Working part time and stress

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I’ve recently been given a copy of a risk assessment completed by my employer as I am pregnant. One hazard they have noted is ‘work related stress’ and have noted the control for this as ‘part time working’.

I work 24 hours over 3 days a week in an office and have always been part time. I’m not sure whether they are being reasonable in using my working part time as the only control for stress. Am I missing something? Do people who work part time not experience stress at work? Or am I over thinking it?

I worked three days per week as a solicitor for a while. Gone back to full time because part time was ridiculously stressful. My workload was exactly the same. I just had less time in which to complete it!

My life is now far easier

I always found full time far less stressful than part time! I think it's a bit lazy of them to be honest, but I probably wouldn't raise it unless there is something else you would like them to do to reduce stress?

Exactly as a PP said, as a part timer I just had the same workload with less time to complete it Still put up with it though to get the days off with DC. I think many people, especially parents, find themselves in the same position.

Of course part-time people can experience stress at work but I don't think it's unreasonable of them to have noted you working part-time as a positive factor - having a good work life balance is pretty universally recognised as a good control measure for stress and working part time can help with that. It's not usually possible or reasonable to expect an employer to eliminate all possibility of stress from a job but if you think there is more they could or should be doing to help you then of course you should raise it - risk assessments should be a dialogue and an ongoing process to improve, rather than something that has to be perfected and set in stone the first time, so I wouldn't go in all guns blazing with a 'you've got this wrong', more 'can we discuss this further'?

The suggested action for that particular hazard is lazy and implies it comes from someone who think working part time is easy.
Employers should recognise that stress can come from many places in and outside the workplace. Within the workplace they should be ensuring things like -
The atmosphere is supportive and free from bullying, harassment, blame, exclusion etc
Employees can report mistakes (their own or others) without fear of being blamed / victimised etc
Workload is appropriate for the contracted hours. They cant give you 30 hours work and expect you to do it in 20 hours but say you you're part time you can't be stressed for example!
If there is a problem eg too much workload, management are approachable and helpful
They should ensure employees are encouraged to take breaks, not work crazy hours, not expected to respond to emails or phone calls outside working hours etc to ensure work life balance (which is a particular issue with part time working)
If someone does disclose stress or anxiety they should be supportive and have a clear strategy of how to deal with it eg review, make changes, further regular reviews.

A good employer should do this for all employees though as they should recognise that every employee has different triggers and different tolerance. I guess with being pregnant they have noted this might change your triggers or tolerance for stress.
I wouldn't do anything else though unless you are actually stressed and then I would ask them to address the specific problem. As far as I know there are not many automatic changes resulting from a stress in pregnancy risk assessment, the only other common action I am aware of is to change working hours slightly if there is a commute involving busy public transport but that's probably not as relevant at the moment.

Without knowing your particular job role its difficult to say what else they should be doing though. Eg if you were in a customer facing role they should maybe divert complaints somewhere else so you don't have to deal with aggressive customers

Hopefully your workload is proportionate to your hours, in which case being PTis a mitigant due to better work life balance. Having said that, my workload isn’t proportionate to my hours but I still find the fact that I have time to do other things (mainly catching up with admin and housework plus some voluntary work in normal times but occasionally something more for me!) and more days when I’m not at work reduces my stress.