Stress in the workplace

What is stress?

Stress is a physical human response to the body feeling that it is under attack or threatened, usually in situations that are out of the persons control or in situation that a person doesn’t feel they can manage.

Stress can be experienced in many different ways, as an individual, stress can be felt when a person is struggling to manage responsibilities. As part of a group, stress can felt by more than one individual for example in a family or a work place team. Stress can also be experienced as a member of society, for example during the COVID pandemic.

Although stress is not considered to be a mental health problem, it is connected to and can effect mental health, making any existing mental health problems worse. Experiencing a lot of stress over time can lead to feeling physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted

How stress can affect people

Stress can manifest itself differently as people experience stress in many different ways. However, it can be said that stress has a general negative effect on people. The level of stress a person is comfortable with differs from person to person, some may have a higher or lower stress level. The effects of stress will show differently in one person to another.

The effects of stress can be seen in many different ways, emotionally, physically, cognitively or behaviourally. These are not limited and all three can manifest as effects of stress in a person.

Emotional effects of stress can include:

• Depression
• Moodiness
• Irritability
• Panic
• Anxiety
• Frustration

Physical effect of stress can include:

• Chest pain
• Rapid Heartbeat
• Aches
• High Blood Pressure
• Being Run Down

Cognitive effect from stress can include:

• Indecisiveness
• Self-Doubt
• Brain Fog
• Poor Judgement
• Lack of Concentration

Behavioural effect of stress can include but are not limited to:

• Isolating From Others
• Increase Intake of Alcohol
• Cigarettes or Caffeine to Relax
• Disrupted Sleep Pattern
• Loss of Sense of Humour

Recognising stress/symptoms of stress in the work place

Recognising stress in the workplace can be key to a happy workplace, stress can effect many different aspects of your organisation/practice from interpersonal relationships to absentee rates. Recognising the signs of stress as early as possible is in the best interest for the person and your business so that action can be taken before stress related illnesses occur.

The challenge with spotting stress is that it everyone’s experience and reaction to stress differs as previously discussed so recognising the signs isn’t always easy. Try to observe others and there behaviours, familiarising your self with peoples behaviours will help you to recognise when there is a change. If a person you know to be an extrovert starts to become withdrawn, this can be a sign. If a person shows signs of changes in things such as eating habits, sleeping pattern this is something that you can notice as a sign of stress. You can also observe behaviours of a person in relation to there work, if a person is becoming less interested in work or showing a lack of concentration, if this behaviour differs to usual this can be a symptom of stress.

You can also observe physical symptoms off stress in others, if you notice that a person is experiencing headaches, migraines, back pain etc more than usual then this can also be a sign of stress.

People do have their off days and these negative changes in behaviour do not always mean they are a symptom or sign of stress. However, if these changes are displayed over a period of time then it is something to look take note of.

Stress in the workplace can also be recognised by looking at the organisation as a whole as there are signs of workforce stress that can be picked up on. High staff turnover, increased absenteeism, employees not taking their full holiday entitlement and low productivity can be a sign of stress within your workforce.

HSE Guidelines on Managing Stress in the Workplace

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has provided guidelines and identified 6 key areas in the workplace that can be managed in order to help prevent excessive stress in the work place and prevent stress related illnesses.

• Demands – This looks at the demands on a person including there workload and working environment.
• Control – How much control/say does a person have in the way that they carry out their work.
• Support – Is there encouragement and resources in place to support a person. This includes peer and managerial support.
• Relationships – Promoting positive working relationships, avoiding conflict and dealing with unacceptable behaviours to ensure less stress is caused.
• Role – A persons understanding of there role within the organisation is key, also ensuring that a person does not have conflicting roles.
• Change – This looks at how change in an organisation no matter how big or small is communicated and managed.

Sources

Stress – Every Mind Matters – NHS (www.nhs.uk) INDG430 – How to tackle work-related stress (hse.gov.uk)