Is Your Workplace Suffering From Contagious Stress?
By Graham Yemm, Sat Dec 10th
We wonder how many of you might recognise this scenario?Although it happened with a male manager, it could apply to menor women. The manager we worked with had been promoted to a moresenior role and was experiencing demands from all sides. Hebecame increasingly tired, was working long hours and spendingless time with his family. His overall energy dropped, anxietylevels increased, sleep was disrupted and concentration andfocus diminished. He no longer took time to exercise, foundhimself snatching meals of dubious quality and kept himselfgoing with constant fixes of coffee and Red Bull. Apart from theimpact on him - what do you think were the effects on his familyand the people who worked for and with him? Imagine what it was like working for him. How supportive was heas a manager? How clear was his direction and communication? Washe just seeing the errors and problems? Were his team, andcolleagues, starting to feel stressed because of his behaviours? What about someone working in a customer facing role, who hashad trouble getting to work, pressures at home, a suddenincrease of customer complaints and problems? The pressure getsto them and they start to become irritable with colleagues - andthen with customers. What will that do to the colleagues and thebusiness? The colleagues may be understanding for a while, butthe longer it goes on, the risk is that they catch the disease!Communication and team support disappear and morale goes down.Suppose it gets worse and our person feels they cannot face itand so take some time off. Now who bears the brunt of this? Oh,and what happens with the customers? What would it be like tovisit this workplace? Imagine what you would see, hear and feel.
Stress rarely happens in isolation or to one individual.(Although it may feel that way!) When someone begins to getstressed there will be a ripple effect spreading out from them.Those closest feel the effect first! Whether it is the person atthe top who cascades the problems down and through theorganisation, a line-manager struggling to cope with their job(especially when promoted into it) or a person with loads ofpressures in their non-work life - they are contagious!!! Thespread will be insidious if nothing is done about it. It becomesa vicious spiral and creates more work for those still there todo it. Many of you reading this are aware that you have pressures onyou from all sides, possibly from your family, your friends,colleagues, your own teams and direct reports - and yourself!Juggling your time and attention across these is a difficultchallenge! What makes these pressures worse can be your ownexpectations of yourself and what you believe you should bedoing. This could be concerned with demonstrating how capableand professional you are in your role. It could be because youfeel you should be giving your family or friends more of yourtime and attention. A consequence of this could be that you start to feel thepressure mounting and begin to react to things differently.Maybe you become less patient with some colleagues, thedepartment who miss the deadline, the people in your team who donot communicate in the right way for you. If you are not carefulyou may be the originator of the "virus" and before long it isspreading to those you interact with and they start to act in astressed way! Why does it matter? is likely to lead to problems withinthe business. These will effect the bottom-line, directly orindirectly. The most obvious impact can be loss of business,maybe through poor service, or poor quality. Your costscertainly rise, whether because of lower productivity or havingto correct or rework mistakes. Then there is the "human cost" oflow morale, probably leading to absences (eventually long-term)- and possibly leaving. This results in increasing staffturnover, with all the ensuing costs and pitfalls. Stress accounts for around 40% of long-term absences - and canreduce performance by up to 70%!! If it leads to a high staffturnover that compounds the situation, disrupting the business,increasing costs (direct and indirect) and reducingprofitability. It is estimated that over 270,000 people areabsent from work every day due to related issues! 1 in 5report feeling extremely stressed at work. That is 5m people!! If you are an employer, or a manager, you need to pay attentionto what is happening in your workplace regarding stress. Itaffects the people, performance and you! is not anillness, it is a state and can be managed or changed. However,not doing so can result in someone becoming ill. The other reason for paying attention to this is that there islegislation around it! There is the duty of care andresponsibility attached to managers as part of the Health andSafety legislation. This means undertaking risk assessments,creating a positive environment and managing work activity toreduce and pressure at work. You can use these questions to get an immediate sense of whereyou are meeting HSE criteria and where issues may occur for yourbusiness: The culture of your organisation - how does it approachwork-related stress? Demands on people, such as workload and exposure to physicalhazards. Is work sensibly scheduled so that the workload levelsare right? Control over their work and the way they do it - how much say dostaff have? Relationships - how do you deal with issues such as bullying orharassment? (Remember, up to 1 in 5 reports they have beenbullied at work.) Organisational change - how is it managed and communicated? Understanding
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of role - do individuals understand their role inthe organisation? Does the organisation ensure that individualsdo not have conflicting roles or challenges? (Is there a cleardefinition of roles?) Support and training from peers and line managers for the personto be able to do the core functions of the job - do you caterfor individual needs and differences? How well would your workplace score? Which areas could do withsome attention? Remember, prevention is usually preferable tocure in most things. Pay attention to these factors and you canstart to address early on, preventing it becoming aproblem. This will reduce the chances of it spreading. If youcan identify specific areas, or individuals, where seemsto occur frequently, consider how you can "quarantine" them! Look at your organisation, and yourself if necessary and thinkabout what you can do against these factors to vaccinate itagainst stress! You do not want it becoming an epidemic - it isbad for business!! Make time to avoid pressure turning to stressfor you personally and you will be in a better position to lookat those around you and spot the early warning signs - andsupport the people who may be in danger of becoming the stressspreaders to stop them at source! To keep yourself in the right state to avoid becoming stressedor a spreader, learn to be reasonable with yourself - andothers. Keep things in perspective and set realistic standardsand expectations for yourself. When things are building up ask yourself: - what will this look like in a year when we look back on it?(Or 3 years or 6 months.) How important will it seem then? - what will be the worst that might happen if I don't.......?(ordo!) - what am I gaining by always thinking I have to be "Superman"or "Superwoman"? How often do I manage it? Stress can be contagious - and when it is the negative form ofstress it spreads quickly and no-one enjoys it or benefits.Prevent it with your attitudes and behaviour to yourself andothers. About the author:Graham Yemm a founding partner of Managing Pressure. He hasworked with many different organisations around the worldconducting both training and consultancy assignments. He workswith organisations and individuals helping them to cope withpressure and reduce the impact of stress. Contact, managingpressure.com or +44 1483 480656 | 
