Stress Management

Arguably the term stress management does not make sense. If stress is what occurs to us when the pressures or demands on us are too much for our ability to cope, it is a bit late to manage it! In an ideal world we should be talking about stress prevention rather than stress management.

The last 10 – 15 years have seen a growing recognition of the problems caused by stress for both individuals and organisations. The growth in numbers of people absent from work with stress-related illness is now significant (accounting for around 1/3 of all absence) and the impact of stress on individuals’ lives is not good. Both employers and employees contribute to the pressures and stress-related problems. At the same time, both can help to do something about stress management.

There are some employers who are good about creating a working environment which aims to prevent stress having a negative impact on their workforce. However, many do not think about it and have no plans or policies in place to address the area of stress management. This is very short-sighted. The economic impact on the organisation is huge and costly! Additionally, the effect on their staff, in terms of morale, workloads and relationships is not good. Failure to consider this area of stress management leads to people feeling under excessive time pressure (59% of people in a recent survey) and having increasing workloads (55%) which affect the quality of work and also impact personal lives. Another trend which is growing alongside this is an increase in bullying, either from managers down or amongst colleagues.

As individuals we can do more for ourselves for stress management or stress prevention. Firstly, recognise when we are becoming stressed. It is not good to keep fighting it. When the pressures are pushing us towards this edge – change something!! It is not a badge of honour, confirming your dedication to allow yourself to become stressed to the point where you become ill. We might need to work under a high pressure situation for a while, and can usually cope when the end is in sight. However, if this goes on and we do not do anything to adjust the balance and reduce some of the pressure, we will become stressed. This is not the type of stress management we want to encourage!

Rather than looking for short-term coping strategies it is much more effective for personal stress management to check whether your life is in balance. If you look at The Optimal Health Questionnaire, you can find out how well you are balanced across the 5 dimensions of Optimal Health. For those which might not be right, you can identify them and decide on what actions to take to correct things!