Tags: workplace, stress, health, collaboration, flexibility

Categories: News

Programs in the workplace designed to get people to exercise can improve fitness, cut cholesterol levels, reduce job stress and even improve attendance, a new analysis of the medical literature shows.

But it's still not clear what makes for the most effective type of program, Dr. Vicki S. Conn of the University of Missouri in Columbia, the lead author of the research, told Reuters Health.

"We do have really good evidence that the interventions do work," she said. "What we couldn't say from this is that this intervention works better than that intervention."

Conn and her colleagues looked at dozens of studies of workplace physical activity interventions. The studies included about 38,000 people.

They found significant positive effects for the interventions on "physical activity behavior," meaning whether or not people became more active, and also on fitness level. The programs also helped fuel healthy changes in lipids (meaning harmful fats in the blood such as triglycerides), measures of body size, work attendance, and job stress, the researchers report.

Read the full article.

Tags: health, workplace, stress

Categories: News

Amid the highest unemployment rate in recent decades and massive job losses around the country, most workers feel happy to at least be employed. What they aren't feeling, however, is healthy.

One in three workers has at least one symptom of clinical depression; 41 percent say they feel stressed sometimes, often, or very often; and one in five has trouble falling asleep often or very often. In all, 14 percent are being treated for high cholesterol and one in five is taking blood-pressure-lowering medication.

In fact, the percentage of workers who say they're in excellent health has dropped from 34 percent in 2002 to 28 percent in 2008, according to a report recently released by the Families and Work Institute (FWI), a nonprofit research company.

Read the full article.

Tags: workplace, health, stress, benefits

Categories: News

Eight days ago, a 32-year-old France Télécom worker died after throwing herself from the fifth-floor window of company premises in Paris following news of further corporate reorganisation.

The suicide, the 23rd among staff at the former phone monopoly in 18 months, triggered anguish about stress at work. Didier Lombard, the company's chairman, was summoned to a meeting with Employment Minister Xavier Darcos and efforts to provide psychological support to employees during restructuring were stepped up at companies across the land.

The sense of workplace stress when you cross the threshold of a French office or factory doesn't seem notably greater than anywhere else in Europe in these difficult times. But in asides and emails, employees frequently complain about how over-loaded they are.

Read the full article.

Tags: france, economic downturn, recession, stress, workplace

Categories: International | The Economy

An Army program developed partly as a response to an increase in soldier suicides will test all active duty, National Guard and Reserve soldiers to determine how they handle stress, assess their resiliency and require follow-up training.

Data collected on drug use and dismissals from service have shown that some soldiers stressed by frequent combat deployments could use a hand in coping with the emotional toll, Brig. Gen. Rhonda Cornum, chief of comprehensive soldier fitness, said Wednesday.

"Our younger people are having more trouble than anybody else," said Cornum, who is overseeing the new program.

Beginning Oct. 1, all active duty and reserve soldiers will take an online, 170-question assessment of their resiliency, starting with recruits and going through Army's basic training. The test is repeated every two years.

Commanders won't know how their soldiers scored on the test, but will be notified if they have taken it and participated in the follow-up training, Cornum said.

Read the full article.

Tags: military, training, stress, assessment

Categories: News

(From Newswise) Your mother was right: You can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar. Even in Corporate America, where just being nice can save a company millions of dollars.

USC Marshall School of Business professor Christine Porath discovered that employee rudeness hurts the bottom line while researching The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It, which published July 9. She co-wrote the book with Christine Pearson, who is a professor of management at Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Porath and Pearson state that job stress in the United States accounts for $300 billion in losses, as an uncivil workplace reduces productivity (aka "slacking off") as workers spend time looking for other jobs or helping others to do so. In addition, according to Porath and Pearson's research, 80 percent of employees who were victims of insults or bullying in the workplace lost valuable work time worrying about the incident and 78 percent said their commitment to the organization declined.

Read the full article.

Tags: workplace, stress, productivity, performance

Categories: News

According to research by Aviva Risk Management Solutions (ARMS), 13.5 million working days were lost in 2007-08 due to work-related mental health problems.

ARMS believes the problem is set to heighten as businesses stretched by the recession put additional strain on employees.

Read the full article.

Tags: economic downturn, stress, workplace

Categories: The Economy

A PIONEERING training course for the mental health and wellbeing of employees has been developed throughout the region.

A group of mental health professionals and those with experience of mental health problems, led by Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Trust, have developed the Stress at Work programme to help employers educate workers about the importance of mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

Read the full article.

Tags: training, stress, workplace, uk

Categories: News

(Cherryl Hanson-Simpson, Thursday, June 04, 2009) "Employees with money problems are like sharks swimming around the workplace taking bites out of the bottom line." - E Thomas Garman, Personal Finance Employee Education Foundation

Last week we looked at some poor money habits that can cause you to feel distressed about your finances. These practices include spending more than you earn, not saving for emergencies, depending on credit for consumer purchases, not planning for financial goals and taking unwise investing risks.

Research has shown that people with money problems usually end up being tense, worried and depressed. The Centre for Financial Social Work has stated that "money issues are the greatest stressor in peoples' lives." Financial distress can actually lead to insomnia, high blood pressure, migraines and other serious health concerns.

While it's clear that people's money challenges impair their personal lives, it may not be that obvious that these troubles can negatively impact the workplace. What happens when financially challenged people go to work? Do they leave their money worries at home?

(Read the entire article.)

Tags: workplace, finances, stress

Categories: The Economy