1. 217 patients diagnosed with serious or chronic illness and
2. 103 plan sponsors that offer a benefits plan to employees.Outcome of the survey

-     Chronic conditions pose a considerable burden on employers as they experience loss in productivity due to absenteeism, presenteeism and short-term disability.

-      Employees affected by chronic illness spend about 48 minutes of their workday dealing with their condition.Three expert panelists evaluated the findings:

-      Chris MacDonald, assistant vice-president, health management services, group benefits, with Manulife Financial, reiterated the costs for employers on health benefits, short-term disability and long-term disability.

-      She also distinguished regarding indirect costs i.e. when the individual is not in the workplace, there are costs for overtime and a health impact on other employees who may be stressed as a result of the extra workflow.

-      As well, an ill employee may spend a significant amount of time researching his or her disease on the Internet while at work or talking about it with colleagues which can amount to a big loss of productivity.

-      Suzanne Lepage, private health plan strategist with Suzanne Lepage Consulting Inc said that when employers don’t track absenteeism and productivity, it’s hard to know the full impact on the business.

-      “The key is prevention, prevention, prevention – the hallmark of saving chronic disease in the workplace.” Need is to follow the four Es of prevention:

• educate your employees;
• engage them;
• empower them with knowledge; and
• enable and facilitate them with some kind of referral program, whatever the case may be.

 Reference: http://www.benefitscanada.com/benefits/health-wellness/managing-chronic-pain-in-the-workplace-24063

Why would cognitive ability predict emotional hardiness? In truth, it doesn’t. But the tests that measure cognitive ability do. When you tell people they have 12 minutes to show whether they are smart or dumb, the ability to stay calm and focused under duress has a huge impact on the scores.

Heightened anxiety has long been shown to dramatically impair people’s ability to think. It affects basic functions such as short-term memory and processing of simple information, as well as more complex thinking, where anxiety can aggressively interfere with the ability to differentiate between important and irrelevant tasks. In today’s business environment of unrelenting pressure, aspiring leaders must learn how to confront heightened levels of urgency without allowing the accompanying mental agitation to be disruptive.

The CEO of a consumer products company once interviewed was hired to evaluate by his parent company because his company had been doing poorly. In fact, it was the worst-performing brand in the parent conglomerate’s portfolio. Just a few minutes before, when asked about his history with the company, he had confidently articulated the direction in which he was taking the business. Later he was struggling to offer even the most basic sense of how to proceed in a hypothetical, but very plausible, real-world crisis. When asked a question, he would offer an answer that was virtually incoherent. He recognized the shift in eye movements, the slight rise in room temperature, and the slight increase in human body odor. These are all the physical responses of someone experiencing an adrenaline flood that is overloading their higher-order functions. When this happens, a person is prepared to run, not think.

Anyone witnessing the above answers would shudder at the thought that this person was responsible for a company with revenues over $1 billion, but was not nearly as incompetent as he appeared during the case study portion of our evaluation. Day-to-day, on the job, he appeared fine; it was when he was confronted with a high-stress crisis that his physical response overcame his mental processes. He had been promoted to the CEO role at a time when the competitive environment was changing, and he had not been prepared to handle unfamiliar complexity. He had not yet learned to tame the cognitive overload that occurs for people in response to high levels of duress.

And the above organization is not alone. A full 20% of the executives interviewed — senior leaders of some of the world’s leading businesses — become almost incoherent during similar processes, unable to provide answers to more than one-third of the questions posed. Human beings are not naturally wired to engage in complex problem solving when they are under pressure, but it can be learned.

Aspiring leaders must be taught how to manage their stress in such a way that it actually increases their focus and clarity. They need to gain experience in stressful situations where they get an elevated — but not overwhelming — sense of adrenaline and are set up for success. Confidence under pressure can be built like a railroad track in the brain through exposure to repeated experiences over time.

