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Transform Workplace Stress into Creative New Opportunities
Part One
To transform workplace stress into creative new opportunities requires an assessment of Job-Stress - what is it, what are contributing factors or conditions, signs and symptoms of stress and how to recognize them, and possible actions employers and employees may take to reduce or manage stress in their workplace. Part One provides this orientation.
What is Stress?
You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension, and discipline are taken out of your life. James G. BilkeyStress is your experience of your body’s fight or flight response to stimuli whether internal (feelings, perceptions, beliefs) or external (temperature, sound, aggression).
The Body’s Primary Response to Stress:- The entire system becomes more alert with body hair alert, all five senses and mental functioning more acute.
- Sugar is released into the blood stream creating more energy to fight off the stressor
- Cholesterol in the blood is increased to provide more energy when blood sugar levels drop off
- Red and white blood cells and clotting factors rush into the blood stream thickening the blood to help the body recover from injuries
- Adrenal glands release cortisone into the blood to protect from allergy reactions
- Pituitary gland releases endorphins (the body’s natural painkillers)
- Sex hormones diminish resulting in decreased libido
- Thyroid hormone (thyroxine) is released to boost metabolism (fueling fight or flight response)
- Heart rate increases pumping more blood to the lungs and muscles powering flight or fight response.
- Quickened breathing increases supply of air and more oxygen for the extra blood flowing through the lungs
- Digestive activity slows with energy moving into limbs
Secondary stress can be experienced as good and is often experienced in response to a situation you’ve chosen like a performance, sales presentation, wedding or an important job interview. While healthy and producing some anxiety, good stress can:- Energize
- Motivate
- Invigorate and
- Challenge us
If bad stressors persist over time your body will release and consume sugars and fats, negatively affecting your immune system which can compromise your physical and mental well-being.
Job Stress and Your Health
Everyone has a particular carrying capacity – or load they can bear without straining their reserves. That carrying capacity is affected by a complex set of factors and conditions that change over the course of their lives, increasing or decreasing their health risk and impacting their quality of life. When the carrying capacity is exceeded, the body’s physical and mental alarm bells go off.
Signs of Stress - the Body's Way of Communicating with You
Physical symptoms may include: - Headaches (tension and migraines)
- Eating disorders and digestive problems including over and under eating, diarrhea and constipation
- Sleep disturbances
- Mild fatigue
- Skin rashes
- Teeth grinding
- Muscular tics, aches and pains
- Chronic mild illnesses
- Sexual dysfunction
Psychologically, you may experience:- Anxiety
- A sense of being driven and pressured
- Crying easily
- Depletion and exhaustion.
- Depression
- Easily angered, road rage
- Endless worrying; burdened with negative thoughts
- Fatigue, exhaustion or listlessness
- Feelings of powerlessness and lack of control
- Feelings of frustration, anger and hopelessness
- Forgetfulness, poor memory
- Frustration
- Fuzzy thinking
- Irritability and restlessness
- Lack of focus, trouble concentrating
- Lack of stamina, low endurance
- Minor ailments, aches and pains
- Mood swings
- Nervousness
- Poor decision-making
Job stress, when compounded with personal life-stress, may create a level of stress that overwhelms and paralyzes, producing emotional outbursts, unbearable anxiety attacks or depressive episodes. Stress can cause backaches, migraines and substance abuse, all of which contribute to poor job performance, can compromise the immune system, making a person more prone to infections and communicable illnesses, and can trigger depression.
Gender and Stress
Research on gender and stress suggest that men and women tend to respond to different stressors. Studies show that women experience a wider range of life events (e.g., those happening to friends) as stressful as compared with men who react to a more limited range of stressful events, specifically those affecting themselves or close family members.Women tend to react more to chronic life stressors like: - Time constraints
- Meeting others’ expectations
- Marital relationships
- Children and family health
Men are more affected by work-related stressors like: - Change of job
- Demotion
- Pay cut
- Financial difficulties
Highly-stressed men are twice as likely to suffer symptoms as men who are not experiencing stress, while stressed out women, are five times as likely – a two to five ratio!
Top Workplace Stressors
- The treadmill syndrome. Too much to do at once, requiring the 24 hour workday.
- Random interruptions
- Doubt. Employees aren’t sure what is happening, where things are headed
- Mistrust. Vicious office politics disrupt positive behaviour.
- Unclear company direction and policy.
- Career and job ambiguity. Things happen without the employee knowing why.
- Inconsistent performance management processes. Employees get raises but no reviews or get positive evaluation, but are laid off afterward.
- Feeling unappreciated.
- Lack of two-way communication up and down.
- Too much or too little to do.
- The feeling of not contributing and having a lack of control.
