Stress Statistics Occupational Health

I recently came across this article. If it interests you, go to my website page at http://www.workleisure.com/corporate/stressManagement.html to consider my approach to helping companies resolve this sort of issue.

Staying@Work Report

The 2009/2010 Staying@Work report found that despite the recession, while many companies have not slashed employee health and productivity programs, they have not dealt specifically with those aforementioned stress factors. Here's a snapshot of employers who were surveyed.

• 78% of employers said excessive work hours was a leading stress monger, but just 21% say they are addressing it.

• 68% of employers cited lack of work/life balance as stress producer, but only 38% say they are taking action to combat it.

• 67% of employers said employees' fear of job loss lead to an uptick in stress, but only 41% of employers say they are taking steps to deal with that concern.

“Not only are stressed workers less productive, they are also likely to incur higher health costs for themselves and their employer,” said Helen Darling, president of the National Business Group on Health. “Companies most effective at mitigating the impact of stress are moving in the right direction — helping employees become more efficient while working to lower benefit costs and strengthen balance sheets.”

A Closer Psychological Look

The American Psychological Association's newest 2009 Stress in America Survey found that while 7 in 10 Americans were suffering with stress due to money, 69% of respondents reported stress resulting from work. Riding into the holidays, that stress takes on a new high. "According to our survey three quarters of adults in this country already report moderate to high levels of stress," says psychologist Katherine Nordal, PhD, APA's executive director for professional practice. "The holiday season can bring with it additional emotional and financial stressors that can negatively impact both physical and mental health."

The Long Term Global Perspective

The same workplace stress story is echoed throughout the world. Nearly six in 10 workers in key global economies experienced a rise in workplace stress over the last two years, according to a global survey by Australian workplace consultant firm, The Regus Group. It's Regus Business Tracker survey 11,000 people in 13 countries about their workplace experience during the recession.

The most significant stress hike was reported in China, where 86% reported an uptick. The lowest increase in stress was felt in the Netherlands and Germany, with 47% and 48% respectively reporting a rise.

Wrong Way! Go Forward

For many of us, our stress stems from having made work and life choices that now don’t suit

our constantly changing lives. You might see a sign along your life's road saying:

Wrong Way! Go Forward

You can't go back on past life choices. You can only stay where you are, or go forward and find

a different focus, one that allows the real you to follow your passions.

How well does your current lifestyle reflect your true inner feelings and passions?

Enjoy doing your own positive re-assessment, focusing on the passions that bring your life alive,

at my next -

Lifestyle Review workshop

9.00 am – 1.00 pm Wedneday 3 March 2010

North Sydney Leagues Club, 12 Abbott Street Cammeray NSW

"A fantastic workshop! Peter, your work is really important and you're very easy to work with" L Martin June 2009

Further information is available at http://www.workleisure.com/Workshop.html

Enjoyment Is No Laughing Matter!

Enjoyment is no laughing matter!

I've been fighting the cause of leisure and enjoyment for over 30 years. We love to laugh and have fun but society sees it as a luxury that we don't have time to enjoy. The work ethic has a lot to answer for. Not because it dignifies work but because it puts leisure down. Four centuries ago, the 'protestant work ethic' decreed that idle hands were the work of the devil and that work was the honourable way to heaven. And today bosses still believe it! We might want work life balance but only if we keep work at the centre of life and fit fun in when and where we can.

So why is enjoyment important? Here's just a tip of the iceberg of the answers (and I will just deal with work-related reasons here):

• its the most natural form of stress management. When you lose yourself in an interest you love, your mind is transported away from problems and stress. Then add the following:
  
• it boosts self esteem, self confidence, self belief and our sense of self worth (which are often beaten down by work)
• it generates new emotional and mental energy to replace the energy we burn up at work. Without new energy we burn out.
• it energises the brain's capacity to process information
  
• it sparks commitment, enthusiasm, creativity, innovative thinking, lateral-thinking
  
• all this infects others around you
• it improves relationships, communication, and is a great form of conflict management.

That's for starters. So all you supporters of enjoyment, can you add some more reasons why enjoyment is now an integral part of life and not something we do when we have nothing better to do?

Leisure and Diversional Therapy

I had a ball yesterday (Saturday 31 October 2009). I did a one hour presentation to the Horticultural Therapy Symposium here in Adelaide on the topic of "Linking Leisure and Wellbeing". It was one of the most satisfying speaking sessions I have done. The audience was so responsive that I soon threw away my notes and 'winged it'. Lots of enthusiastic thank you's afterwards and a goodly number of copies of my book, "Enjoy Being You" were eagerly snapped up.

