When you or your employees suffer from stress it isn’t just a matter of ‘pull yourself together’ or ‘snap out of it’. Stress is a real problem which can have dire consequences for your business.
Research has shown that pressure at work (or at home) is causing many employees to succumb to stress related diseases costing many businesses a small fortune. Yet excessive anxiety and stress are both preventable and avoidable.
To the sufferer it very often seems impossible to shake off anxiety or depression but it doesn’t have to be that way. The right professional help could sort out the problem in a matter of weeks, turning someone who has become a liability into your best asset.
Under the Disability Discrimination Act anxiety stress and depression may be sufficient to qualify a person as disabled and if you as employer have contributed to that stress it could cost you thousands. In fact the HSE calculated that the direct cost of workplace stress costs industry £530 million each and every year and in another study Norwich Union showed that indirect costs were double that – if they are right and if you have 10 employees that’s costing you about £30000 a year - that is a lot of profit margin down the drain.
But a little bit of stress is good for you isn’t it? A bit of adrenalin keeps you alert and with your wits about you doesn’t it? It keeps you sharp and on your toes. So is this legislation interfering in the way you conduct your business? Another example of the nanny state gone mad?
Well it is true that a little bit of anxiety/stress (call it what you will) does indeed increase awareness. Being acutely aware of danger and poised ready to take evasive action is why our weak and puny species have survived all these millennia to rule the earth. But it is also true that too much stress all at once or for too long a period will shut down your thinking, reasoning, logical brain completely. Put in purely mercenary terms a stressed employee (or boss) is very very bad for the commercial health of any enterprise.
The statutory HSE Stress Management/Wellbeing audit will help you reduce the causes of stress in the workplace but it doesn’t end there. People don’t leave the stress of their everyday lives on the hall stand at home and pick up workplace stress at the office or factory door. Whatever is happening for them in their private life; family trauma, phobias, hatches, matches or dispatches, financial strains, rows and illness is carried with them wherever they go. Beset by private pressures they may be unable think efficiently and coherently about their job – and that is why it is in your interests to help them. You can wash your hands of that of course and say ‘that’s none of my business’ but when it affects your profitability or development would that be the best thing to do?
Will pills help?
When you take your anxiety or stress problem to the doctor – and you should take your problem to the doctor – in all probability he will prescribe some pills. He is the doctor and pills may help so you should take them. However they are like putting a sticking plaster on a festering sore. Pills don’t deal with the cause or provide a long term solution.
So what will help?
Most people suffering in this way know consciously what changes they want to achieve but feel there is nothing they can do about it. In our practice we see people who have been struggling with their demons and who after just a few sessions experience the joy of being free from anxiety for the first time for years. It is a very rewarding moment for us.
Why couldn’t they do this for themselves?
It is because the problem lies deep in the subconscious mind and it needs expert help to resolve the conflict. Our unconscious mind gets into the habit of reacting to certain circumstances in certain ways and no amount of conscious desire seems to shift the pattern but with the help of a qualified therapist, within a few sessions it becomes easy to do what until now has seemed difficult or impossible.
How Can You Help?
Help Yourself: As a business owner or manager if you are feeling under a huge burden of stress and anxiety consult us now. You will learn a great deal about the debilitating effects of stress and anxiety, what may be done to alleviate it and the impact that may have on your own efficiency, creativity or effective management.
Help Your Employees: It doesn’t matter if the stress is being created at work or at home YOU and your business are suffering the consequences in lost productivity, creativity and profitability.
• Refer them to us for a free initial consultation
• Book an informative talk for your Directors, Management or Staff meeting
Call me Anthony Bennett DHP. SFBH on 07877734075 or Skype me at tjbennett or e mail me at tony@thelifedesignstudio.com
Web www.thelifedesignstudio.com
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