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Stress Management
International Mental Health Week (October 5 11, 2008) is an ideal opportunity to promote and encourage good mental health including "Resilience to Stress" amongst staff. The evidence is clear and repeated that healthier workplaces are more productive workplaces. Subsequently employers have a unique opportunity to improve the health and well-being of staff and in doing so, influence the productivity of their workplace. Workplace stress leave is the most costly form of leave to any business and is the longest cause of workplace absence.
In most sectors, stress represents the largest risk to the business, accounting for a staggering number of the workplaces health hazards, as demonstrated in the following list;
Office workers: 20%
Metal manufacturing: 8%
Manufacturing maintenance: 11%
Retail: 5%
Food & Beverage manufacturing: 4%
Local councils: 10%
Automotive industry: 4%
Education: 19%
Being able to identify stress in ourselves and our colleagues greatly assists in reducing the resource pressure that a staff member on leave subsequently causes the workplace. Being able to manage our stress significantly improves our own personal health and wellbeing and prevents us from headaches, migraines, back aches, stomach disorders, anxiety and possible cardiovascular disease. Recent research has determine that up to one third of cardiovascular disease is attributed to by workplace stress, significantly impacting upon workplace productivity, increasing work cover claims and staff turnover and providing even further stress on employees.
The biological stress response is meant to protect and support us. It's what helped our stone age ancestors survive the life-or-death situations they commonly faced. However, in the modern world, most of the stress we feel is in response to psychological rather than physical threats. Caring for a chronically ill child or being audited by the tax department qualify as stressful situations, but neither calls for either fight or flight. Unfortunately, our bodies do not make this distinction. Whether we are stressed over a looming deadline, an argument with a friend, or a mountain of bills, the warning bells ring, just like a caveman confronting a sabre-toothed tiger, we go into automatic overdrive.
The problem with the stress response is that the more it's activated, the harder it is to shut off. Instead of leveling off once the crisis has passed, your stress hormones, heart rate, and blood pressure remain elevated. Extended or repeated activation of the stress response takes a heavy toll on the body. Prolonged exposure to stress increases your risk of everything from heart disease, obesity, and infection to anxiety, depression, and memory problems. Because of the widespread damage it can cause, it's essential to learn how to deal with stress in a more positive way and reduce its impact on your daily life.
Identifying Stress in Self and Others
Stress, having a variety of causes, has a range of symptoms. Being able to recognise the early symptoms of stress in self and others means the issues can be dealt with before the situation has the opportunity to manifest resulting in long term health problems for the individual and cause disruption in the workplace.
Behavioural Symptoms
Increased irritability/aggression.
Withdrawn, showing signs of social isolation.
Changes in eating habits, sleeping patterns, consumption of alcohol, tobacco, tea/coffee, drugs, self-medication.
Becoming more 'difficult' in the workplace less co-operative, more accident prone.
Becoming more 'difficult' outside work, decrease in social ease inability to cope with family/domestic roles,
Neglect of personal appearance.
Physiological Symptoms
Headaches, migraines,
Stomach disorders,
Raised blood pressure,
Changing sleep patterns,
Muscle spasms,
Back/shoulder/neck pain,
A sense of feeling unwell,
An unwillingness to work.
Psychological Symptoms
A growing feeling that the workplace is a 'threat', a place of anxiety, tension and the cause of irritability, low self-esteem, forgetfulness.
An increase in worry about problems yet feeling powerless to change the situation.