While the symposium was run by the Hort Therapists, the audience (about 50) was a mix of professionals from a range of diversional therapies, occupational therapists and some physiotherapists.

My approach to leisure as a powerful means of personal growth and development is a key part of diversional therapy so they were very much in sympathy with my presentation. I simply added a new, deep and life-expanding approach to leisure. I like to think I put a lot of passion and pizzazz into my presentation too!

Anyone in those areas who want a speaker? I would love to oblige!

Stress

It's probably trite to suggest that stress today is an outcome of the inability to withstand sustained excessive pressure and an accelerating rate of change. The ability to bounce back - after a day, a week, or longer diminishes. The focus on overcoming stress is being put into trying to eliminate the causes of stress - a pretty much impossible task. You no sooner get rid of one problem than another arises.

I believe the answer lies in accepting the fact that stress is likely to be always there, in one form or another. We need to find ways not just of coping with stress but being able to thrive and be proactive while under stress.

I further believe that we have a constant unlimited natural resource which we can tap into at any time to refresh, rejuvenate, revitalise and re-energise us at will. When you lose yourself in an interest you love, you find yourself - the real self. Each time you express your true self in an interest that you passionately enjoy (in an environment that is not otherwise stress-generating ie not during work), you generate new energy to replace the burnt energy. After all the term burnout means you have constantly burnt energy without replacing it. You cannot deficit budget time but you can deficit budget energy. A few minutes expressing a passionate interest for no other reason than the enjoyment it gives you can energise you for a much longer time than the time taken to enjoy your passion.

Just simply stopping doing whatever is stressing you isnt enough. It might give you a break but it doesn't create new energy. You need to get involved in something that is going to joyfully take your mind right away from your sources of stress for a while. Singing in a choir does it for me. I say that to demonstrate the point that it doesnt have to be a physical interest. It's a matter of the mind, body and spirit coming together in a state of flow.
If this line of argument appeals to you, go to my website at www.workleisure.com and check out the articles under the "My Views" section.

Top Management Articles

As of today three of my articles at www.bestmanagementarticles.com have passed the 1000 readers mark. The latest is "How to Manage Long-Term Workplace Stress". My most read article, How to Enjoy Work Life Harmony Rather than Work Life Balance, has so far attracted over 1221 readers and is close to reaching that site's list of Most Read Ever articles!. "How to Stop Losing Your Best People" has attracted 1069 readers. Overall my articles on the Best Management Articles site have attracted over 12000 readers - to date! To see for yourself, go to http://www.bestmanagementarticles.com/DisplayAuthor.aspx?Peter_Nicholls=&id=554

While it is stating the bleeding obvious to say management is all about people, it's a curious fact of business life that it's taken more than 400 years of living under the cloud of the work ethic that managers are at last taking an interest in articles that talk about people's lifestyles and the benefits that has on business productivity. The work ethic taught us productivity is only about what you do and who you are while at work. Anything else was not only a waste of time but even competed with work.

Welcome the new era that shows people are people 24/7. They dont suddenly turn into superman or wonder woman when they walk in the office door.

Compassion Pays - At Last!

I read the following comments by Susan Heron of AIM in the Weekend Australian of 22/23 August(Weekend Professional section)

• Companies need to regard non-salary benefits such as good workplace culture, flexible work arrangements and health/wellbeing programs as competitive weapons in the battle to attract and retain the people their business needs to prosper
• The downturn is having an effect on salaries…non-salary benefits have become the key battleground for employee recruitment and retention…
• The non-salary component of a person’s package or employment conditions becomes critical in the bid to attract and retain the best employees.

My comments:

• We are finally getting closer to the day when employers see employees as more than ‘workplace resources’.
• Money always has been only one (albeit important) part of the employee’s quality of life deal.
• Ever since the industrial age, business has employed the whole person, not simply their role as ‘a workplace resource’.
• Work is only one part of our 24/7 day and of our stress.
• Personal life and personal goals have everything to do with job choices, work productivity and commitment to corporate goals.
  
• We carry all of our emotional baggage 24/7 affecting everything we do at work, home and even at play.
• Just like any other purchase, people ‘buy’ jobs to meet their own needs, and only secondarily to meet the corporate aims of the employer. The sales package has to serve a person’s 24/7 needs and lifetime goals.

I would suggest it’s time to change the expression ‘human resource management’ to one of ‘people investment management’.