thegrindstone.com: Researchers have now analyzed over 70 studies regarding the relationship of work-related stress and physical illnesses. In general, they found that heavy workloads and long hours were directly and clearly linked to illness. More specifically, however, they found that certain types of work-related stress such as role conflicts and organizational constraints were more likely to be associated with certain types of illness than others. Luckily Column Five came up with some physical practices that can help you and your employees or coworkers manage stress.
8 comments:
The amount of stress related healthcare costs alone in the US should be a good indicator that employers need to consider enacting programs to fight this. We are losing productivity and money because most if not all companies are pressuring workers and reducing workforces without reducing output. We are just trying to get to much out of fewer people than we should. Companies are trying to increase their bottom line with increasing the workload and decreasing linear time on their workforce from the bottom up. I have had the idea for a few years of empirically testing the effects of exercise like yoga on a scene shop by having a paid warm up with yoga or something that focuses on stretching. It is my hypothesis that the workout and stretching would pay for the time lost on the floor by increasing the temperament of the people on the floor and would avoid injuries by stretching out and warming up the muscle groups used. It I believe would also help the office staff to have less fatigue from sitting inactive in the office. It would also be an interesting experiment to see if a paid warmup period would be beneficial to bring people back to focus after the lunch break. I would also say that eating healthy and maintaining a reasonable weight would improve many people's stress level. The most productive and least stressed I have been was in undergrad when I was biking to and from my apartment three to four times a day and eating home cooked meals every day. I was lean and significantly less stressed than I am now. I also think that it should be on the employer to try to make the work environment less stressful and offer incentives for better physical condition so that we have a less stressed and longer lived workforce. My generation is the first in the modern world to have a shorter life expectancy than our parents and I think that the stress and long hours at work are definitely to blame. Employees need to take a look at their priorities and weigh a lower standard of living against having a longer life. If you kick it at 60 because you have been pulling 60-80 hour weeks and have been neglecting your health so you can be at work longer then it doesn't matter how awesome you car and house are does it? People need to stop thinking that work is all there is to life. Make sure there is a balance between the personal life and work life. Do not subscribe to the adage that there will be time to sleep when I am dead or you might be getting some sleep much sooner than you planned.
Reducing stress isn't as easy as this article makes it sound. I would know, I spend a majority of my time here stressed out. BUT, the thing is, I've managed to maintain my sanity because I do at least one thing on that list. Yoga is seriously a great stress reducer, and I do it when I feel particularly stressed and taking a break from the situation won't work. A lot of times I do yoga in my dorm room when I get back from the studio at night because I've spent that time being frustrated with my work (and mostly) with other people around me. No matter how stressful my day has been, if I do some short mediation and yoga for 15 or 20 minutes, I'll be able to sleep without my mind racing and with my body feeling less tense.
Well yes I think all those things will help get rid of stress but if your busy who has time to get rid of stress, that's the whole point that you only have time to worry about things, sleep and work. I think the real way to get rid of stress is to get a hobby that you can do while doing other things that way you can pour all of your accumulated worry into an unrelated activity and you can not think about work. Whether it is knitting on the bus or listening to music while working being able to do things that are de-stressing while still keeping up your productivity is really important.
Also Rikei is bullshit, it might help because you are lying down and not thinking about anything and actually relaxing but it does not have much other practical use:
http://scienceblogs.com/whitecoatunderground/2009/03/11/reiki-still-stupid-after-all-t/
This poster should be in every office in this country. The amount of stress that people are working under, in this country, is way too high and a lot of people just think it is because of the environment that we have to work in when they are wrong. If you are too stressed and feeling some of these things are eating you, you need to chaing jobs or the company needs to change the way that they treat there employees and maybe have some of the things that are mentioned on this poster. I hope that at least a few employers and employees look at this and make a change for the better and don’t just brush it off. Any company that takes these things in o consideration will be a much better company and have their employs for a longer time.
First off I am totally there, stress is unfun to deal with and I dislike it. Personally it is hard sometimes for me to stop and take a moment while in the middle of something stressful. When I have usually I come back and the problem seems to have worked it self out.
My thoughts have gone to a culture shift. That maybe people think that must just keep pushing through the stress and just FIGHT on. Instead of taking that break for a breath of fresh air, a hour for a massage, or (which freaks me out) acupuncture. I think there needs to be more support of destressing one self, so maybe people to not feel guilt for taking time to pamper oneself.
I realize it is a risk in any type of investment but if there is really 68 billion dollars being lost each year maybe companies should take a risk and invest some in local at the company. So maybe take a risk and see what happens. I do feel some companies are doing this and I wonder what there statistics are.
Is stress something like OSHA where it is the employers responsibility to enforce safe stress management practices? I don't think so. The employer should have opportunities for employees to take advantage of stress relief (after all, its in their own best interest, as this study explains). But they can't force employees to make healthier choices and reduce their stress.
Maybe wee need a branch of OSHA that's actually the Occupational Stress and Health Administration.
This is a difficult topic because the biggest issue that stands in the way of solving stressful lives is that people are rarely going to be interested in taking time to de-stress because it is likely that they are stressed due to feeling like they don't have enough time to accomplish everything on their plate. People also have a tendency to put their work before themselves, which is unfortunate and everyone should take the time to make sure that their priorities are not structured in a way that risks your health. The exercise comment seems the most useful because fifteen minutes is not a lot of time and does not require learning, where something like yoga entails learning different kinds of poses and such.
While the tactics described here seem like valid options I feel like they are mostly just temporary reliefs. The stuff that is started talking about near the bottom of the page seems like more valuable, more long term solutions to stress. Balancing your schedule and taking breaks are the tactics they mention and i can say from personal experience that for the program here those are really effective methods for reducing stress. Like starting on projects ahead of time and occasional entropy runs. Although i wish i took fewer entropy runs and devoted more effort to time management.
Post a Comment