Stress is a normal part of life.
In small doses, stress can motivate you and help you become more productive. However, too much stress is harmful. It can lead to general poor health, as well as specific physical or psychological illnesses like infection, heart disease or depression.
Persistent stress often leads to anxiety and unhealthy behaviors like overeating and alcohol or drug abuse. Anxiety is often accompanied by physical symptoms.
If you have a case of workplace stress, you have plenty of company. Poll results released last October by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that one-third of Americans are living with extreme stress, and that the most commonly cited source of stress — mentioned by 74 percent of respondents — was work. That was up from 59 percent the previous year.
Excessive stress is extremely expensive for employers.
Highly stressed employees are absent more often and are much more likely to leave their jobs. When at work, they tend to be significantly less productive — a phenomenon known as presenteeism, which can be even more expensive than frequent absences, says Dr. David W. Ballard, assistant executive director for corporate relations and business strategy at the APA. More than half the respondents to the APA survey said they had left a job or considered doing so because of stress, and 55 percent said that stress made them less productive at work.
With costs like that, you’d think that companies would devote considerable resources to fighting the problem.
But a survey published last year by Watson Wyatt suggests that they aren’t. For example, some 48 percent of the employers in the survey said stress created by long hours and limited resources was affecting business performance, but only 5 percent said they were taking strong action to address those areas. “Everybody knows it’s an issue, but no one wants to look at it and address it,” said Shelly Wolff, Watson Wyatt’s North American leader for health and productivity. Employers view excessive workplace stress as an enormously costly problem that no one quite knows how to fix, she said.
Even though there is no one solution for employers to reduce workplace stress, putting in place a variety of initiatives is less expense than dealing with extreme stress when it arrives.
PricewaterhouseCoopers addresses stress in multiple ways. For example, in annual surveys, employees asked for more coaching and opportunities to connect with more experienced colleagues and got them.
Over the past two years, the firm has also created market teams for various business lines, which means that 80 to 100 people work together on a portfolio of client accounts. Employees can cover for one another more easily, easing some of the pressure.
Michael J. Fenlon, managing director for people strategy at PricewaterhouseCoopers, said the surveys found higher satisfaction levels and lower turnover among those in market teams. The goal, he said, was “to create an environment where there’s openness and a sense of mutual support,” he said, “where I can work through life-cycle events and no one’s going to think less of me.”
Until recently, if employees sent e-mails on weekends or after hours, an automatic message would appear asking the sender to wait, if possible, and let others enjoy their down time. The message was discontinued after the company determined that workers had taken this stress-reducing sentiment to heart.
Source: The New York Times, March 23, 2008