Archive for the ‘Stress and Your Health’ Category
A Restless Workforce Gaining Confidence, More Workers Seek New Jobs
Monday, June 20th, 2011Own your own business and want to know how to minimize turnover rate? The article below talks about a survey conducted by Deloitte that found many employees to be unhappy with their jobs and even feeling unappreciated by their companies.
To learn more about how to keep your employees satisfied click the ‘Employers’ tab on the main page. Happy green reading!
More Education Means More On-the-Job Engagement, But Also More Stress
Friday, June 17th, 2011Aren’t we always told that as long as we have the most education, the rest with be smooth sailing? Well not according to a new study done in Ontario. It states that although those with higher education are more sought after in the job market, they are also the ones who have the most trouble with work/life balance and feel the most stress related to their jobs.
Read on to find out more about work/life balance and use The Oxygen Plan `stress decoded’ to help with yours!
We all have nervous habits, such as nail-biting, which may be unappealing to watch but not as dangerous to our health as others, like smoking. Even worse, they can take a toll on our bodies that we may be doing on a daily basis. Are these habits really releasing stress or adding to it? Read below for information on your nervous habit, how it affects your health and tips on how to relieve stress in a healthy manner. For more information on living in the Green® The Oxygen Plan way, check out ‘The Program’ tab on the main page.
Job Burnout Hurts (Physically)
Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011An increase in job burnout over a period of 18 months is associated with a 2.09-fold increased risk of developing musculoskeletal pain during the subsequent 18 months, according to a study led by Galit Armon of Tel Aviv University focusing on 1,704 healthy people. The researchers say high job demands may increase muscle tension and decrease micropauses in muscle activity, leading to pain.
Stress in America: What’s OUR Stress Number™?
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011Trouble paying the bills. Worry about the economy. Worry about keeping our jobs and our homes. Worry about finding a job or a new home. Troubled relationships. Trying to raise kids in a world that is becoming increasingly chaotic and seemingly dangerous. Trying to get through the day much less plan ahead.
Seem at least somewhat familiar? We are not immune to the stresses of everyday life. No one is. While we all cope in different and more or less effective ways, as individuals we cannot escape the impacts of stress on our lives at home, at work and socially; stress is a significant risk factor for our work productivity, our relationships and our health. As employers, we must be concerned about stress levels in our workforce. With the cost of stress estimated at just under $5,000 per employee per year, how can employers not be concerned? Even our government must be concerned about stress levels in our country. Given the social deterioration we see, the erosion of marriages and families, the unemployment rate and the chaos we see in our neighborhoods, our cities, our country and around the world, leaders surely are concerned about this state of affairs, even if for only political reasons.
At The Oxygen Plan, we have a keen interest on stress levels and how it impacts us every day. To date, since introducing our Stress Test and Stress Number™, over 38,000 people have taken the Stress Test. And we should be concerned. In the first month of the Stress Test — September, 2009 — average Stress Numbers for home, work and social were 55, 54 and 55 respectively. That’s yellow across the board. As of February, 2011 the average scores were 52, 47 and 53, also respectively. With a sample of over 38,000 people, that is a significant shift toward the negative. While still all yellow (that’s the good news?) each score suggests stress levels are rising — along with all of the negative effects stress imparts. The work score of 47, down from 54, should be of particular concern for employers. This translates to increased health care costs absenteeism, presenteeism, disability along with decreased productivity and morale at work. And this is before the flooding in the Northeast, ever-increasing troubles in the Middle East and the earthquake and tsunami in Japan — and cataclysmic event that literally and figuratively hit our shores.
America’s Stress Numbers suggest we are in trouble and it is not getting any better. But we are not helpless. We have at our fingertips the means to identify and better manage our stress — as individuals, as couples, as families, as employers and as leaders. We owe it to ourselves and those around us. Stress is the number one modifiable health risk we face. At The Oxygen Plan our mission is to help us all accomplish the goal of becoming a "better you."
Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s off to wO2rk® we go …
Monday, March 7th, 2011Even the Seven Dwarfs had stress issues. Imagine seven little guys — with very distinct personalities — living with the kind and gorgeous Snow White, but going to work in a Diamond Mine, by day, cheerfully singing "heigh ho, heigh ho, it’s off to work we go". Talk about optimism among competition! Poor Snow White is probably torn, too, making sure not to show too much favoritism among her eccentric little roommates.
Do you ever go to work and think of it as a cartoon environment? Humor is a very good way to diffuse any stressful situation and keep us in the green, if only momentarily. Cartoons or funny visual images, although cute and amusing, are not real. Job stress, is.
Many of us are doing exactly what we want to do; or doing our best at a job that may be a steppingstone to our real goals; or, at the least, finding ways to make the best of less-than-optimum situations in the workplace.
Most of us spend the majority of our time at work, producing products, delivering services and/or ideas for public consumption. It is a place where structure and deadlines; forms and formats; evaluations and strategies are, for the most part, imposed upon us. Pressures to produce the biggest and the best constantly hover in the background of any business, even if you own and operate your own.
So, how do we function and still stay in the green, at work?