This capacity can be developed in many ways. One simple exercise involves memorizing something, be it a poem or the 50 states, and then reciting it before friends at a dinner party, while encouraging them to taunt you if you make mistakes. At first, you are more likely to have missteps in this context. Eventually, you will find that you can do the exercise faster, with more accuracy, in front of an audience than when you do it by yourself. Toastmasters uses the same concept, teaching people to do something they often fear — public speaking — by first exposing them repeatedly to speaking in a small, supportive environment before putting them in front of larger and larger groups.

Mentors can also nurture this quality in future leaders by creating similar experiences. For instance, if your next-in-line is slated to present before the board, don’t let him do so without preparation. Have him present first in front of a few colleagues, then at the Monday morning meeting, then before the management team, all before they present in the higher-pressure environment of the boardroom.

Once an executive learns how to manage adrenaline without panic, he or she can grow confident that the sensations that stress induces will not lead to collapse. While it is a noisemaker in the untrained mind, when channeled properly adrenaline can help people accomplish things that they never would have imagined possible. The ability to make adrenaline a friend is a necessity for executives in today’s environment of ongoing duress. Not surprisingly, it’s also a hallmark of the world’s best CEOs.

Reference: http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/04/dont_let_stress_break_your_per.html

Previous studies have shown that long-term elevated cortisol levels lead to increased abdominal obesity, hypertension, diabetes and cardiovascular risk.

Findings:

- Show that cortisol might play an important part in the development of obesity and increased cardiovascular risk for those working in shifts.

- Unraveling the role of cortisol in the health problems found in shift workers could result in new approaches to prevent cardiovascular damage in this specific group.

- This is the first study that shows that working in shifts leads to changes in long-term cortisol levels, suggesting that the stress hormone cortisol might be one of the factors contributing to the increased cardiovascular risks of shift workers.

- The study will run in the Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Reference: http://www.massagemag.com/News/massage-news.php?id=11624&catid=stress-hormones-may-increase-cardiovascular-risks-for-shift-workers&title=

]]> http://www.stressmanagement.in/blog/2011/10/stress-hormones-may-increase-cardiovascular-risks-for-shift-workers/feed/ 0 http://www.stressmanagement.in/blog/2011/10/job-hunt-how-to-cope-with-the-stress-of-unemployment/ http://www.stressmanagement.in/blog/2011/10/job-hunt-how-to-cope-with-the-stress-of-unemployment/#comments Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:39:09 +0000 admin http://www.stressmanagement.in/blog/?p=307 One of the most stressful experiences an individual can undergo is being informed that he/she is no longer employed.

For those who’ve been through this, now is not the time to take a vacation. However, it’s good to take a ‘cooling off’ period to regroup and chart your plans for the ensuing job search. The immediate priority is to deal with the aftershock. Be careful about what you say or do or you may seriously damage your prospects for reemployment later on.

Things To Do Are:

-      Take a “cooling off” period

• Immediately find a close friend, a confidante to whom you can ventilate your feelings, critical for emotional recovery.
• Let negative feelings out and not bottle them up with someone with whom you can be irrational without fear that the conversation will be repeated somewhere else, do not try to contain your feelings.
• Take a “cooling off” period from the job market of a few days but do not make the mistake of re-entering the job market too soon.

-      Use the cooling off period to

• Regroup your thoughts and
• Chart your plans for the ensuing job search
• Update resume

-      Think positively

• It may be hard at first but have to regard your situation positively.
• Remember this is an opportunity to start over in a better job somewhere else.

-      Establish a daily routine

• Keep busy.
• When one is unemployed, there suddenly is a large blocks of time to fill that were formerly occupied by the job.
• Beware of developing a tendency toward idleness by keeping busy.
• The regular business hours should be devoted to interviewing on a non-stop basis.
• Make your preparations for the next day’s interviews the prior evening so that you do not waste time during the business day.

-      Keep up normal social contacts

• Some people react to unemployment by drawing within themselves and shunning their usual social contacts. Do not try to hide from the world.
• There is absolutely no shame attached to being unemployed, especially when so many people have become victims of mass layoffs in the wake of downsizing, through no fault of their own.

