Getting the balance right - Isle of Man Today

16 Business updateIsle of Man Examiner, May 2005ISSUEMAY focusWORK-LIFE BALANCETackling stress inFeatureseditorJohn Quirkturns hisattention tostress in theworkplaceOVER a beer one night, I wasexplaining to a friend that Iwas writing an article aboutstress in the workplace.He responded with a shake of the headand a comment which suggested hethought the issue was an excuse which lazyworkers use when faced with a bit morework than usual and the thought of havingto pull their finger out.Society may have undergone some radicalchanges in recent decades, but therealisation that work-related stress is a veryreal phenomenon seems to be taking a littlelonger to hit home.While many firms are tackling the issue,this cynical viewpoint towards stressremains rooted in many otherorganisations.But they ignore stress among theirworkers at their peril. Firms can now besued under health and safety regulationsfor their failure to respond to theirresponsibilities — and the Island hasalready seen its first cases.Dr Helen Nightingale is a consultantoccupational and clinical psychologist who,along with Dr Laurence Burns, a leadingconsultant clinical psychologist fromRochdale Health Service, recently staged afree seminar for the public and privatesectors.They discussed the latest researchfindings and treatment and intervention forstress, at both the individual andorganisational level. Follow-up workshopsare now being held on a monthly basis.Dr Nightingale explains: ‘These are for theheads of government and the public sector,together with the banking and financialcentres, whose staff have recently had aspate of serious stress-related conditions.‘The uptake has been incredible, butmostly from the private sector. A possiblereason for this may be that the public sectoris less concerned by work absenteeism orconcerned by the threat of litigation.’However, this doesn’t reflect DrNightingale’s experience that it is publicsector workers who suffer more stressrelatedconditions.‘The incidence of stressors in the publicsector is greater here,’ she says. ‘This maybe due to the sense of helplessness to takecontrol of one’s working life, or theopportunities to change jobs or set upprivately are limited.‘Civil servants, health employees, teachersand support workers are often afraid to seekhelp for stress-related conditions becausethey fear the consequences to their careerand the fact that the treatment may beoffered in the service or by people theyactually work with. The Island is a verysmall community and confidentiality canDR HELEN NIGHTINGALE: Certain workers are often afraid to seek help for stress-related conditionsbe a difficult issue for some people workingwithin the public services.‘We are discussing with employers howthe best independent and confidentialservices can be offered to such people.‘The police force has just recentlyundergone a successful stress audit and weshall be suggesting that others follow suit.’To find out more about stress — and todiscover if I myself was stressed — I visit DrNightingale at Snaefell Surgery in AnaghCoar.But as I know that I’m a fairly laid-backperson, a bit of contrast was needed. So acontact of mine, who wishes to remainanonymous — we’ll call him ‘Steve’ —agrees to come along. Steve knows he hasbeen stressed out for some time. But I don’tthink even he was prepared for what DrNightingale had to say to him.The first thing Dr Nightingale tells me isthat stress is relative and affects all workers— cleaners and gardeners suffer as muchstress as politicians and heads of corporateorganisations.‘One of the most important factors aboutstress is worry,’ she explains. ‘If you are aworrier, you are more likely to be stressed.Thinking style is an important aspect inhow someone interprets the factors.‘Some people are more resilient becausethey have better coping systems. There areno rights or wrongs with that — sometimesit is not about how many stresses you havehad. You may have someone who has a verystressful life but who copes, who then losesa partner and cracks up completely. Youcannot make predictions about who isgoing to cope and who is not.’To start with, Dr Nightingale gives each ofus a quick test — the ‘hospital assessmentfor anxiety and depression scale’ — which isover in a matter of minutes, but from whichshe can instantly give an indication ofwhether someone is suffering from eitheranxiety or depression.It’s a series of questions about your dailywork and life routine.After you’ve ticked the relevant boxes, DrNightingale quickly scans through and totsup your score.After less than five minutes in the room,she tells me I don’t appear to be sufferingany symptoms of depression. But I scorenine on the anxiety questions — which is‘slightly elevated’ and she tells me that,while it’s nothing to worry about, I shouldkeep an eye on it.Typical symptoms of anxiety arerestlessness and fast speech, both of whichI suffer from time to time. Another which Isuffer from is disrupted sleep — either notbeing able to fall asleep or waking up early