Is Your Workplace Suffering from Contagious Stress?

We wonder how many of you might recognise this scenario? Although it happened with a male manager, it could apply to men or women. The manager we worked with had been promoted to a more senior role and was experiencing demands from all sides. He became increasingly tired, was working long hours and spending less time with his family. His overall energy dropped, anxiety levels increased, sleep was disrupted and concentration and focus diminished. He no longer took time to exercise, found himself snatching meals of dubious quality and kept himself going with constant fixes of coffee and Red Bull. Apart from the impact on him ? what do you think were the effects on his family and the people who worked for and with him?

Imagine what it was like working for him. How supportive was he as a manager? How clear was his direction and communication? Was he just seeing the errors and problems? Were his team, and colleagues, starting to feel stressed because of his behaviours?

What about someone working in a customer facing role, who has had trouble getting to work, pressures at home, a sudden increase of customer complaints and problems? The pressure gets to them and they start to become irritable with colleagues ? and then with customers. What will that do to the colleagues and the business? The colleagues may be understanding for a while, but the longer it goes on, the risk is that they catch the disease! Communication and team support disappear and morale goes down. Suppose it gets worse and our person feels they cannot face it and so take some time off. Now who bears the brunt of this? Oh, and what happens with the customers? What would it be like to visit this workplace? Imagine what you would see, hear and feel.

Stress rarely happens in isolation or to one individual. (Although it may feel that way!) When someone begins to get stressed there will be a ripple effect spreading out from them. Those closest feel the effect first! Whether it is the person at the top who cascades the problems down and through the organisation, a line-manager struggling to cope with their job (especially when promoted into it) or a person with loads of pressures in their non-work life ? they are contagious!!! The spread will be insidious if nothing is done about it. It becomes a vicious spiral and creates more work for those still there to do it.

Many of you reading this are aware that you have pressures on you from all sides, possibly from your family, your friends, colleagues, your own teams and direct reports ? and yourself! Juggling your time and attention across these is a difficult challenge! What makes these pressures worse can be your own expectations of yourself and what you believe you should be doing. This could be concerned with demonstrating how capable and professional you are in your role. It could be because you feel you should be giving your family or friends more of your time and attention.

A consequence of this could be that you start to feel the pressure mounting and begin to react to things differently. Maybe you become less patient with some colleagues, the department who miss the deadline, the people in your team who do not communicate in the right way for you. If you are not careful you may be the originator of the "virus" and before long it is spreading to those you interact with and they start to act in a stressed way!

Why does it matter? Stress is likely to lead to problems within the business. These will effect the bottom-line, directly or indirectly. The most obvious impact can be loss of business, maybe through poor service, or poor quality. Your costs certainly rise, whether because of lower productivity or having to correct or rework mistakes. Then there is the "human cost" of low morale, probably leading to absences (eventually long-term) ? and possibly leaving. This results in increasing staff turnover, with all the ensuing costs and pitfalls.

Stress accounts for around 40% of long-term absences ? and can reduce performance by up to 70%!! If it leads to a high staff turnover that compounds the situation, disrupting the business, increasing costs (direct and indirect) and reducing profitability. It is estimated that over 270,000 people are absent from work every day due to stress related issues! 1 in 5 report feeling extremely stressed at work. That is 5m people!!

If you are an employer, or a manager, you need to pay attention to what is happening in your workplace regarding stress. It affects the people, performance and you! Stress is not an illness, it is a state and can be managed or changed. However, not doing so can result in someone becoming ill.

The other reason for paying attention to this is that there is legislation around it! There is the duty of care and responsibility attached to managers as part of the Health and Safety legislation. This means undertaking risk assessments, creating a positive environment and managing work activity to reduce stress and pressure at work.

You can use these questions to get an immediate sense of where you are meeting HSE criteria and where issues may occur for your business:

• The culture of your organisation - how does it approach work-related stress?
• Demands on people, such as workload and exposure to physical hazards. Is work sensibly scheduled so that the workload levels are right?
• Control over their work and the way they do it ? how much say do staff have?
• Relationships ? how do you deal with issues such as bullying or harassment? (Remember, up to 1 in 5 reports they have been bullied at work.)
• Organisational change ? how is it managed and communicated?
• Understanding of role ? do individuals understand their role in the organisation? Does the organisation ensure that individuals do not have conflicting roles or challenges? (Is there a clear definition of roles?)
• Support and training from peers and line managers for the person to be able to do the core functions of the job ? do you cater for individual needs and differences?

How well would your workplace score? Which areas could do with some attention? Remember, prevention is usually preferable to cure in most things. Pay attention to these factors and you can start to address stress early on, preventing it becoming a problem. This will reduce the chances of it spreading. If you can identify specific areas, or individuals, where stress seems to occur frequently, consider how you can "quarantine" them!

Look at your organisation, and yourself if necessary and think about what you can do against these factors to vaccinate it against stress! You do not want it becoming an epidemic ? it is bad for business!! Make time to avoid pressure turning to stress for you personally and you will be in a better position to look at those around you and spot the early warning signs ? and support the people who may be in danger of becoming the stress spreaders to stop them at source!

