Both in our personal lives, and also in our workplace, we
frequently encounter stress, and stressful situations. Workplace
stress affects the performance of the brain, including functions
of work performance; memory, concentration, and learning.
This incapacitates individuals, preventing them from becoming
confident, successful, self-determining human beings. As a
direct result, stress undermines organisations, breaking down
lines of communication, lowering motivation and morale, destroying
teamwork and the ability to work together effectively and
therefore increases pressures on management.
Stress at work also provides a serious risk of litigation
for all employers and organisations, carrying significant
liabilities for damages, bad publicity and loss of reputation.
Dealing with stress-related claims also consumes vast amounts
of management time. So, there are clearly strong economic
and financial reasons for organisations to manage and reduce
stress at work.
Stress is proven beyond doubt to make people ill, and evidence
is increasing as to number of ailments and diseases caused
by stress. Stress is now known to contribute to heart disease;
it causes hypertension and high blood pressure, and impairs
the immune system. Stress is also linked to strokes, IBS (irritable
bowel syndrome), ulcers, diabetes, muscle and joint pain,
miscarriage during pregnancy, allergies and alopecia.
However, Stress can be successfully managed. For example,
US studies have demonstrated that stress management was shown
to be capable of reducing the risk of heart attack in people
with heart disease. Stress management techniques, along with
methods for coping with anger, contributed to a reduction
of high blood pressure, and; for chronic tension headache
sufferers it was found that stress management techniques increased
the effectiveness of prescribed drugs, and after six months
actually equalled the effectiveness of anti-depressants. See
end of this page for stress tests
- Sources of Stress
There are four basic sources of stress:
Your environment: Weather, Noise,
Traffic, pollution etc.
Social stressors,
such as job interviews, financial problems,demands
for your time from family hobbies etc.
Physiological:
illness, poor nutrition, inadequate sleep,etc.these can
lead to stressful symptoms such as muscle tension, headaches,stomach
upset and anxiety.
Psychological:
or your thoughts. Your brain interprets changes in your
enviroment and your bodyand determines when to turn on your
emergency
response.
-Types of Stress:
External stressors: physical
conditions such as heat or cold, stressful psychological environments
such as working conditions and abusive relationships, eg., bullying.
Internal stressors: physical ailments
such as infection or inflammation, or psychological problems
such as worrying about something.
From the above, it is easy to see that work can be a source
of both external and internal stressors.
-Stress Test:
Some of these are not exclusively due to stress, nor are
they certain proof of stress, but they are indicators to prompt
investigation as to whether stress is present. You can use
this list of ten key stress indicators as a simple initial
stress test: tick the factors applicable.
How did I do?
Social Readjustment Test
Quiz
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