Businesses are being urged to allow staff to rate their manager's ability in a bid to prevent stress related incidents at work.
The Institution of Occupational Safety and Health said that new research presented at the British Psychological Society's conference in Brighton showed that bitter relationships between staff and their bosses was the most common cause of stress in the workplace.
It has therefore being suggested that opening feedback channels will benefit worker's health, as they are able to get things off their chest.
Emma Donaldson-Feilder, a spokesperson for Affinity Health at Work, said: "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."
According to the Health and Safety Executive, 415,000 individuals in Britain in 2008/09 believed that they were experiencing work-related stress at a level, which was making them ill.