Stress takes its toll

Organizations have the responsibility of enabling mental health at work.

For over two months after joining a consumer durable company, Rupa had
continuous difficulty in concentrating at work. Her manager observed that she
sometimes withdrew from other colleagues. At times she cried a lot for no particular
reason, experienced severe anxiety, panic, or fear and exhibited big mood swings.
Since repeated inquiries did not evoke much response, the manager utilized services
of an outside counsellor to understand Rupa's mental state. It seemed that her
troubles started after her husband, a software engineer was shown the door from his
overseas employment, following business recession. While his addiction to alcohol
was marked by many disharmonies at home, his suicidal death a few months ago
compounded Rupa's situation. More than trying to endure pressures of conflicting
home and work responsibilities, the very thought of her two young daughters
significantly depressed Rupa.

Depression symptoms, as Rupa's are very common today. Studies carried out in
both developed and developing countries, as also in different social groups, suggest
that an estimated 400 and 340 million people worldwide suffer from anxiety and
mood disorders. Though manifestations of mental disorders have been found to vary
with age, gender, race and culture, the distress caused to the families of such
patients as well as the resultant damage to children's development is simply mind-
boggling. Schizophrenia evidently has been stealthily taking its toll on adult women.
World Health Organization reports indicate that depression, anxiety, psychological
distress, domestic violence, apart from pressures created by their multiple roles,
account for women's poor mental health. Some assessments point out that this could
increase the share of the total global burden from 10.5 percent in 1990 to 15 per
cent by 2020, to make it a crisis of the 21st century.

The cause for concern is that five of the ten most disabling disorders in the world are
psychiatric in nature. Particularly, close to 90 per cent (or more) of all suicide victims
have been found to possess a mental illness or a substance abuse problem. These
disorders are as easy to diagnose like asthma, diabetes, cancer etc. and even
treatments are effective 60 to 80 per cent of the time. Still, nearly two-thirds of all
people with diagnosable mental disorders reportedly do not seek treatment for a
variety of reasons.

An important factor triggering modern workplace stress is long hours of work.

According to the Quality of Working Life Survey carried out in the West last year, a
majority of managers believed working long hours had a negative effect on their
health, relationships and productivity. But the harsh reality is that many people still
felt that leaving the office last could enhance their job prospects. It's a vicious cycle.
Because, the longer one stays at the office, the lesser time he has for his personal
life. Work life imbalance can tantamount to more likely domestic problems like
leading to stress at home apart from stress at work.

One of the largest ever surveys conducted among some 5,000 office staff in 16
countries recently has shown that over 54 per cent of office workers believe work to
be the main cause of stress in their lives. The main cause of stress was overwork,
with 50 per cent of respondents claiming to be either too busy or having too few
staffers has been found to be prevalent in large companies. To cope with stress at
work, respondents showed a clear preference for indulging in products of enjoyment,
68 per cent mentioned taking tea or coffee break, 50 per cent having a soft drink, 27
per cent smoking. The human factor scored the highest with 81 per cent preferring
to talk or joke with colleagues as a way of unwinding at work.

Stress can adversely can affect organizations in a plethora of ways ranging from
increased customer complaints and high levels of staff burnout. Studies indicate that
young people are increasingly falling prey to heart diseases in a big way because of
negative stress and the number of patients with heart problems has doubled in the
last few years. In India, job stress is obviously taking a heavy toll in terms of heart
attacks and strokes - such illnesses with definite stress links are the second and third
leading cause of death. As per latest National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) figures,
suicides in the country due to professional and career problems have gone up by
nearly 50 per cent. Mainly, absence or collapse of family support systems is
attributed for pushing a number of women to suicide. The trend of such deaths,
which have risen by over 60 per cent in the last 45 years and is threatening to put
more young people to high risk, depicts the gravity of the situation. Research reveals
that for most managers, working long hours is unacceptable, but necessary for their
career. While only one in eight people who work long hours genuinely enjoy their
jobs, one-third of overworked employees suffer sleepless nights due to stress. About
55 per cent of full-time employees are bad-tempered at home because of work-
related stress. When employees feel harassed, they are literally working themselves
to death and the whole issue of over work has a lot of hidden costs in terms of
employees taking sick days or quitting. Common behavioral changes associated with
negative stress, related to an individual's inability to make decisions, irritability,
reduced performance etc. can influence several people within a department and in
turn, even affect the company's relationships with clients and customers.

