- The most common causes of work-related stress was long working hours, the report found, with office politics and customer/client satisfaction levels and other statistics contributing factors.
- The research found that higher earners (those earning more than £40,000) are the most likely to experience work-related stress.
- Long-term stress that goes unresolved can have a detrimental impact on the health of workers, the report said, with one in 10 respondents admitting to losing weight as a result of stress, while almost one in five said that they would turn to stimulants (including caffeine, nicotine and alcohol) in order to manage stress.
(Source: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2018/02/26/revealed-stressed-city-uk-not-london)
The Holmes and Race Stress Scale
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| https://paindoctor.com/top-10-stressful-life-events-holmes-rahe-stress-scale/ |
In terms of creating a calming solution for print, it is important to understand psychologically what creates the stress in a workplace environment, and how to effectively diffuse these stresses without needing to run a marathon or have 10 pints of vodka.
I decided to interview a range of people who I know, working in different business sectors, but sharing the commonality of 9 to 5 work.
My questions: "What are the main things in your job/working day that stress you out the most, can be anything no matter how big/small/specific to your company/ unspecific; and what do you do to not let these stresses get to you?"
Interviewee 01: Robert Lea, 54, Senior Aerospace Engineer
People with less experience than you telling you how to do something, unrealistic time / task restraints, unreasonable behaviour by others which affects you, you experience counts for nothing (until your needed to get them out of the shit!), lack of respect, people being favoured for doing little over those who are delivering tasks, changing rules to suite themselves and not telling you they've 'changed'. Poor managers. Lack of money is a stress raiser. Lack of time for yourselves to 'chill down' or being made to feel like you're waiting time, even though you've bust a gut to deliver. Bad driving.
I normally take half an hour out to have a walk around outside, as well as a nap on my lunch break Other things like hourly water/toilet breaks help break the day up. I also take my guitar magazines into work so when I need to have some 'chill time' its slightly easier. You can only control (so reducing your stress) what you're in control of.
Interviewee 02: Linda Lightfoot, 51, NHS Secretary - Part Time Worker
My main workplace stress is the volume of work and the time available to do it. Technology is supposed to help make things easier, however what it does now is to make you feel overwhelmed by the amount of work that you can physically see as a number. An example is clinical letters used to be typed at the hospital and were posted to GP practices via the internal mail system. However more and more information is now being sent down a computer link, at the moment it is blood results and x-rays it will soon be clinical letters that will also be sent electronically. So previously even though you saw that a lot of letters and results were being received and dealt with within a timely manner, now you see a physical number, perhaps 200, and because you see the number you feel under pressure to deal with that ASAP because you know that perhaps another 200 may be received tomorrow.
Emails! another time consuming activity for little productivity. An example is for every referral I send I get 3 emails back, one to say they have received the referral, another to say it has been sent to clinical triage team and then a third email to say it has gone to the appointment team. What a waste of time and effort.
The volume of work seems to increase year on year and yet there is no money in the NHS to employ extra staff to deal with this. I feel as though I have to work an hours extra time everyday just to keep on top of the workload.
Interviewee 03: Jenny Kennedy, 31, Retail Manager
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Interviewee 04: Deborah Stuart-Robers, 59, White Goods Imports Manager
Unrealistic time constraints; lack of communication; poor or incomplete information (hey, I'm not psychic!); favouritism (boss's son getting away with doing half a job for twice the salary); incompetence (see previous); being disrespected; being ignored; being blamed for causing problems when all you are doing is raising valid concerns; people who talk over you; having to go along with decisions made by idiots; people who walk in and take over your job, then do it badly and inefficiently (see boss's son); having to stop myself from saying "I told you so" a dozen times a day; not being in a position (yet) to just walk away...
Interviewe 05: Michael Lightfoot, 49, Recruitment for The Royal Navy
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Interviewe 06: Kelvin Keeley, 32, Financial Analyst
The commute to work, bad driving and people being everywhere. Short deadlines or short deadlines being put on you in short notice, not knowing the full picture of something - especially when a client is involved. Incorrect data or a team-member inputting incorrect data, even the worry of not knowing if figures are 100% means I need to be constantly double checking which doubles my work load. When I'm really looking forward to lunch and they don't have what I'm wanting. Tax. To de-stress I have a great app called Headspace, it just lets me take 5 mins out to be calm and not think about anything. Also breathing techniques are great, I'm really trying to avoiding getting high blood pressure *laughs*.
Interviewee 07: Olivia Rainwood, 30, Marketing Executive
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Interviewee 08: Tamsyn Glover, 28, Hospital Worker
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Drawing on personal experience in the workplace:
What stresses me out the most? Bad drivers/traffic in the morning, being late and having to rush, printers or technology not working properly, managers/supervisors being patronising when the task is completely under control. Rude customers and bad manners. What helps me destress? Any form of escapism from here and now - TV, Movies, Music, Cigarettes & Alcohol.
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