Family-related stress often results in problems in the workplace. More and more businesses are having to address the issue as studies suggest that between 50% and 60% of all work days lost in the EU are due to stress, costing UK industry �12 billion a year (an average of �487 per employee).

�When stress or absenteeism affects work and disrupts normal business flow, it is time for the boss to step in � but gently, particularly if you know the person has family problems,� advises Patrick Mullins, Senior Partner of Robert Barber Solicitors in Nottingham.

Rather than disciplinary action, Patrick advises that mediation be suggested to an employee who has family orientated problems.

Mediation is a low cost, non-confrontational method of resolving a problem that can seem insoluble, such as how children should be cared for in a separation. �And it is often a far quicker way to resolve problems than using the courts,� said Patrick, a trained mediator and a member of the Family Law Panel.

One of the few firms of solicitors in Nottinghamshire specialising in mediation and family law, Robert Barber Solicitors, is also one of the longest established firms in the region.

Family mediation helps people involved in a family breakdown to communicate better with one another and reach their own decisions about all or some of the issues, such as children or property and finance, arising from separation or divorce.

Mediation is about directly negotiating your own decisions with the help of a third, impartial party. It is an alternative to solicitors negotiating for you or having decisions made for you by the courts.

Patrick added: �Mediation is often the route forward in resolving problems quickly and amicably, reducing the length and the amount of stress suffered by everyone. Easing uncertainty, which is often the root cause, can have an immediate positive impact on an employee�s performance in the workplace.

For legal advice or further information about family mediation, contact Robert Barber Solicitors on 0115 878 9000.