workplace stresss myths you should break - health in action
TRANSCRIPT
© Andrea Martin Health in Action 2017
Workplace stress myths you should break
• As a busy manager with responsibility for managing people you will encounter workplace stress.
• You have a corporate responsibility to manage workplace stress.
• How much of what you know is fact and how much myth?
Workplace stress fact or fiction?
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Myth 1: I am dispassionate when dealing with a colleague or team member suffering from workplace stress
• What you personally believe about managing workplace stress will be reflected in your approach to dealing with it.
• This influences the culture of your organisation, top to bottom without you always realising it.
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Myth 1: I am dispassionate when dealing with a colleague or team member suffering from workplace stress
Myth breaker:
•Review your personal attitude to managing workplace stress.
•Consider how your behaviour can promote positive mental health in your team.
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Myth 2: I am able to identify the signs and symptoms of stress both in my team and myself.
• Your body's stress reaction was designed to protect you but when it's constantly on alert a person’s health can pay the price.
• Identifying when that protection mechanism turns from “good” stress into “bad” stress is complex and requires vigilance.
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Myth 2: I am able to identify the signs and symptoms of stress both in my team and myself.
Myth breaker:
•Ensure you are familiar with the key triggers of workplace stress and have strategies in place to identify the signs and symptoms in not only your team but yourself.
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Myth 3: Stress is part of everyday life and nothing can be done about it.
• The long-term activation of the stress-response system, and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones, can disrupt almost all your body's processes.
• This puts you at increased risk of numerous health problems, including heart disease, depression and memory impairment.
• That's why it's so important to learn healthy ways to cope with the stressors in your life.
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Myth 3: Stress is part of everyday life and nothing can be done about it.
Myth breaker:
•Familiarise yourself with stress relievers and consider how you can better support other people in applying them.
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Myth 4: I can easily identify the potential causes of stress inside and outside the workplace
• As a busy manager you can become so familiar with working practices and culture in your organisation that you can overlook the potential sources of stress for both you and your team.
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Myth 4: I can easily identify the potential causes of stress inside and outside the workplace.
Myth breaker:
•Ensure you are familiar with the key areas of work design that, if not properly managed, are associated with poor health and well-being, lower productivity and increased sickness absence.•Identify the primary sources of stress at work.
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Myth 5: Workplace stress is a minor issue and is not business critical
• The total number of cases of work related stress, depression or anxiety in 2014/15 was 440,000 cases, a prevalence rate of 1380 per 100,000 workers.
• The number of new cases was 234,000, an incidence rate of 740 per 100,000 workers. The total number of working days lost due to this condition in 2014/15 was 9.9 million days.
• This equated to an average of 23 days lost per case. In 2014/15 stress accounted for 35% of all work related ill health cases and 43% of all working days lost due to ill health.
[Source HSE – Work related Stress, Anxiety and Depression Statistics in Great Britain 2015]
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Myth 5: Workplace stress is a minor issue and is not business critical
Myth breaker:
•Put in place robust strategies to address work place stress and measure days lost and productivity before and after.
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Workplace stress myths you should break next steps
• Review your attitude to stress and consider how to promote positive mental health.
• Familiarise yourself with the key triggers of workplace stress, signs and symptoms.
• Identify stress relievers and support yourself and others in applying them.
• Examine key areas of work design to identify the primary sources of stress at work.
• Implement robust strategies to address work place stress and measure.
Andrea Martin SCPHN(OH),RN
Health in Action
© Andrea Martin Health in Action 2017
Service: 0208 004 9339Sales : 0208 938 [email protected]
Want to talk through in confidence how to identify stress triggers in your organisation?
Contact Andrea.