Many independently operated clinics, practitioners and self-help groups provide a

number of services to deal with schizophrenia, depression, anxiety disorders, suicide,
epilepsy, mental retardation, Alzheimer's disease, alcoholism etc. Also, several
progressive organizations provide mental health services including individual
psychotherapy, family counseling and assistance for drug and alcohol addiction.
Others offer toll-free helplines for employees and their family members to discuss
work-related stress issues. Still other organizations employ inhouse or external
stress-management counselor. Ever since American Pullman Company pioneered
employee recreation programs in 1899 to facilitate employee well being, major US
corporations have been spending more than $3 billion annually on corporate wellness
programs. Motorola, USA employing over 1 lakh people with a long history of never
laying employees off, supports more childcare centers than any other company in the
US. From the CEO to the janitor, all are required to take part in corporate wellness
programs. On the realization that a burnt-out workforce is an unproductive workforce
and to overcome workdays lost due to stress-induced illness, Mitsubishi Heavy
Industries, Japan has produced six books recommending practical remedies. Besides
CBS-Sony's series of stress-relief albums, a number of self-help books on stress
relief are best sellers in the West. In the Singapore unit of Hewlett-Packard, a fully
equipped gym, clubhouse and a large sports complex is used to promote wellness
programs. Through retirement plans, employees own nearly half the stocks in New
York-based aerospace company Moog, that has no time clocks or no strict rules. Its
only teamwork that encompasses the spirit of partnership; no individual employee
takes credit for a success. Many companies run Employee Assistance Programs
(EAPs) designed to help stressed staff cope better. Initiated in the 1950s largely by
social workers to address problems like alcoholism, drug-abuse etc., EAPs have
grown in proportion over the years. Such interventions, effectively aiming at
collecting data and providing solutions, are indirect tools to reduce employee
turnover. Being an important tool for bringing about organizational change, apart
from being used implicitly to deal with both personal and professional problems of
employees, EAPs act as a bridge between the employers and the employees.
Operating on the belief that the workforce is one living unit and not merely a
mechanical body of people, EAPs provides the much-needed relief to employees with
work related or personal problems and include face-to-face counseling, helplines and
other initiatives. In the UK, 5000 EAPs are said to be in operation.

Considerable savings has been reported on health costs accruing to more than 350 of
the Fortune 500 companies where EAPs have got institutionalized due to
improvement in health conditions among employees. The United Airlines estimates a
return of more than $16 for every dollar invested in its EAP. In India many corporate
houses attempt to manage workplace stress at the physical and psychological levels.
While some have set up meditation rooms or gyms in their offices, a large number of
companies encourage their employees to adopt transcendental meditation as an
effective stress reliever. Yoga, another alternative therapy to control both
hypertension as well the inner self, is equally popular. Yet another self-improvement
therapy in vogue at companies like Britannia and the Oberoi group, the Art of Living
that involves a series of breathing exercises has been found quite effective in
handling insomnia and psychosomatic problems. Periodic stress audits are used to
identify problems that employees are facing at the workplace. Such audits, by using
a combination of interviews and questionnaires to unearth the real issues, can
provide hard evidence of the causes and effects of stress within an organization.

As pointed out by workplace stress experts, unless organizations tackle the root
causes of high stress - be it unrealistic targets, excessive workload, staff shortages
or other factors - stress can boomerang into bigger problems. The discrimination,
besides the stigma surrounding mental illness, preventing people from getting the
support they need, it is important to understand such experiences, thoughts and
feelings which signal the presence of mental health problems or the need for help.
People suffering from depression often feel an overwhelming sense of helplessness
and hopelessness, and over a long period, this may lead to suicidal feelings. This is
why it becomes essential to detect mental disorders at an early stage and suggest
remedial action to help them overcome the stigma associated with mental disorders.

Policies aimed at HR have the twin advantages of improving the bottomline of the
organization and the mental health of employees as well. At the workplace,
whenever employees exhibit abnormal behavior, it is necessary to inquire and
provide them with professional counseling services, as there is a positive relationship
between the frequency and severity of such social factors and the frequency and
severity of mental health problems. HR managers, as trouble-shooters, can play a
pivotal role in ensuring that employees identify the causes of stress to effectively
manage it the initial stages itself. Because healthy employees, both mentally and
physically, mean lower absenteeism, improved morale, better productivity etc., it is
imperative that employees are empowered to set clear goals so that they can avoid
doing extraneous things and manage time effectively. Role clarity and broad-based
job descriptions can help employees work more effectively. For optimum skill use
and step up opportunities, job rotation or redesign can aid employees to relax and
cope better with job stress. In simple terms, mental health is a state of successful
performance of mental function, resulting in productive activities and fulfilling
relationships with other people, the thrust of all efforts must begin with providing an
enabling environment at the workplace by:

* setting clearly measurable goals and defined objectives for the employees *
ensuring the individuals are well matched to their jobs * training retraining
employees, particularly in interpersonal skills * religiously investigating stress levels
and their likely causes * providing necessary guidance and support for those
experiencing high stress levels * soliciting ideas from employees to combat stress *
encouraging flexible or shorter hours.

The thrust of good stress management initiatives should be not only on identifying
the sources of stress, but also troubleshooting solutions based on the input,
interaction and needs of all concerned. Efforts should be made to help employees
realize that managing stress is nothing but managing oneself and one's life more
effectively. It does require dedication and commitment, but the rewards are great,
long lasting and extensive. Workplace wellness impacts not only the individual, but
also those he comes in contact with.