Workplace stress and its results ...

We all know that negative stress can be dangerous and harmful to us. The other life stresses, which may act to motivate us are natural mind processes; they are what makes us get out of bed in the morning. In the workplace, stress can be incredibly counter productive. It can lower moral and destroy the structure of the workplace society from the inside out. Here are a few symptoms of workplace stress, courtesy of Dale Collie.

"It is no secret that stress and related disorders are the most frequent cause of employee disability (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health). As far back as 1992, a United Nations report called job stress a "world wide epidemic. Control of workplace stress is a leadership responsibility. Good leaders who recognize the symptoms of stress can control situations to create more desirable workplaces and to improve both productivity and the bottom line. Corporate leaders who have served in the military recognize employee stress when they observe symptoms such as:

1. Anxiety
2. Indecisiveness
3. Irritability
4. Complaining
5. Forgetfulness
6. Loss of self confidence
7. Argumentativeness
8. Insomnia
9. Rapid emotional shifts
10. Physical exhaustion

Symptoms such as these cost companies billions of dollars each year in health care costs, absenteeism, accidents, quality control, personnel turnover, and various interpersonal relationship problems.

Some managers mistakenly try to control stressful problems by increasing demands and supervising details. Increased urgency and focus on details typically generates even more stress. The problems shift from slight distractions, such as back pain, headaches, and inattention, to more drastic reactions such as absenteeism and medical problems, both good indicators that stress levels need attention.

Just as in the Army, most business leaders must be taught to manage stress and to observe for negative stress reactions. All managers need to understand the importance of positive stress in maximizing accuracy and productivity. And they need to know how to control the negative stress for the benefit of those involved and the bottom line.

If you don't have qualified staff in your company, outside consultants and trainers can help you evaluate current stress levels and train everyone involved. Remember, stress control is a leadership responsibility."

Hypnotherapy is an excellent engine of change, and can lower stress levels markedly when used by an erudite practitioner. Basic stress reduction sessions with someone such as myself take little more than one hour in time, and as such are an extremely efficient way of handling this issue.

You'll find all of my Blogs at: http://hypnoidal.blogspot.com/

Workplaces and Stressors ......

The modern day workplace can be large, medium or small. Regardless of the size though, some things are common to every single facility. It's a place where people come together and interact in some way; it's a place where egos and personalities meet, albeit for only a small portion of the day or night. Add to this the pressures which naturally accompany today's 'need to produce' and we have a wonderful, but potentially destructive formula for individual psychological stress. Of course in each place the levels of stress vary; each place has different pressures, personnel and levels of management competency.

According to figures published by Australia's medical insurance company 'Medibank' in 2008, a staggering AU$14.81 billion a year is drained from the nation's economy purely by workplace related stress. The total cost to employers was an enormous AU$10.11 billion! Those figures are mind boggling. Stress directly related to the workplace is affecting the worth of our country in a more than miniscule way. I imagine that figures across the globe in other nations must be similar. A minimum of 3.2 days per employee are lost annually to stress.

You don't need to be A.Einstein to figure that in a workplace of, lets say 100 employees, working 12 hour shifts (common these days), that equates to a grand total of 3840 manhours of lost production every single year! Extrapolate this figure out to one of our larger employers of let's say 1000 personnel, and it's a huge 38400 manhours every single year. If your the unfortunate individual actually affected by the stress, you may well lose income, or at the extreme, your position, if the situation is not resolved.

It is also interesting to note that figures show that while compensation claims made by Australian employees fell significantly between 1996 and 2004, the number of stress related claims almost doubled. The reason for this is not totally clear, that great gap between physical injury claims and the rise in stress related claims. Whatever the reasons, it seems obvious that in order to improve their workplace morale, output and employee retention rate, employers have a need to address this stress phenomenon.

Hypnotherapy is possibly one of the finest modalities when it comes to stress management. Deep relaxation, and that gentle 'mind defragmentation' which takes place in the hypnotic state is indeed highly beneficial to the stressed individual.

My perspective on this is quite simple. I offer all of our local companies the opportunity to point their stressed employees in the direction of my therapy chair. In what I term "Stressbuster" sessions, I can offer sixty to ninety minutes of powerful stress relief; in these sessions, the clients can divest themselves of the pressures of life and work. They leave my rooms mellow, calm and mentally soothed. This is good! These sessions have given me great satisfaction over the years; it's quite amazing to watch people morph very quickly from a stressed, uptight, disturbed being, into one that's calm, collected and more able to cope with day to day pressures.

I may be contacted via my email of course, which is: hypnotherapy@iprimus.com.au, or, conversely by telephone at 0414 856 278.