Stress Management

STRESS MANAGEMENT

“It is not work that kills men, it is worry”.

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

People like work that is rewarding and gives them satisfaction. For this, a reasonable amount of pressure may be necessary: many employees want work that stretches them, to have the feeling that it can sometimes be difficult, but that it is also stimulating and challenging. This is necessary if one is to have pleasant feelings of achievement. But nowadays increasing job insecurity, fear of redundancies, working long hours are becoming common across the world. The general consensus is that most jobs have become more demanding, with longer hours and greater pressures. But when pressure builds up, it's easy to feel overwhelmed by work, and this can produce feeling of stress. It is possible to become stressed out through overwork or other problems. People burn out and as a result they are so stressed and tired that may never be able to work again.

Dangerous effect of stress

Stress has far reaching effects on a person's physical and psychological well being. The data show that between fifty and seventy percent of all medical complaints are stress related. Even higher percentages are thought to exist in psychological disorders. Heart attacks, hypertension, and other related stress disorders are on the increase. That is why one of the major concerns of modern organizations should become training managers by raising their awareness and giving them skills to prevent and reduce stress at work.

General outline of stress

Stress can be defined as a generalized physiological reaction to pressures created by the environment. Generally, stress is elicited by the flight or fight response pattern. This is an instinctual tendency to run away or to fight. As Stroebel (1978(p.2).) states, “When your ancestors lived in the wilds, they needed a 'fight or flight' reaction to survive. When they came upon a tiger, a mastodon, or a warring tribe, their bodies responded with a...