Getting Tough on the Causes of Stress

I found this site interesting http://www.openerg.com/dse/stress.html

One of the points it mentions is that finding your own solutions puts you in control, whereas having solutions forced on you can just increase the stress.

So who has responsibility, the employee or the employer? The HSW act and MHSW regs say employees must take reasonable care and report shortcommings. The employer must; ensure a healthy environment, assess risks, provide information and training, etc.

How can an employee take reasonable care of themselves if they don't know how. How can they raise it as a shortcomming if they don't know there is a problem, especially if it is seen as part of the job. It is up to the employer to find the problem, and deal with it. Usually some training and a change in management style is all that is needed, this is both reasonable and practical.

Workplace stress is a serious risk to health and can be prevented. It is the employers duty to do minimise the risks.

sturner at lasius dot com

Sorry if I caused any offence Derek but if you read my earlier comments again you will see that I said 'In MY experience' and 'MOST people'. There will be other peoples experiences and exceptions to all rules. However, I do still stand by my comment that often the cure for stress lies in the sufferers own hands. If it is genuinely work related stress (this a general question and NOT directed specifically at Derek) then why not change jobs to a less stressful one? Why not ask for demotion to a position with less responsibilities? etc. If the answers to these questions are related to salary decreases, non fulfilment of ambition or waste of academic qualifications then the individual is putting obstacles in the path of his/her own cure. We must remember that our health is the most important thing and should come before wealth or position.

It occurs to me that there is difference between stress and strain. We all experience the former but have different degrees of coping with the latter (each one us will even have a varying capacity that is in no way a consistent pattern). Without stress we'd turn into dozy vegetables, although there are self-evident limits to what we can cope with. But it is the handling of consequent strain that appears to generate the controversy. We 'snap' at different levels of stress in different circumstances. Perhaps we need to understand the tolerances within which individuals can accept stress - even thrive on it - and when (under what circumstances etc) stress becomes an unacceptable strain. In the end, this calls for a reasonably high degree of self-understanding rather than relying on what professionals have to say. It might be interesting to have Derek Allen de-construct his stress/strain syndrome, but that would be prying and, in the meantime, we should restrict ourselves to the comfort blanket that informs us: 'life's a bitch and then . . . what can we tell you?, but that might be unacceptably stressful in itself. We all have our tales of woe; what interests me is how we avoid becoming victims of our fates, both in and out of the workplace. (Don't mean to be patronising in any way, Derek, but perhaps you could investigate some variety of solution-focused therapy).

What a load of ballderdash, Bob and Mohammed write. I have been ill for more than 4 years with stress, burn out syndrome or depression, take your pick from one of these labels. I have been off work for 2 years because it took a very long time to pinpoint the cause. Without private medical care I doubt if I would have got further than a few packets of anti depressants from my GP. Now, I have a much better understanding of stress and what it can do. Attendance at a clinic, talking about ones problems and hearing about others problems, first hand is a real eyeopener. Today I celebrate my 35 wedding anniversary and I have 4 grown up children the youngest at university and the others all making their way in this world. No problems with my private life Bob! However it looks as if I will never return to my job as a Compliance Officer in the Financial Services Industry. I have been stuck in the middle between a financial organisation seeking to profit, as it must do to grow and survive and a government who has unleashed the biggest Bill that has ever gone through the UK Parliament which is set on control and limit an industry to the point of extinction. Many of our well known insurance companies have already disappeared and more will follow.

I am advised by the professionals that my problems are entirely due to stress in the workplace.

Whilst some people do undoubtably suffer from stress related illnesses, where does the real cause lie? In my experience most people who complain of stress caused by their job actually have problems in their private life. It is often easier to blame their job, their Company or their workmates for their problems rather than face the fact that the solution lies in their own hands.

Mohammed Omar has obviousley never suffered from Stress, otherwise he wouldn't make such an abstract comment. Stress may be 'all in the mind', but it is real enough to be a problem to a lot of people. I hope for his sake he never has a problem with it or has to deal with someone who has.

Stress is only in the mind and psychological, man is the highest of the animal kingdom, and therefore should be in total control of his own actions and the course of his own will.

We are therefore able to map out our own way of life, what we let worry us will, its all in the mind.