What is Stress?
Stress occurs when the demands (both real and perceived) placed
upon you exceed your ability to cope. Stress is a totally individual
phenomenon, what tips you over the edge may be chicken feed for
someone else. Some of the more common stressors include: problems
at work, a long-working hours culture, financial problems, work-life
balance conflicts, domestic problems and traffic problems.
Individual Consequences of Stress:
The consequences of increasing stress levels are specific to each
individual, often preying on your own body's weak point. The first
sign may be a recurrent cold, sore throat or cold sore. In the
longer-term more serious effects can include emotional consequences
such as depression or anxiety; physical consequences such as heart
problems or stomach ulcers; and behavioural consequences such as
withdrawal or increased dependency on alcohol, drugs or food.
Organisational Consequences of Stress:
Stress in the workplace is a lose-lose situation. Initially loyal
employees may be prepared to work longer-hours to keep up with
increasing demands but as tiredness sets in silly mistakes and
errors will occur and they begin to resent the impact on their
home-lives. Then, absenteeism will increase as employees genuinely
suffer more stress-related illnesses or as they take the days they
feel are 'owed to them'! Employers then have additional costs
associated with covering absences, retraining and recruiting. During
this time morale and motivation will be affected, performance and
productivity rates drop and customer service levels will fall.
The Scale of the Problem:
Stress at work and home is on the increase. The facts speak for themselves:
- Stress at work has now overtaken musculo-skeletal disorders as the main
cause of days lost at work due to injury and illness
- Lost working days due to stress have doubled from @ 6.5 million (1995) to @ 13.4 million (2001)
- Average duration of stress-related absence is 29.2 days per employee per year
- Workers with stressful jobs are more than twice as likely to die from heart disease
- 20% of the population get stressed on a daily basis
- 1 in 17 people have considered taking their own lives as a consequence of the
stress they have experienced
(Sources: HSE - Occupational Stress Statistics Dec 2002, TUC Research
2003, MORI Research for Samaritans Week 2003)
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