Why are we hearing so much about stress these days?

It seems to be a new way of describing how we as individuals are coping. Some stress is good for us but the amount we can cope with depends on the number and type of challenges in our life and the type of person we are. Stress is personal and that is why different people handle it differently.

The 21st Century lifestyle is hectic, busy, challenging, often exciting, and we spend a lot of time 'doing'. Fifty years ago, people had different challenges but life was not so hectic and people had more time for just 'being'. People had more time for others and more time for themselves. We are, after all, human beings - not human doings! The line from W.H. Davies' poem, "Leisure" - "we have no time to stand and stare", has never been more apt. Managing our time is one of the most relevant issues we confront today.

Many people today lead very unbalanced lives. The statement "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy" is relevant not only to Jack but to all of us! Indeed, most people agree that too much of anything is bad for us! Balance in life is healthy in the widest sense. For instance, if we divide our life into eight areas:

• physical environment - home / work
• financial state
• career
• exercise / fun / health
• personal growth
• personal relationships
• work relationships
• friends and family

We can begin to look at how balanced our life really is. Ask yourself in which areas do you spend most of your time? Are there any areas you ignore? Which areas would you like to spend more time in?

How is this important in the workplace?

Businesses are lean on people at the moment - some would even go as far as saying that businesses are anorexic - but they still need people. It is therefore important that the people they have are fit and healthy in body and mind. A well-balanced workforce will have reduced absentee rates, reduced staff turnover, reduced re-training, improved staff motivation, improved performance - all leading to improved profits.

What can be done in the workplace to help create a balanced workforce?

Many companies have pecked at the surface of the stress iceberg by offering crisis telephone lines and/or counselling for individuals who feel stressed. They may have sent some managers on a stress management course and, while this may have changed their lives, it may also have had no effect at all.

However, many companies are now recognising the need to take a whole company view and start by finding out whether there is a problem (for example high absentee rates, high sickness levels, high personnel turnover), discovering the staff's perception of their stress levels, and assessing the effect of management style(s) and company ethos. This can be done through a thorough stress risk assessment. If a risk is clearly defined and quantified, the next step is to raise awareness of how to identify stress in individual people.

Identifying stress is easily the most challenging task, because everyone reacts differently due to differences in physiology and belief patterns. For example some people:

• get headaches/migraines/anxiety
• develop stomach problems and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
• develop skin disturbances (psoriasis, eczema, rashes)
• become irritable and less flexible
• lose their self confidence
• have difficulty sleeping
• .................the list is almost endless

This variety of symptoms has baffled practitioners who have been trained to treat individual symptoms. Stress is a whole body response, not an individual organ or system reaction. We are looking at the in vivo (whole body) response instead of an isolated and controlled in vitro (test tube) result. Too much stress over a period of time produces a build-up of neurotransmitters, which affect organs and tissues throughout the body. Research by Pert and others shows that how you react depends on your physiology and metabolism, hence the very different symptoms.

Having recognised that too much stress may be making someone ill, what does a manager or a company do? If a risk assessment was carried out at company level, there may be some indications of possible causes. The person themselves will have the answer but, depending on their awareness, may not have connected cause and effect. Sometimes a line manager may not be the person they wish to confide in; sometimes it may be the line manager or other senior colleague who is the problem! Or, alternatively, it may be personal concerns that the individual wishes to keep private.

Whatever the cause, it is affecting the well-being of the staff member and may have even wider repercussions on teams and even whole departments. Stressed staff can cause havoc in a department, sowing discontent, uncertainty and animosity due to their inability to perform effectively.

Health & Safety Law requires companies to provide a healthy workplace and this includes an acceptable level of stress, but it also requires the staff to take reasonable care of their own well-being. The challenge is both to empower the staff to take responsibility for their stress and to learn successful coping strategies and also to empower the management to recognise the problem and permit it to be solved.

About the author

Ann McCracken is Director of AMC Mentoring, providing Human Resource Risk Assessments, Stress Management Courses and Personal Consultations and Coaching throughout the UK. For further information call: 01621 891963, e-mail: support@amc-mentoring.co.uk or visit the website: www.amc-mentoring co.uk.