- Re-evaluating your core values is a good — and affirming — place to start. Ask yourself, "How much of the best of me do I give to my job?" This brief and empowering self-examination will yield your own appreciation of the green qualities you bring to work! And, you can be sure, that your green attitude is not lost on co-workers or bosses. It is very contagious.
- As employees, we know from the start that we will be working and making decisions for the good of the company. We are doing that job, however, because we were the best and greenest candidates for the position. So, in addition to performing our tasks to the best of our ability, remember that we were picked for the individual skills and assets we bring to the work experience.
- Issues with particular people in the workplace are most commonly the source of on-the-job stress. It’s unrealistic to think that everyone we encounter in a given work day, is going to be green for us. When you see that stressor or an interaction approaching, thinking green on the inside will encourage you to be green, on the outside. Try it. It works! You’re in charge of your thoughts, so why not paint as green a canvas, as you can?
- Trust your own inner dialogue with yourself to a) not be drawn into YELLOW areas and/or b) to look at the situation with objectivity and optimism and c) above all, be true to yourself in the encounter to give and get as much oxygen, as possible. Limiting contact and communication with yellow-ish (or even RED) people — if you can — is the most direct way of maintaining a green mindset.
- Focusing on specific tasks/goals and prioritizing the order in which you accomplish them makes for an unbeatable green feeling of achievement.
- Take breaks — literally walk away from your desk, 2 or 3 times a day to take a peek outside, grab a cup of coffee with a co-worker OR if you need to stay at your desk, just close your eyes for a second, take a few deep breaths of refreshing oxygen, and carry on. Take a book or your iPod to lunch with you. The visual and/or aural diversion holds relaxing, recharging green benefits.
- Look forward to the end of your day; to enjoyable plans you may have with friends or family after work; to shopping; to catching a movie with your partner; to just getting out of the building and into the and green areas of your life.
- Think of the check you’ll see at the end of the week! Very green. Being financially solvent is a happy state of being, for anyone.
Whether we believe it or not, being the best we can be can’t be shut off, at will. We may have to alter the ways in which we apply and accept greenness in the world, but each of us has an awesome core of green goodness to nurture and share — even at wO2rk®!
A recent article appeared on MSN.com, originally posted on Caring.com about stress and your heart. The article is entitled: “Is Stress Sabotaging Your Heart”? It reviews two recent studies looking at work-stress and hours worked and heart health and the sort answer to the title/question is a resounding “YES.”
Take a look and see: Click Here
No surprise, as stress has been known to be an independent risk factor for heart disease for quite some time. Back in the late 1980′s and 1990′s, stress and heart disease were first linked using descriptions of the “Type A personality”. Individuals, it was thought, who were hard driving, competitive and goal oriented were found to have a higher risk and rate of heart disease. Later, researches found that one component of the Type A personality was largely responsible for the increased risk: hostility or unexpressed anger. Still later, a study I had the privilege of being involved in documented for the first time that stress was also an independent risk factor in heart disease. That study found that increased stress was not only associated with increase heart disease risk but with increased health care costs as well.
What these new reports tell us is that stress specific to work is yet another aspect of stress that we as individuals need to attend to. In the bigger picture, it is anther deadly reason for employers to attend to work-place stress. As productivity demands increase and as health care costs continue to soar, we can’t afford to ignore stress.
Workplace Suicides in the U.S. on the Rise
Thursday, June 3rd, 2010Importantly, the article with the title above was posted on MSNBC.com yesterday. Sadly but equally importantly, the article puts real names and faces to the billions of dollars stress costs US employers. As noted in the article, the media continue to report that the economy is turning around yet there are stark human statistics telling us the any such turnaround hasn?t yet reached most American households.
At The Oxygen Plan, we note that Stress displays itself in a number of physical and emotional ways, including sharp changes in mood and demeanor; changes in appetite and bodily appearance; muscle tension and body aches; changes in sex drive; general fatigue, migraine headaches, upset stomachs and gastric illnesses.
We also note that stress is also linked to the six leading causes of death: heart disease, cancer, lung ailments, cirrhosis of the liver, accidents, and sadly, suicide. We are also dedicated to helping individuals and companies reduce and better manage their stress, effectively reducing economic and human costs.
Thank you to MSNBC and author Eve Tahmincioglu for publishing the article. Take a look: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37402529/ns/business-careers/
Stress in the Workplace: What It Costs & What You Can Do. The Oxygen Plan Stress Test.
What is ?Stress?? First, ?stress? is NOT only something or someone ?out there.? ?Stress? is what we experience when demands placed upon us exceed our ability to cope.? Demands can be: internal vs. external or environmental, physical vs. emotional, self vs. other ? related, functional vs. dysfunctional and motivating vs. defeating. ?Coping? is our ability to tolerate ?stress? without developing symptoms. Conversely, the development of symptoms is what we experience when we are ?stressed.? The severity and/or persistence of symptoms leads to HEALTH RISK. Health risk in the workplace means loss of productivity in the workplace and increased health care costs to employees and employers alike. More on that in a moment, after a word or two about symptoms and health risk.
Do you know how stress hurts your health? Would you like to know your risk?
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