6 Figure Career Management

To coincide with National Stress Awareness Day in the UK tomorrow, Wednesday 5th November, I’m pleased to have a guest article below from an international expert on executive stress - Carole Spiers

After twenty years as a stress consultant to blue-chip companies, I could fill about half the internet with my reflections about the present credit-crunch and the countless workplace stressor-elements we can expect to see afflicting everyone right up to boardroom level, in the coming weeks and months.

Instead, let me pinpoint just five less-known stress-symptoms which I believe we shall see bulking-up over the coming months, for all of which there are formal training initiatives for HR staff as part of the stress-management agenda.

1. Underload
Too little pressure at work can be just as stressful as too much.
Under-demand sets up stress through monotony and inertia, for which we were simply not designed. In the absence of challenge, your body stops producing the endorphins that keep up your metabolic rate, and that is why you have less energy and develop a lazy mindset that leaves you prone to illness. In the UK, a recent study demonstrated that bored employees take more days off sick - literally ‘bored sick’.

2. Presenteeism
The reverse of Absenteeism - a psychological need to over-attend.
This is based on fear for our jobs, and a desperate urge to make gestures of loyalty and high performance, generating an artificial sensation of heroic effort. “Do you realise how late I worked last night… Do you realise how early I got in this morning…”
It is worth noting generally that long hours do not always translate into more effective output, and that they may stem from inefficient time management anyway.

3. Survivor Guilt
If you’ve survived a wave of redundancies, you ought to be feeling upbeat, thankful and optimistic.
But redundancy can be seen as a form of trauma, which can bring on Survivor Guilt, a complex moral response, where people feel guilty for surviving. Specialists have described the syndrome as a defence barrier that needs to be lowered, and the emotional damage slowly repaired. Simple discussion from line management can be the key here once they recognize some of their employees might be feeling this way.

4. Come back, hard taskmaster
New research into management style seems to run counter to the popular cries about the virtues of partnership and a generally ‘people-first’ culture.
In a major recent study, ‘Determination to deliver’ has been identified as the most desirable quality in an employer - well ahead of the more progressive notions of ‘individual cohesion’ and ‘team working’. In other words, people would rather work for a hard taskmaster who meets targets than a lenient one who doesn’t.
This suggests a parallel with sports team culture - under the test, nobody wants to associate with a losing captain or manager.

5. Gambling addiction
This one is my own little private bet, based on my reading of highly stressed people brought low (as they are at this moment) and rushing into denial.
Gambling is totally geared to unreal life, with its artificial notions of effortless winning instead of earning. In its internet version, it is a temptation made worse by access to the internet in company time, and an awkward subject to approach someone about. But the more the economic squeeze and mounting debts start to hurt, so the gambling addict will rashly throw good money after bad.

As an international Motivational Speaker and Consultant, I am already seeing symptoms of the credit-crunch in the United Emirates. For example, in Dubai there is a serious collision looming up between the lavish expectations of the expats and the mix of higher prices and escalating property rents that affect everyone. One taxi driver told me that he can’t even make enough to start earning his commission. I asked him if he would go back to Pakistan, to join his wife and children, but he says that there are even more challenges there.

So we are all faced with trying our best to cope with what will be a long-term credit crunch. We have to let go of things that are stopping us from moving on, and identify the barriers that are holding us back. More than ever before, it’s a time for seriously taking stock - whichever part of the world you are living in.

Carole Spiers MIHPE, MISMA
World Authority on Executive Stress.
BBC Broadcaster. Motivational Speaker. Best-selling Author

Author of Tolley’s ‘Managing Stress in the Workplace’, Carole is the founder of the Carole Spiers Group, an international Stress Management and Employee Wellbeing consultancy that, for over 20 years, has numbered among its clients leading corporations including, Accenture, AXA, Bank of England, Etisalat, Ducab, Kanoo Group, Panasonic, Unilever and Walt Disney.

Carole has also established herself as a provocative, weekly columnist for Gulf News; is a Vice President of the International Stress Management AssociationUK, and Immediate Past President of the London Chapter of the Professional Speakers Association. She is also regularly called upon by the national press and media for comment. www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk