How to address the stress

By MARK STORY


At face value it might look like cushy time off with pay. But what's the real cost of stress-related leave?

What we're doing when we use medical terms such as stress to describe the discomfort we're experiencing at work is cutting ourselves off from common sense.

At least that's the conclusion Sydney-based psychologist David Brown reached after 20 years of studying people at work - within companies such as IBM, Woolworths, TAB, Union Carbide, Rothmans, and Kelloggs - on both sides of the Tasman.

Legislation that made stress a powerful word within New Zealand employment law has forced companies to pay more than lip service to workplace wellness. But Brown warns that those who flaunt the ease with which stress leave is often granted can unwittingly unhinge their careers.

Based on Brown's experience, healthcare professionals who grant medical certificates claiming you're too stressed for work - without making any attempt to know why - could place you in a worse situation.

"We need healthcare professionals who are prepared to assess workplaces first hand, otherwise they're dealing with problems they know nothing about," says Brown, author of newly published handbook Beating Stress At Work (Brookers).

It's not uncommon, says Brown for those on "stress leave" to start feeling worse. Based on his experience that's because they've been removed from the two things employees need the most: the satisfaction of doing things and social interaction with work mates.

The rot sets in further, adds Brown, when you go back to your doctor and advise you're feeling worse - now that you're on stress leave - than you did at work.

Brown suspects most people would love to be back at work. But instead of intuitively contemplating that a return to work - albeit under different conditions - might be the logical solution, he says healthcare professionals can make things worse by prescribing anti-depressants.

This nightmare could have been avoided, explains Brown, if you'd had the opportunity to convey to the boss, in your own words, what you were feeling and why. In other words, if you can't finish your work because the phone's constantly ringing - say so.

He claims that using the right words to express feelings and being as specific and truthful as possible transfers the power from the health professional back to individuals. Interestingly enough, he says most people know what to do about stress once they stop calling it by that word.

That's because being unhappy, emotionally tired, frustrated, angry, and disappointed - the root-cause of most stress - are all common experiences.

"The primary cause of most mental or physical work-related discomfort is relationship-based. Sour relationships are a real stress issue. A workplace with frequent status struggles is a stressful place, whether you call it bullying or harassment, it's the same thing," he says.

He says most organisations would have happier staff and significantly lower absenteeism if (as well as good working conditions) they appointed a workplace healer - someone who understands social interaction - to mediate when relationships are frayed.

"Most of the bad cases of stress I see are really relationships gone wrong. It's just that they get called all sorts of confusing names once enough time passes," says Brown.

He says simply issuing medical certificates for time off is the wrong way for health professionals to deal with unsubstantiated stress. The right way, recommends Brown, is to have an assigned mediator engage all interested parties in stress interviews where workplace issues can be discussed.

The first hour of interviewing may make little sense but, from Brown's experience, the underlying factors causing job discomfort and revelations of who or what's offending them will surface.

"Through these meetings we're creating a social level playing-field that's meaningful to those involved," says Brown. "The only rule is that people don't blame others - they simply state how they felt."

What these stress interviews often unearth that healthcare professionals' seemingly can't, suspects Brown, are the perceived obstacles stopping someone returning to work. He cites the experiences of a Sydney-based council worker. Based on her complaints of stress her doctor granted a medical certificate for three weeks off work.

Having been brought in to find out what was going on, Brown - after discussion with this council worker - unearthed what she referred to as a "guilty secret". Brown discovered that, having been made to look after a sick sibling as a teenager, she'd missed two years of high school. More importantly, he gleaned that a consequent insufficient command of grammar and spelling made her overly sensitive to criticism.

The solution, recalls Brown, was for the woman to admit her "secret" to the council's management team, with a plan to overcome the problem.

"This exercise had a fascinating outcome. At a certain point in the meeting it was as if something sinister had left the room," recalls Brown. "The woman who'd had a medical certificate in her back pocket decided to go back to work the next day."

To Brown, this example serves as a useful reminder that a lot of so-called workplace stress is caused by the way we think. Just as there are things that can be done to improve the workplace, he says there are just as many ways for people to control their feelings.

"It's important to know what you're feeling. If you don't know what's going on inside you, stop what you're doing and go for a walk," advises Brown. "If you're tired, rest; if you're really tired, sleep; and if you're excessively tired, go on holiday."

So how can you dig yourself out of a stressful hole at work? There are lots of practical things to make your job better and, according to Brown, they nearly all revolve around breaking larger projects into more digestible chunks. He says emotional exhaustion invariably occurs when people are given lots of different jobs which they can't prioritise or finish.

"So instead of pretending you can do the impossible, ask management what they want done first."

It's equally important, Brown explains, that the work you do has meaningful purpose. He claims that loss of meaning is the most stress-related issue confronting workers. In reality, all jobs have varying degrees of stress, but Brown warns that if you claim to be harmed from stress don't be surprised if your manager gets confused and sends you to the doctor.

After all, under the Health & Safety in Employment Act, employers are required to take reasonable steps to eliminate stress-related harm or risk a maximum $500,000 or two years' imprisonment. They're also obliged to seek specialist diagnosis of the harm stress allegedly causes you.

Brown says getting the right name for the stress is important because your feelings are your non-verbal way of understanding what's going on inside your head.

"If you want to say something to your boss, say 'I'm frustrated' - that's accurate. If you use the wrong word you'll never be able to find out what to do to feel better."

* Beating Stress At Work retails for $27 inc GST and P&P. It can be bought by ringing 0800 10 60 60 or ordering online at Safeguard


Ten ways to reduce workplace stress


* Divide the day's tasks into controllable chunks.

* Save complex tasks for when you're fresh and uninterrupted.

* When working on critical tasks divert your phone.

* Don't remain angry with colleagues, seek conflict resolution.

* Instead of talking-up your problems establish positive interests.

* Take regular relaxation breaks.

* Associate with positive people and do interesting things.

* Don't worry about any unfinished business you feel may be storing up. Make a list of everything you have to do, and write a short plan next to each.

* Develop good relationships with colleagues.

* Know which work needs finishing first.

Source: Beating Stress at Work, by David Brown.