Stress at Work
We tend to associate bullying with the school playground bit it doesn’t stop there unfortunately. A survey* by The Samaritans has revealed that over 80% of workers have been bullied during their careers and a third of people are so stressed they have dreamed of quitting for a life abroad.
The figure of 80 % is hard to believe and it could be that bullying may be difficult to define and one person’s take on bullying might be viewed by someone else as ‘office banter’. It’s also interesting that we tend to think that living somewhere else will eliminate stress.
Some people appear to thrive on pressure and stress whereas others ‘buckle’ under it. Whatever contributes towards creating stress in your life it is the way that you react to it that will determine the outcome.
When we work with clients suffering from the emotional, physical and psychological effects of stress we help you to regain control over your emotions, behaviours and thoughts and make the appropriate changes in lifestyle that will improve the quality of your life.
Other findings from the Samaritans survey included:
- Over a third of people identify work as being the main cause of stress.
- Half a million people say their work is so stressful that it is making them ill .
- Five million people feel very or extremely stressed by their work. Workloads and relationships with colleagues and management are cited as the biggest contributing factor, and to make matters worse managers feel that they don’t have the skills to deal with it.
- 12.8 million working days were lost to stress, depression and anxiety in 2004 at a cost of 3.8 billion.
- Absence from work due to sickness, costs UK business nearly £11 billion a year, but the estimated cost to society is nearer £23 billion.
- 49% of people are worried about the effect stress is having on their health.
- 32% of workers feel their employers turn a blind eye to the problem of stress.
- 83% would rather say they were sick with flu or other problem than admit they were stressed.
- 40% of IT workers, retailers, caterers and engineers feel unsupported at work and over half unable to deal with stress.
* Stressed Out: A study of public experience of stress at work, December 2007.
For more information go to www.stressdownday.org
