Watching the England match against Uruguay last night with my husband gave me a real-life example of stress in action. Stress is the feeling of being under too much mental or emotional pressure. You can feel anxious, irritable, have sleeping problems, muscle tension, pain, dizziness.
In our house the air was practically blue, the shouting at the TV began pretty much from the moment the match started.
Stress can cause your body to go into “fight or flight” mode, which means your body will release stress hormones into your system to deal with the threat. For people under constant stress those hormones can remain in your body, so whilst the stress itself may not seem like an illness it can cause serious illness if it isn’t addressed.
Spotting early signs of stress give you the opportunity to manage it effectively. Under the Health and Safety at Work Act, our employers are responsible for our Health, Safety and Wellbeing.
Work related stress develops because a person is unable to cope with the demands being placed on them. Stress, including work related stress, can be a significant cause of illness and is known to be linked with high levels of sickness absence, staff turnover and other issues. To deal with this the HSE have developed a series of Management Standards which can be found herehttp://www.hse.gov.uk/stress/standards/index.htm
HSE’s formal definition of work related stress is:
“The adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them at work.”
So yes, whilst the England team were under pressure last night, so were my ear drums and the rest of the house from the constant leaping up and down and banging on the furniture, good job it isn’t the Health and Safety at Home Act……..
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For our CIEH Stress Management course dates visit www.gsstraining.co.uk/CIEH
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Kerry Jones, Managing Director, GSS Training http://www.gsstraining.co.uk
