Council of Trade Unions policy adviser Eileen Brown described as "nonsense" advice in an EAP newsletter that there's "no such thing as a stressful job or a stressful boss". Photo / 123RF
Council of Trade Unions policy adviser Eileen Brown described as "nonsense" advice in an EAP newsletter that there's "no such thing as a stressful job or a stressful boss". Photo / 123RF
A newsletter advising employees there's "no such thing as a stressful job or a stressful boss" has been labelled "nonsense" by a union rep.
The opening sentence in the Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)'s latest newsletter was intended to give helpful advice on dealing with stress, but its wording has concerned some workers.
"There is no such thing as a stressful job or a stressful boss; in fact, all stress comes down to something called 'rumination' - the mental process of thinking over and over again about a past or future event with which negative emotion is attached," the newsletter began.
Managing stress flyer. Photo / Supplied
Advice for how to deal with rumination and how to manage stress followed.
"We just know that that's nonsense," Council of Trade Unions policy adviser Eileen Brown said of the opening sentence.
"There are stressful bosses, there are stressful customers, there are stressful co-workers.
"I think diminishing stress by saying it doesn't exist, it's all in your head and you just worry too much, or you've got anxiety, or you're neurotic is really, really unhelpful."
Systematic problems like understaffing or poor management could easily cause stress which wouldn't be resolved by an individual meditating or trying to stop ruminating, Brown said.
"Individualising the problem and saying the problem is you ... is really counterproductive to making sure we get workplace problems solved."
EAP staff member John Wilson said the advice was written with people's best interests at heart.
"At no stage does the article state that stress does not exist in people's work or personal lives, but rather, the intention of the article was to emphasise the importance of self-care in addressing stressors as and when they occur."
People reacted differently in different circumstances and what was stressful for some people was not for others, he said.
"Further in the article, we provide readers with proactive, practical and easy-to-implement ways to prevent and/or minimise stress and, lastly, we provided readers with an easy way to assess their own resilience level."
One public servant in Wellington, who asked not to be named, said she and several co-workers felt the wording of the newsletter implied workers' problems were all in their head.
"I just felt pretty gutted really," she said.
"I know that EAP is contracted to provide services for most Government agencies and it just seemed bizarre that they would condone messaging like this, especially when they're trying so hard to make workplaces safer by addressing issues like bullying.
"How does this support people to raise issues of misconduct or of unreasonable demands being put on workers?"
Three employees of the approximately 500,000 people EAP supported had queried the newsletter and many others had given positive feedback, Wilson said.
However he did agree the first sentence could have been worded differently.
