Managing Stress at Work

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MANAGING STRESS AT WORK
Stress in an ‘individual’ condition. What is a source of stress for one person may be a source of motivation and inspiration for another. There is no single cause and equally there is no single cure. In the UK, to not be stressed is unfashionable. To appear to be stressed, but without any major or unpleasant symptoms is often interpreted as a sign of a hard working and dedicated worker. However, apart from being ‘stressed’ as a fashion accessory the truth behind the condition is far less attractive. At home and in the workplace the effects of stress related illness can be destructive and far reaching. Mental Health in the workplace is a pre-requisite for efficiency, a workforce operating under conditions of stress or individual anxiety is an inefficient one. The mental health of the employee is an important though often neglected area of concern. Look at the statistics First, at least 6 million people in the United Kingdom suffer from some form of mental illness in the course of a year. That is one in ten of the whole population. Mental illness is as common as heart disease and three times as common as cancer. Second, virtually all mental illness occurs in the adult population. The great majority of those affected are in the 16-64 age range- in other words the working population. Third, in 1999-2000, over 80 million working days were lost due to sickness absence certified as mental illness. In comparison industrial action only accounted for 4 million lost days. The price is enormous. mental illness is directly costing United kingdom business and industry over £3.7 ($5.5) billion each year in terms of working days lost. This figure does not include any consequential loss of business or loss of recruitment and training costs. In reality, these statistics do not usually equate to the malevolent effects of the major psychotic illnesses. The vast majority of ‘mental illness’ in the workplace can be attributed to ‘minor‘ psychological conditions, many with ‘stress’ as the underlying cause.

Stress can only be understood by looking at man’s evolution. Human automatic behaviour was developed and ‘imprinted’ on the species hundreds of thousands of years ago, when man was a primitive hunter. If we made an hour-long film to represent the history of tool making man, industrial man would flash by in a few seconds at the end. He would barely be seen. Humans living in the complex electronic age of the twenty first century have the automatic body responses that evolved in a totally different culture and environment. The two alternatives for primitive humans were flight or fight. The body prepares itself for either of those eventualities. In a life that perhaps lacked contemporary complexities, the threats to our ancestors were usually physical and they were certainly short lived. A threat from a rival or animal had profound physical effects on early man; The arteries near the skin clamped down, muscles tensed, blood pressure went up in relation to the heart beat increase, blood was forced out the abdominal pool to arm / leg muscles, the bowels emptied so no unnecessary weight was carried and adrenaline was pumped into blood stream to help the blood clot. Stress is a condition in which the body reacts to danger in the same way as our hunting ancestors, but spread over a longer period. The internal body changes, which were meant to last over a short time and were beneficial, may, in the stress situation last for weeks or months and cause physical pain and damage to the body. Whereas in days gone by, the source of stress may have been an advancing sabre toothed tiger, the source of stress today may well be something like your boss or financial difficulties. Whatever the source, and this varies from individual to individual, the symptoms generally include; • • • • • • Blood pressure may rise permanently. Muscles remain tense with resulting pain and headaches. Digestion and the bowels may be affected. If adrenaline is frequently going into the bloodstream there can be a danger of clotting. Likely to feel continually tired because never able to fully recover from the affects of their bodies’ internal activity. An inability to concentrate on long term plans or objectives.



The present is all that matters, The senses are stimulated to deal only with things that are immediate. People tend to behave without considering the long term affects of their actions.

Paradoxically, the benefits of a good night’s sleep may elude them owing to the brains furious activity trying to deal with its problems.

