EXTENDED SUMMARY

Stress is one of the most fundamental problems of human life. As a matter of fact, almost everyone is exposed to stress to a greater or lesser extent, whether they are aware of it or not. Stress is a phenomenon that may occur in many areas of life and one of these areas is work life.
In this study, firstly the concept of stress and workplace stress are explained. Stress means “pressure, tension, strain” and in daily language, the word “stress” is generally used to express the reaction of people in situations that create anxiety or tension. In 1936, the biochemist Hans Selye transferred stress as a concept to psychology and medical science for the first time. Selye stated that stress occurs when the body reacts to a stimulus with an activation, and within this framework, he defined stress as “the organism’s response to stressors”. Selye defined the concept of stressors as “events that trigger physiological and psychological responses of the organism”.
At this point, it should be noted that the idea of stress is just a negative thing is not true. Because the causes of stress are not only negative. So, it is necessary to mention the “manageable stress level”. As a matter of fact, the stress that exceeds the manageable level is the stress which can be defined as the harmful stress. But the level of manageable stress is of course different from person to person. Because, what is stressful for one person may not be stressful for another. The level of stress that a stimulus creates on people can also be different.
Workplace stress refers to the stress experienced by a person in relation to his/her working life. Workplace stress can be caused by many factors. The most important of these are perhaps the factors arising from the work done or the work organization. As a matter of fact, the data of the American Institute of Stress (AIS) and the American Psychological Association (APA), which are prominent institutions with their studies on stress prove it. But workplace stress is not caused just by these factors. We can group the factors as follows: factors arising from the work done or the work organization; individual characteristics of the employee concerned and external factors such as economic crisis, pandemic. At this point, it should be emphasized that since stress is related to the personal characteristics of the person concerned, the factors causing stress may differ from person to person.
Another issue related to the subject is “mobbing” and “workplace stress” are confused with each other. For this reason, it is seen that it is necessary to distinguish between these concepts by explaining the differences between workplace stress and mobbing. Mobbing has been defined by Swedish psychiatrist Leymann, who introduced this concept to working life, as “hostile and unethical communication directed systematically by one or more people against another person”. This concept has been tried to be defined by many people later on. There are also some definitions in judicial decisions. All these definitions shows that in order to talk about mobbing, some elements such as continuity, systematicity and caste must be realized. However, there are not such detailed elements in workplace stress. It should also be noted that workplace stress is a phenomenon, but mobbing is an illegal act. Another difference is that although the individual characteristics of the person may take place among the factors that cause workplace stress, but mobbing is completely caused by the external environment. Workplace stress is an inevitable part of work life, and a certain amount of workplace stress can also be beneficial in terms of increasing employee performance. However, mobbing has a completely destructive effect for the person it is directed to. In addition, workplace stress may be not only the reason, but also the result of mobbing. In addition, while the employer’s obligation to protect the employees from mobbing is clearly stated in the first paragraph of article 417 of the Turkish Code of Obligations No. 6098, workplace stress is not regulated separately in the abovementioned article.
It should be also noted that workplace stress can cause many ailments, both physically and psychologically. At this point, the problem arises whether workplace stress or ailments caused by workplace stress can be considered as an occupational disease. Since stress is not considered as a disease but a factor that causes diseases, it does not seem possible to consider workplace stress an occupational disease. However, it is debatable whether the disorders caused by workplace stress can be accepted as occupational diseases. Although it seems theoretically possible to accept the abovementioned diseases as occupational diseases; in practice, there will be problems related to prove, since there are difficulties in determining the factors that cause the mentioned disease.
The fact that workplace stress causes some health problems will also raise the responsibility of the employer in terms of occupational health and safety. It should be noted that this issue is a very problematic and controversial area. As a matter of fact, the main problem is determining the employer’s liability limit. At this point, some of the jurisprudence of the English courts can be a guide for our law. Accordingly, it may be reasonable to hold the employer responsible for workplace stress that s/he was aware of or would have been aware of if s/he had shown sufficient care.