Staff: are you stressed?

When you are stressed, you are very likely to feel that you cannot cope. However, stress takes many forms and has many causes.

Are you stressed?

In terms of behaviour, you may find it hard to sleep, notice changes in your eating habits or your may start smoking or drinking more. You may start avoiding friends and family or have sexual problems.

Physical symptoms might include tiredness, indigestion and nausea, headaches, aching muscles, palpitations, sweating or fainting.

Mentally, you may be more indecisive, find it hard to concentrate, have muddled thinking, loss of memory and feelings of inadequacy and low self esteem.

Emotionally you are likely to get irritable or angry, be anxious, feel numb, be hypersensitive or feel drained and listless.

Other symptoms of stress that you might notice include:

• careless mistakes
• apathy
• not listening
• lack of cooperation
• buck passing
• lack of planning
• poor communications
• lack of sympathy
• obstructive behaviour
• power struggles
• lack of commitment.

Anyone can suffer from work-related stress. It is a mistake to think it only happens to 'wimps' or people in high-powered jobs.

Causes of stress

People suffer stress when the pressures put on them are greater than their ability to cope. Stress happens when the demands made of individuals do not match the resources available to meet their needs and motivation.

Stress will be the result if the workload is too large for the potential number of workers and the time available.

A boring or repetitive task, which does not make good use of someone's skills or experience can also lead to stress.

The Health and Safety Executive says that there are six risk factors for work-related stress:

• the demands of your job
• your control over your work
• the support you receive from managers and colleagues
• your relationships at work
• your role in the organisation
• change and how it is managed.

Stress and your health

Stress is not an illness, but when compounded over long periods of time can lead to illness.

Stress can lead to a range of physical health problems such as:

• head aches
• nerves
• sleep problems
• changes in appetite
• neck ache
• shoulder ache
• back ache
• tension
• indigestion
• skin conditions
• leg ache.

In some cases it can lead to mental ill-health. For some people stress can lead to a nervous breakdown.