Stress-related absences are on the rise - but is it really okay to be absent for stress?

If lunch is for wimps in the banking world, taking time off for stress is almost unimaginable - which is one reason that Barclays' head of compliance and former head of the Financial Services Authority Hector Sants hit the headlines when he did just that earlier this month.

Barclays was sympathetic. "Unfortunately, Hector has been diagnosed as suffering from exhaustion and stress – the cumulative effects of five years at the helm of the FSA during a tumultuous period and having thrown himself headlong into his Barclays role since the beginning of 2013," it said in a statement.

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