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HELPFUL TIPS Source: Flora Institute |
Stress: from the ice age to today's workplace - it has played a huge part in our lives. Helen Barron investigates
21st century blues
What is stress? A thousand people across the country turn as one from
their washing, darning, cleaning, running for the bus and inhale sharply:
“What’s stress? What’s stress?! I’ll tell you
what stress is!” They start to hyperventilate, sweat and go a little
dizzy.
Is it right that this level of tension is a part of our daily lives? The
everyday experiencs of strain, time pressure and trying to cope with the
demands placed upon us at work and at home have taken their toll.
It seems to strange to think that in some situations ‘stress’
– for want of a better word – is deemed positive. Yet groundbreaking
researcher Hans Selye said in the 1950s, when the subject was first being
seriously studied: “Stress is not necessarily something bad –
it all depends on how you take it.
“The stress of exhilarating, creative successful work is beneficial,”
he argued, “while that of failure or humiliation is detrimental.”
Funny that we just don’t seem to have the time these days for the
‘stress’ of exhilaration and creativity.
Of course, we can appreciate that a certain level of stress keeps us alive.
Literally. It was back in the 1930s that researchers identified the “fight-or-flight”
response. When an animal receives a shock or feels threatened, it releases
hormones which help it to survive by running faster or fighting harder.
Heart rate and blood pressure increase, delivering more oxygen and blood
sugar to power important muscles. You start sweating to cool these muscles
and help them stay efficient. Blood is diverted from the skin to the core
of the bodies, reducing blood loss in case of injury.
On top of that, the flood of hormones focuses our attention on the threat
to the exclusion of everything else. All of this significantly improves
our ability to survive life-threatening events.
This might be great in the cut-and-thrust world of the ice age, or in
war. But it is not so useful for someone trying to work out how to get
all the dinners cooked by 12noon in a secondary school, or all the wards
in a hospital swept by 7am, in 2004.
It’s not even particularly useful to someone having to give a presentation
... or write an article on stress. Running – albeit very fast –
around the office sweating and punching things will get us nowhere. Alas.
Our fight or flight response makes us excitable, anxious, jumpy and irritable.
And this reduces our ability to work effectively with other people, concentrate
or make sound judgements and analysis.
In modern working life we need a calm, rational, controlled and socially
sensitive approach. More importantly, in the long term, we can do without
the effects of harmful biochemicals on our bodies.
Of course, we compound all the downsides with the methods we choose to
deal with stress. Smoking, eating unhealthily and not finding time to
be physically active impact hugely on our health.
Learning to relax and control our stress will not only help us enjoy life
more, but will be better for our health in the long run.
It isn’t all just down to us though – the environment and
society around us has a responsibility to minimise stress. Especially
at work.
Work-related stress, says the Health and Safety Executive, is “the
adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of
demand placed on them”.
While some experts may deny that “stress” exists, there is
convincing evidence for a clear link between work problems and subsequent
ill health.
The HSE believes work-related stress is a serious problem for organisations’
productivity as well as for their staff’s health. For that reason
alone, you’d think it was in employers’ own interests to prevent
and control work-related stress. But more than that, the law says it is
their duty to do so.
And a few facts and figures from the HSE show the scale of the problem:
- about half a million people experience work-related stress at a level
they believe is making them ill;
- as many as five million people feel “very” or “extremely”
stressed by their work;
- work-related stress costs society about £3.7bn every year, at 1995/6 prices.
UNISON is constantly putting pressure on employers to do something about
these figures – including taking them to court if necessary. But
some solutions are simple and cost-free – such as making sure employees
get a chance to exercise their right to a lunch break.
A recent survey of 600 people in marketing, local government, teaching,
human resources, finance, IT and pharmaceuticals showed only 22% of them
taking their full right to a break. “This might allow them to complete
all short-term commitments but, in the long term, leads to an increase
in stress, lack of focus and a rise in errors,” says Michael Beasley
of Priority Management, which carried out the survey. “Careers are
affected and costs incurred by employers. Employers must encourage staff
to take a lunch hour.”
Not all stress comes from the workplace, though: it is easy to forget
that our children can suffer from stress. It might sound precocious, but
in a world of ever-increasing exams, peer pressures, drugs, comparisons,
demands and unstable backgrounds, children suffer too.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, they seem more aware of this as an issue in the
USA, where a website has been specifically written for children. The site,
kidshealth.org, defines stress for children and offers tips on how to get through it and how to talk to someone who might be able to help. Well worth a visit.
We’ve come a long way from the days when our livelihood –
and perhaps our lives – depended on running from predators, but
somehow it seems we’ve made things even harder for ourselves while
being less equipped to cope.
It’s a slow process, but understanding stress is the first step;
dealing with it the second.
Of course, if things feel totally out of control you must visit your GP.
In the meantime, you might benefit from just taking some time out: perhaps
a trip to your local museum to gloat at the beasts which inspired flight-or-fight
responses in our ancestors.
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