Managers and Professionals
If you are suffering from work stress, you are certainly not alone.
It has many causes and a range of consequences. The most commonly reported to me are – fatigue, mood swings, suppressed or actual anger, sleeplessness, digestive problems, palpitations, skin problems and disrupted home life.
I have offered homeopathy as a treatment for work stress for some years now because my professional background combines the experience of managing organisations, the study of work stress and the practice of homeopathy.
What is Stress?
Stress is defined by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) as “the adverse reaction people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them”.
The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) reports that “stress costs the British economy £3.7billion every year with around 13 million days a year lost”.
Years ago, as a lecturer in Management Studies, my initial curiosity was triggered by some of the first reliable research results on occupational and managerial stress. I found the work of Cary Cooper at the Manchester School of Management and the writings of Charles Handy at the London Business School particularly helpful. Today, I find that homeopathy frequently provides considerable assistance to managers and professionals adversely affected by work stress.
Causes of Stress
The HSE has identified six main causes of stress all of which focus on the impact of the work place on the individual. They list these as:
Demands – such as workload and working methods
Control – concerning how much influence a person has over how they do their own job
Support – the absence of it from management on troublesome issues
Relationships – conflict and negative behaviour create grievances between colleagues and with management
Role – ambiguous messages from management and colleagues about what is required or expected in the job
Change – how it is managed so that it does not create insecurity
Of course stress is a very personal thing and a list of this nature simply confirms that serious research has been carried out. But as we will see below, there are positive actions that can be taken to deal with it.
Control – concerning how much influence a person has over how they do their own job
Support – the absence of it from management on troublesome issues
Relationships – conflict and negative behaviour create grievances between colleagues and with management
Role – ambiguous messages from management and colleagues about what is required or expected in the job
Change – how it is managed so that it does not create insecurity
How stressed are you?
A good place to start is a simple questionnaire which will grade your level of stress.
Two websites that can help here are the BBC website which has a Stress Test (see Links at the foot of this page). The second is Stressbusting (see Links). It has a similar test and provides an ‘SQ’ or Stress Quotient. These are really just introductory exercises. They are simple and fairly transparent but serve to provide a comprehensive list if symptoms you should know about.
Managing Work Stress
Fortunately there is a great deal of help available.
The Health and Safety Executive is responsible for some of the most practical work in the field of stress management. You can find out from its web site (see Links) how its Management Standards approach is applied in the workplace. This authoritative approach is supported by The International Stress Management Association, ACAS, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and the TUC.
Other valuable sources are the ACAS website which publishes a highly recommended booklet called “Stress at Work”. For the more academic approach the City University Centre for Stress Management and the work of Professor Stephen Palmer ranges far and wide including courses, publications and therapeutic training (see Links).
So what can Homeopathy do?
While homeopathy can identify and treat the physical and emotional symptoms of work stress, which are the complaints and dysfunctions stress gives rise to in the individual, it cannot make a profound difference by itself while the circumstances which cause stress remain (homeopathy calls these ‘maintaining causes’). This is why I believe that homeopathy treats the harmful effects of work stress best when the maintaining causes, arising from the work environment, are dealt with at the same time.
However, many maintaining causes of stress at work are well within the individual’s ability to deal with. It is so often a case of not being able to see the wood for the trees and then simply a matter of having an informed discussion, identifying the causes and deciding how to get rid of them.
The homeopathic treatment involves the normal case taking process but with the added advantage of understanding the known maintaining causes of work stress in each individual instance. These are obviously discussed in full professional confidence. The case analysis, prescription and treatment follow the normal homeopathic practice. Even the fee remains the same.
Links for Managers and Professionals
Stressbusting
Health and Safety Executive
ACAS
Centre for Stress Management
International Stress Management Association
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development