To keep yourself in the right state to avoid becoming stressed or a stress spreader, learn to be reasonable with yourself ? and others. Keep things in perspective and set realistic standards and expectations for yourself.

When things are building up ask yourself:

? what will this look like in a year when we look back on it? (Or 3 years or 6 months.) How important will it seem then?

- what will be the worst that might happen if I don't??.?(or do!)

- what am I gaining by always thinking I have to be "Superman" or "Superwoman"? How often do I manage it?

Stress can be contagious ? and when it is the negative form of stress it spreads quickly and no-one enjoys it or benefits. Prevent it with your attitudes and behaviour to yourself and others.

Graham Yemm a founding partner of Solutions 4 Training Ltd.During his years as a consultant he has worked with a variety of major companies in the U.K., Europe, USA, the Middle East and Russia in Sales, People and Management Skills. He has had many years of experience tailoring programmes to address organisational issues around sales, account management, negotiations, sales management and customer service ? especially focusing on the communication and personal skills aspects.

Graham is a Master Practitioner of NLP and was involved with setting up and running "The Business Group", which promotes uses of NLP in organisations. He is an accredited trainer for the LAB profile programme ? "Words that Change Minds". His personal enjoyment comes from helping individuals to take more responsibility for their own actions? freeing them to feel they can make more choices about their lives.

Contact http://solutions4training.com or +1483 480656

---

Stress Management and Mastery: Shake It Off and Step Up

The moment I read the story I'm about to share... Read More

How to Relieve Stress

One question that is not asked enough by people under... Read More

Mindfulness and Laughter: Gaining Clarity While Giggling

Life is funny.Throughout the day, there are plenty of humorous... Read More

Nipping Stress In the Bud: The Principles of Stress Relief

Stress is normal. Stress is OK. Stress is the same... Read More

Managing Stress - Hire the Right People

Managing stress is not easy if you don't have the... Read More

How To Put An End To Loneliness

Loneliness and separation are the real illness of our times.... Read More

Stress Symptoms

Stress relief and managementRecognizing stress symptoms can be a positive... Read More

The Case Of The Missing Vacation

This is the time for daydreaming about your annual vacation.... Read More

Reduce Stress and Enjoy More Sleep

If you suffer from insomnia of any kind, the chances... Read More

Stress and Your Immune System: 10 Ways to Relax and Rejuvenate

Stress seems to have become a constant factor in today's... Read More

Stress Managment and Mastery: 7 Ways to Take Yourself Off Restriction

Q. So many times in my life, I seem to... Read More

Stress Management: The Power of a Day

I learned a valuable lesson recently. A short while ago,... Read More

3 Easy Ways to Reduce Stress

Stress, America's #1 health problem, is a leading cause of... Read More

3 Kinds of Workplace Stress

Workers across America will tell you that stresslevels are increasing.... Read More

Stress Management and Mastery: Practicing Perspective

Q. I wonder if you could help me with a... Read More

High Stress Means Low Self Esteem

Do you have the desire for a stress free life?... Read More

How to Cope With Stress and Strain

Work related tensions, personal issues and abnormal lifestyles are the... Read More

Using Exercise to Relieve Stress

Most people know of the importance of exercise as a... Read More

Anger Management: Is It Finally Time To Forgive?

In order to free ourselves from the pain of anger... Read More

Reclaim Your Life - Extraordinary Self-Care Day

When was the last time you took a day just... Read More

Beyond the Stress of Success - Access Your Thriving Zone

Genuine enthusiasm...real feeling of accomplishment...sense of satisfaction and fun. Welcome... Read More

Make a Handbag - Discover Inner Peace and Stress Reduction

Have you ever considered sewing a handbag as an act... Read More

10 Ways to Enjoy Your Stress More

1. The Mentor Method: think of your favorite person. Someone... Read More

Brain Diet : Right Diet prevents Memory Loss

These days, when people have become so conscious about what... Read More

The Benefits of Eating from a Jar of Honey

June is the month of the honey moon. Custom holds... Read More

Are You Taking Notice? What Are Your Warning Signs Stress Is Building Up?

Many people recognise the warning signs that stress may be... Read More

Dealing With Stress in Our Overworked Lives

As small business owners, we often take on more than... Read More

Intelligent Emotions

We so often take the feelings of happiness and saddness... Read More

Stress Management: How to Use the Power of Focus

Here's a fun little experiment:Take a few seconds and look... Read More

Stressed? Go on a Quick Getaway

Did you know that taking a short trip, such as... Read More

Stress Management: The Power of Expectancy

On a beautiful summer day years ago, I went water... Read More

One Way to Beat Stress: Arrive Early!

I'm so excited that I have discovered this secret today.... Read More

Deep Breathing ? How It Can Simultaneously Improve Health And Bring You Closer To Your Goals

I hope by reading this article you will see the... Read More