There may be a good reason- did you know that April was Stress Awareness Month? Sometimes a side-effect of raising the profile of something in the media, and describing it, can almost be like a licence to own it, almost transferring the symptoms to oneself…which isn’t to decry the various organisations involved.
You may be wondering why I’m writing about it now, past the use-by date, have I missed the boat on this occasion?
Far from it, my thoughts are similar to the ‘a dog’s not just for Christmas’ campaign, that awareness of anxiety and stress cannot simply be ticked-off our to-do list, rather it is something that is ongoing, and will remain especially important, through and beyond the pandemic lockdown and other restrictions.
There are many potential causes of stress; people-relationships at home and work, social situations, social media pressure, negative news reporting, financial-loss of income and the threat of redundancy or loss of business.
Working from home has been a godsend to some; the opportunity to spend more quality time with family, no commuting costs, time or stress, continuing to work on a business as usual basis. However, not all have had that luxury, including manual workers or roles with face to face contact like NHS, retail or teaching for example.
It has also been found that many working from home have worked longer hours; speaking from personal experience, it can be difficult to switch off from work when there is no meaningful physical or time gap between your place of work and home.
Of course there is also the need for a suitable working environment, that plonking your laptop on top of the breakfast table may not cut it, you need physical and mental space away from others to perform your duties to the expected standard.
All of which has been noted by senior management, who may have discovered ways to remove costs from their business, overheads like office rental, rates and the like, and of course if work can be completed remotely there is reduced need for business travel if at all, and if business can be completed remotely, perhaps this includes abroad too, challenge and opportunity in a nutshell….
Awareness of stressors is important, and equally crucial is understanding how to deal with it, managing down or eliminating the stress from your life, and something we’ll consider next month.
Until then, stay safe, stay well,