mardi 17 juillet 2012

stress at work

Stress at Work
Prevention focus group






More than one employee in five European states suffer from health problems related to stress at work. The phenomenon does not spare any more business. The collective approach to prevention is to reduce sources of stress in the company by acting directly on the organization, working conditions, social relations ...
We talk about stress at work when a person experiences an imbalance between what is asked to do in the workplace and resources available to respond. Stressful situations that settle over time have always a cost to the health of individuals who suffer them. They also have a negative impact on the functioning of enterprises (turnover, lost work days, loss of production quality, lack of motivation among the team ...).


Good stress? Bad stress?
According to popular belief, good stress would allow employees to give the best of themselves, while the bad stress would ill. There is yet scientifically neither good nor bad but a stress adaptation phenomenon of the body necessitated by the environment. It must however differentiate "acute stress", and "chronic stress" which have distinct effects on health.
The acute stress reactions corresponds to our body when we face a threat or a challenge-time (speaking in public, change of job, unexpected situation ...). When the conditions cease stress symptoms stop soon after.

The state of chronic stress is a response of our body to a stressful situation that has arisen in the period: every day at work, we have the impression that what we are asked in the workplace exceeds our capabilities. Chronic stress is always harmful effects to health.

Making the link between stress and work
Cases of stress within the company are sometimes denied or attributed solely to the weakness or inadequate for the position of certain employees. Faced with stress symptoms, it is nevertheless important to look for possible links to the employment context. Work overload, poorly defined goals, a difficult relationship with the hierarchy, a lack of autonomy may be involved. If stressors related to work are identified, appropriate preventive measures will primarily be abolished or at least reduce them.


Stress at work: the case of an employee in an administrative
"In the morning, when I think of what awaits me, I'm already panicked. I am constantly interrupted by people asking me information that I have not, by colleagues who return to my office to consult records. My boss asks me the issues on the table to 18 hours for me to loop the next day. And what software I can not run ... I run. I'm tired, I ponder ... ".
What is it?
This employee does not have sufficient resources to cope with the demands which it must respond. She is in a state of chronic stress. Its challenges are related to the organization and the nature of his work.

What to do?
Preventive measures could be here on better planning of work, allowing an organization to focus inquiries at certain times of the day, training in tools used ...
Effectively prevent stress
The entrepreneur must protect the health and physical and mental security of its employees at work. To fulfill this obligation, it must give priority to collective measures of prevention. These allow indeed to act on the causes of stress rather than its symptoms. INRS proposes to implement a prevention approach in five steps.


Examples of measures to prevent stress at work
• Develop coaching methods of participative management for involving employees in decisions affecting
• Improve communication on company objectives
• Provide opportunities for employees to express themselves on the dysfunctions they spot
• Adapt the workload based on options available to employees to perform their task
• Provide opportunities for employees to use their skills
• Train staff in new communication tools
Other types of actions against stress exist, to strengthen the resistance of individual employees: individual stress management, training in conflict management, cognitive therapy ... Their beneficial effects are short lived, however, that unless action are not taken to limit the causes of stress.

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