Workplace Conditions and Stress
In a workplace where conditions exist that are outside the person’s control or realm of influence and where roles, responsibilities, authority, accountabilities or expectations are unclear, frustrated passion can arise, resulting in:- A high stress environment
- Poor communication
- Office politics
- Workflow problems
- Diminished productivity and
- Staff disengagement.
This dysfunctional state, in turn, may deteriorate and lead to: - Attendance issues
- Burnout
- Project or business failure
Workplace Violence and Workplace Harassment
Bill 168, amending Ontario's Occupational Health and Safety Act with respect to violence and harassment in the workplace received Royal Assent December, 2009. It comes into force June 15, 2010 and will significantly impact Ontario workplaces. The new amendments define workplace violence and harassment broadly enough to capture violence or harassment directed toward a worker at a workplace from any person, including customers, clients, patients, co-workers, friends, current or former family members and strangers.
From the Ministry's Backgrounder
The amendments include: - New definitions of workplace violence and workplace harassment
- A requirement for employers to prepare policies on workplace violence and harassment and develop and maintain programs to implement them
- A requirement for employers to assess the risks of workplace violence based on the nature of the workplace and type or conditions of work, and develop measures and procedures to control them
- A right for workers to refuse work if they believe they are at risk of physical injury due to possible workplace violence
- A requirement for employers who are aware of the potential for domestic violence in a workplace to take reasonable precautions to protect the workers who are at risk of physical injury
- A requirement for employers and supervisors to alert certain workers of the risk of workplace violence from persons with a history of violent behaviour. Employers and supervisors must provide workers who may encounter such persons at work with as much information, including personal information, as needed to protect the workers from physical injury and
- A requirement for the workplace's Joint Health and Safety Committee and others to be notified if a worker is disabled or needs medical attention due to workplace violence.
Get informed ~ Be Pro-Active ~ Be Prepared!
Read Bill 168
Employees know your rights. Read the Ontario Ministry of Labour
Fact Sheet
on workplace violence and harassment. Employers know your responsibilities for
protecting workers from workplace violence and workplace harassment
Impact of Job Stress on the Employer
Stress, traditionally seen as a public health issue, is now recognized by Health Canada as a workforce management issue and the World Health Organization has identified job-stress as a global epidemic. A 2003 Statistics Canada survey on work-life conflict, which surveyed more than 31,000 workers, found more than half felt stressed, one-third felt burned out or depressed, one-quarter thought of quitting their jobs at least once a week, and one in 10 reported high absenteeism due to emotional, physical or mental fatigue.
Workplace Stress Facts - The annual cost of work time lost to stress in Canada is $12 billion
- Employee absenteeism, due to stress in 2004 increased over 316% over the previous decade
- 13% employees cite risk of accident and injury and
- 15% cite poor interpersonal relations.
- 40% of worker turnover is due to job stress. Source: Statistics Canada(2004)
- Workers who reported a high degree of stress balancing their work and family life missed 7.2 days of work each year, while those who reported very little stress only missed an average of 3.6 days. Source: Conference Board of Canada
Impact of Job Stress on the Employee
- 26% of employees report that they are "often" or “very often” burned out or severely stressed at their work. Source: The Families and Work Institute
- 58% of Canadians report “overload” associated with their many roles - work, home and family, friends, physical health, volunteer and community service. Source: Work-Life Compendium 2001, Centre for Families, Work and Well-being, Guelph University
Sources: - Building the High Performance Workforce report, (2007), The Corporate Leadership Council
- Canadian Payroll and Employment News, February, 2008
- Executive Coaching as a Transfer of Training Tool: Effects on Productivity in a Public Agency (1997) Public Personnel Management, (1997), Journal, Vol. 26
- Health Canada, 2008
- Maximizing the Impact of Executive Coaching: Behavioural Change, Organizational Outcomes and Return on Investment, (2001), The Manchester Review Volume 6, no.1
- Mental Health Roundtable 2008
- Merrill Anderson, merrilland@metrixglobal.net (2008)
- Ministry of Labour, 2010
- Public Health Agency of Canada
- Statistics Canada, 2008
- Three Hallmarks of a Career Position (1998), The Harvard Professional Group, http://www.harvardpro.com/careerjobs5a.htm.
- Watson Wyatt 2007
- World Health Organization
Test Your Knowledge
Take a moment to test your knowledge with the
PART ONE Summary Quiz
Transform Workplace Stress e-Course Contents
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION:
Transform Workplace Stress into Creative New Opportunities
PART ONE: Workplace Stress Signs, Symptoms, Factors and Conditions PART TWO - Section A:
Assess the Situation
- Section B: Employee Satisfaction Self Assessment
- Section C: Gain Perspective – Consider Work in the Context of Your Life
- Section D: Attributes of a Productive Workplace
PART THREE: Stress Relief, Coping Skills and Resilience Strategies
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