Better Business Coaching

A survey conducted by the UK mental health charity Mind, reports that 27% of people would rather lie to their employer than to say that they had time off due to mental stress.

With the uncertainty in these difficult economic times it is essential that we maintain the health and fitness of our employees to effectively promote the business.  Many employees are working longer hours to sustain the business.  How then do we recognise the stress of our employees or colleagues?

Can workplace stress be defined?

We hear a lot about stress but do we really know what it is?  The dictionary definition is ‘mental or emotional tension, strain’.  In some cases stress can be seen as a positive challenge to raise performance to achieve a goal such as deadlines or a target.  We see signs of stress when the pressure becomes too much, bringing on feelings of negativity and any satisfaction turns to exhaustion and frustration.

What are the symptoms of stress?

Symptoms can include aggressive behaviour, irritability, anti-social feelings, suppressed anger and problems with concentration and or sleeping.  Other telltale signs include eating too much or too little, suffering from repeated illness, drinking or smoking too much and watching too much television.

It is a good idea to carry out a stress risk assessment in the same way other workplace risks are assessed to achieve acceptable stress levels.  The Health & Safety Executive advices applying the stress ‘management standard’ for six possible sources of stress:

Demand
Control
Support
Role
Relationship
Change

Preparation:

•    Gain commitment from all senior managers in the organisation
•    Select a pilot group
•    Define current state of the organisation against management standards
•    Feedback the results

Second session:

•    Define problem areas
•    Consultation
•    Consult with employees to confirm the nature of the problem and agree what action will be taken and when
•    Take Action
•    Put in place the agreed actions

Review:

•    review the results of the actions
•    refine them if necessary
•    deal with issues that have arisen

Having open and honest lines of communication where employees feel they can free acknowledge that they are under stress without fear of retribution can go some way to alleviating the problem.

Business Coaching with Carole Davidson Coaching