The Truth Bar » Health Improvement

November 6th, 2009 by Administrator

A startling new perspective on work stress has been forwarded by Dr David Wainwright, a senior lecturer at the University of Bath, in his speech at a conference of the Royal Society of Medicine. He said the belief that work conditions are the main cause of stress at work is misplaced.

The topic of bad working conditions causing severe stress, sometimes even leading to an inability to continue employment, has been a favourite one among researchers, health specialists and worker’s organisations alike. The commonly accepted belief has been that worsening conditions at the workplace are leading to ever-increasing instances of mental stress and stress-related health problems among employees.

Lending weight to the growing belief that work conditions determine stress levels is a recent report by Health and Safety Executive (HSE), which reveals that more than 400,000 people consider work stress as reason for their illness, due to which nearly 13.5 million working days were lost during 2007/08 alone.

However, Dr Wainwright pointed out that this may be an erroneous way of thinking. In his paper titled “The Limits of the Work Stress Concept”, he discussed the perceived change in working conditions over the years. He claimed that work stress experienced by employees today is more a result of reduced tolerance and resilience to pressures than the conditions under which they work.

Dr Wainwright attributed the ’stress epidemic’ to a generational psychological transformation that has caused today’s workers to be less resilient than their predecessors were.

In the past, work was significantly more difficult than it is now, argued Dr Wainwright. he added that today’s health problems arise from a combination of the employee’s heightened fear for his own physical and mental health and from the recent trend of labelling common problems as medical cases.

However, Dr Neil Shah of the Stress Management Society rejected Dr Wainwright’s view. He said that the radical changes in societal conditions and work approaches make it impossible to compare today’s conditions with those that existed sixty years ago.

Stress management is an important part of good management. It not only leads to increased motivation and dedication among employees but also results in fewer conflicts. For anyone involved in human resources management, training and development, click on CHRP Course for information on training for a Certificate in Personnel Practice to help boost team performance.