Businessman Michael Shepherd today delivers a no-nonsense broadside to the Council's stressbuster plan for employees. Put simply, he believes they should "get on with the job" and stop moaning.

Many in the private sector will agree with him. It's hazardous to generalise but in the main it is probably true to say that the fierce, often ruthless, competitive edge of private business makes for a more pressurised environment than that in the public sector.

Pressures on some public service workers are, of course, both real and considerable. The demands on nurses and doctors, for example, are well documented, and the alarming increase in assaults on local teachers bear witness to just some of the difficulties faced by a range of public sector workers.

But the feeling persists that in private industry, managers and workers are a little more robust in taking problems in their stride, a little more prepared to roll up their sleeves and "get on with it."

That is why the Council's anti-stress measures, including relaxation courses and physiotherapy for workers, have prompted critics, including the leader of the Council's Tory group, to accuse City Hall of trying to set up a ''leisure club''.

Everyone acknowledges that some workers, facing outstandingly difficult circumstances, can need help to alleviate stress, but often it's too easy to brand every little difficulty at work as a stress factor.

The Council needs to assist those workers genuinely suffering from stress, but it could do worse than taking a leaf out of Mr Shepherd's book by telling some of its staff to pull their socks up and get on with the job.

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