure on those left behind to run the business, creating a cycle of uncomfortable pressure with costs to the individual and to the company," she added.