If the stress remains unresolved, tomorrow becomes another battlefield for self-preservation.
The emphasis of this paper is work-related stress. It is important to acknowledge that stress does not just take place at work though quite often the workplace becomes the arena for its manifestation. Personal or non-work stress is equally as damaging and may come from a variety of sources most notably, relationships and finance. Nearly fifty recognised sources of personal stress can be found on the widely available Holmes-Rahe scale, a basic tool for measuring, albeit randomly, levels of stress and its likely physiological impact. The Holmes-Rahe scale acknowledges life events such as Holidays, bereavement and Christmas as sources of stress. In essence it is that recognition of life events and relationships that prepares us, or not, for the acknowledgement that life at home or at work may have significant effects on our physcholgical well-being. Once recognised, sources of stress need addressing. Most of us have sufficient personal resources to manage the demands that life places upon us. Our knowledge of our previous experiences, our skills and abilities, our social support systems. And our biological and psychological life histories, all contribute to our ability to achieve Eustress, the optimum point of efficiency. Stress in the Workplace The existence of unnecessary stress in the workplace is an issue for both employers and employees alike. As previously highlighted the financial cost to ‘industry’ in the broadest sense is a cost that cannot be ignored. The personal ‘cost’ of illness of mental illness is incalculable. Loneliness, eroded self worth, loss of potential, the knock on effect for relationships and personal finance can easily become the wages of the failure to address sources of unnecessary stress. In the UK, the litigation ethos has already

highlighted the responsibility of the employer in ensuring that employees are not placed under duress by working conditions that are detrimental to their mental health. Successful court actions, especially in ‘caring’ professions such as Social Work and medicine have, over the past couple of years, seen significant compensation being paid to employees who have suffered adversely from the ill effects of stress in the workplace. It is understandable therefore that within the US and the UK, there is an increased interest by employers in the mental welfare of their employees. Profits aside, the importance of mental health in the workplace has an impact on efficiency. Generally an employer should value his employees welfare in much the same way as he should ensure, for the sake of efficiency, that other assets are kept in full working order. It is unlikely that an efficient company would allow capital equipment to depreciate to the point whereby they were no longer contributing to the overall success of the company. To use an old cliché, a contented workforce is an efficient workforce. We all need some stress. To be under-stressed, or under-stimulated, has equally negative effects on our psychological well being. We need to find the right balance, a condition known as Eustress. Eustress occurs when there are sufficient stimuli, or stressors to enable us to work or create at the optimum level. Too few stressors and we are unmotivated and inefficient at home or work, too many and we face the possibility of becoming dysfunctional,. Recent studies by the Institute of Personnel Management in the UK show that stress in the workplace manifests itself in a number of ways. The WITHDRAWN following chart represents the 25% 30% FALL IN WORK four main way in which STANDARDS employees suffering from ARGUMENTATIVE stress related illness are 22% ABSENTEEISM effected in terms of their 23% relationship to the workplace. The study also looked at the perceived sources of stress. Inevitably the category ‘too much work’ represented the largest source of stress within the workplace. Too much work coupled with the next largest category, ‘Pressure to perform’ accounts for 50% of the perceived source of unnecessary stress within the workplace. Most of the anxieties and pressures that effect

workers can be usually addressed through clear communication, time management and overall clarity. Unfortunately this is not typical of the normal working environment.
TOO MUCH WORK 6% 7% 5% 4% 2% 31% CHANGE LONG HOURS COMPETITION PRESSURE TO PERFORM OVER PROMOTION 19% 7% 10% 9% WORK V'S PRIVATE LIFE JOB INSECURITY CULTURE PRESSURE TOO MANY MEETINGS

How can we Manage Stress at Work? Organisationally: Preventive Management is an organisational philosophy and set of principles which employs specific methods for promoting individual and organisational health by preventing individual and organisational distress. Preventive management is concerned with how organisations and individuals adapt and respond to change and grow. Organisations may respond to the variety of internal and external changes that they encounter in one of three ways a) The Reactive Model This is the traditional ‘firefighting’ method of reacting to personnel crises. Simply wait for the crisis to occur and then try to stop it. This is where the organisation responds to change and crisis by adapting to the event. In this mode the organisation is able to deal with change but does little to shape or alter any of these events.

b) The Adaptive Model

c) The Proactive Model

This is where the organisation anticipates change and thereby averts crisis. It does not react to events, it shapes them.

