National Stress Awareness month launches on Capitol Hill this week, as healthcare, business and agency chiefs recognize National Workplace Wellness Week with a number of panel discussions.
Coincidentally or not, when the recession hit in the career chaos economy of 2008, the House and the Senate passed resolutions recognizing the importance of workplace wellness. It’s ironic that the country would then spiral into unemployment numbers that for many, would make workplace wellness a distant second priority to actually having a job. But there’s change on the horizon.
With work stress at disturbing levels in an uncertain marketplace, the American Psychological Association among others, have sounded the alert to big business that a stress-out overwhelmed workforce is no way to compete.
In a new world of work where connectivity in real time rules the roost, it’s no wonder that work stress is on the radar. Expanding technology in our 24/7 global marketplace only fuels the challenges of a changing multi-generational workforce, which depending on which survey you look at, is a tad overworked and stressed.
With increasing research pointing to the impact of chronic stress on our bodies, healthcare concerns can’t help but manifest in the workplace impacting engagement, presenteeism, creativity, productivity and innovation. With heart conditions, hypertension and diabetes on the rise; fostering well-being at work is becoming more of a bottom-line issue. (The U.S. Workplace Wellness Alliance, has more information on why a healthier workforce will create a healthier U.S. economy poised for the competitive global marketplace.)
But there’s a bigger conversation to have on this topic. While it behooves companies to take a larger active role in helping employees to manage stress, taking a band-aid approach is not going to put much of a dent in reducing employee stress and increasing wellness and well-being. A shift in company culture toward valuing employees, their work, their voices and their health needs to ride in importance alongside the spreadsheets. The shift that needs to take place is not an overnight task, but some companies are making strides as evidenced in those honored by the American Psychological Association Center for Organizational Health.
Still, the perception shift must go beyond the corporate doors. It’s also needed among workers. Employers can only do so much toward fostering well-being and less stress in the workplace. Ultimately it’s up to us as individuals to start making some serious changes in our work-life merge and stress management strategies.
Unhealthy chronic stress can bring us to our knees, but it’s time to look at it as a catalyst for change.
Judy Martin is an Emmy-award winning broadcast journalist who tracks business and workplace trends. As a certified yoga instructor (RYT-200), she is also a stress management consultant. Visit Judy’s personal blog at WorkLifeNation.com, friend her up on Twitter; @JudyMartin8 and check out her guided meditation CD: Practical Chaos: Reflections on Resilience.
From: Forbes.com