The different models of organisational structure will have a direct bearing on how the ‘demands’ on the individual worker are allowed to have a detrimental affect. The reactive organisation is typified by poor levels of communication, job insecurity, lack of job satisfaction, lack of control over own destiny, a feeling of chaos and disorganisation and the absence of involvement in the overall ‘destiny’ of the organisation. Conversely the proactive organisation, promotes forward planning, clear communication and high levels of staff involvement through open meetings and strategy groups. In relation to the organisation a positive starting point for managing work related stress is to examine the ‘actions’ of the organisation over a specific period and assess what model it reflects. Organisational Process and Policy Many organisations already have a policy on alcohol, but most have not considered developing a mental health policy. Mental health policies do not have to be long written statements but they should be an integral part of the organisation’s policy on health ad safety. They should cover the prevention of work related stress, including ways in which the organisation will provide education and training, for example on stress management and the management of change; and what sort of help can be provided when neededcounselling and helping an employee back to work after a period of sickness absence. An added benefit of policy formulation is that the ‘issue’ of mental health is brought into the open working environment and its existence acknowledged. Quite often mental health is taboo for employees, the existence of a policy legitimises and accepts that stress is a natural part of the working condition. Making changes to existing systems may cost money in the short term, but the benefits will accrue over time. Risk assessment of sources of stress for the workforce is a prerequisite of developing a preventive strategy. The following represent characteristics of a high stress scenario, usually associated with a reactive organisational structure. 1. 2. 3. 4. Low job discretion Low use of skills Low or high work demands Low task variety

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

High uncertainty Low pay Poor working conditions Low interpersonal support Low value in society.

Low job discretion is particularly likely to cause excessive stress in a job. Job discretion is the most important single characteristic of work. It is absolutely essential that employees should have an area of freedom, in which they (rather than their boss) are empowered to make decisions, plan their work and tackle problems where they arrive. Research has repeatedly shown that people who jobs are excessively constraining in this respect are likely to experience undesirable levels of stress, in terms of anxiety, depression, apathy, low self esteem and low self confidence. It therefore follows that to enhance job discretion it is necessary to review work in relation to the nine characteristics and look for combinations of those features that may contribute to stress. Once sources of stress have been identified the next step is to decide what can or can’t be changed. In some cases, there is not much that can be achieved without enormous expenditure. In those cases, the situation will probably have to remain as it is, but a great deal can be achieved through task rotation, so that any one worker is not repeatedly exposed to the same stressors continuously and for long periods. It is necessary to tackle problems one by one. For instance if it is found through a risk assessment that the main source of stress is uncertainty, it might be desirable to develop and implement new communication and feedback procedures, or it might be desirable to change some aspect of the physical working conditions. Organisations can support their staff’s mental health through the direct provision of training that is focused on their inner well being. Stress Identification and management, time management, interpersonal skills and assertiveness courses all have a significant contribution to the overall mental health and attitude of the workforce. Team building exercises and comprehensive management training also contributes to the overall competency of communication and support. Personnel departments can also have a valuable contribution to the employees well being outside of the workplace. Training in exercise, nutrition and the use of leisure time are part of the same matrix that supports the individual in their management of stress.

Training cannot compensate for poor communication within an organisation. It is all too often the case that a management supplied training course is seen by employers as the end of their responsibility. Formal person centred and regular employee supervision is crucial in understanding the dynamics and ethos of an organisation. Similarly, line management and staff meetings play an important part in the communication process. An increasing number of organisations have invested in Employee Assistance Programmes (counselling). Although thought to be costly ongpoing evaluation in the US has shown that EAPs have significantly reduced absenteeism from work and increased employees satisfaction and productivity .In addition the financial return for each dollar invested in Employee Assistance Programmes has been estimated at $3-$4 in terms of costs saved, this figure does not include additional benefits such as productivity, job performance and the cost of carrying or replacing sick workers. Inevitably the option of providing an ‘in house ‘ EAP system is limited to those companies or organisations with the financial and personnel resources to sustain them. However, contracting out to independent counselling organisations can be a positive and often inexpensive option, when compared to the cost of long term sickness. The available evidence supports the notion that it is in the best interests of employers to pay attention to the mental health of their workforce. Regardless of the causes of mental ill health, the consequences are costly to employers and individuals alike. Only by promoting mental health, by developing systems for prompt detection and management of common conditions such as depression and anxiety, and by developing a framework for the successful rehabilitation back to work of absent employees, can organisations hope to minimise the costs and reap the rewards of a health workforce. These considerations are more vital in a world facing economic turbulence, migrating workforces and technological change when the productivity and commitment of employees is critical.

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