-      Do not take a vacation

• Taking a vacation takes someone out of the job market.
• Account time to prospective employers and most are reluctant to hire people who have a long period of unemployment on their records.
• It does not look good to tell the prospective employer you are on vacation.

-      Draw up a budget that conserves your assets.

• You may have made the statement numerous times that you are going to cut back on unnecessary expenses but now you have to do it.
• Start out with a basic spending plan that includes mortgage or rent, auto payments, food, insurance, gasoline and the expenses of job hunting.
• If you have income left over, budget for other expenses on a priority basis.

Avoid the Following Missteps:

Emotional outbursts or arguments with the ex-employer

-      They serve no purpose and may harden the company’s stance against you in regard to severance issues.

-      Your first impulse may be to want an explanation, but the employer is under no obligation to let you know their reasoning.

-      People are discharged usually because someone in authority no longer likes them.

-      Other “official versions” are given but the real reason usually comes down to likability.

The urge to sue the former employer

-      Trying to “get even” by suing an employer can be extremely damaging to your career.

-      A lawsuit against the ex-employer may effectively turn you into a non-person in the job market.

-      Most prospective employers shun anyone who has sued a former employer, although such an action is illegal.

-      Ask yourself how you would react if you were an employer with several qualified candidates, one of whom turns out to have sued a former employer.

-      Would you risk hiring the one who sued?

-      Chances are you would not, out of fear of being sued yourself at some point.

Burning your bridges behind you when you leave.

-      Telling the ex-employer off is a great temptation, especially in the immediate wake of being discharged.

-      You should leave without acrimony or criticism.

-      You may need the ex-employer for a reference, even though fewer companies are giving references in fear of triggering lawsuits if they say unfavorable things about the former employee.

Dumping on your family when you get home.

-      It’s not their fault you were discharged and they should not be made to bear the brunt of your anger and frustration.

-      You may say things in the heat of anger that will impair your relationships with the family.

-      Do not try to hide the discharge.

-      Tell your family what has happened.

-      Keep it factual and to the point.

-      Engage and involve each family member in your search campaign.

-      Tell them you fully expect to find another job. Especially where children are concerned, trying to conceal a discharge can have damaging effects. You do not want them to overhear it at home or on the grapevine at school.

Read More on:  http://www.northjersey.com/news/business/126863603_Job_Hunt__How_to_cope_with_the_stress_of_unemployment.html

-      Exercise. Exercise relaxes tense muscles that become tight and rigid when you experience stress. Exercise delivers oxygen to the brain, vital organs and muscles immediately and produces endorphins that soothe your mind, body and soul.

• Stress expert suggest hanging a jump rope on the back of your office door and pulling it out for a quick minute of exercise when you need to de-stress.
• Also, consider jumping jacks or sit-ups, which one can easily manage in office. No gym necessary.

-      Stretch the stress out. Simple stretches can also restore a sense of calm.

Three yoga stretches which can be done while sitting in the office chair –and it’s best to hold each stretch for up to five seconds.

• First, with arms at your side, put your head between your legs, trying to touch the floor with your head.
• Second, with hands on your thighs, stretch your entire body upward. Then slowly touch your chin to your chest.
• Third, with your feet firmly planted, grab the arm or side of the chair and turn your head toward the back wall. Hold for a few breaths and then repeat on the other side.

-      Focus on your breathing. Stress experts recommend a breathing exercise called “heart coherence,” which is achieved in three steps:

• First, place your left hand over your heart, then imagine your breath flowing through your heart.
• Take four counts to breathe in, and another four counts to breathe out.
• Then imagine the feelings of love, joy or compassion radiating out of you like beams of light.

This method was discovered in the late 1970s during heart transplant research in Redmond, Ore, which offers stress-relief programs, retreats and workshops. The key finding is that your heart has its own brain and intelligence. Heart activity impacts you dramatically and others around you. Synchronizing your heart and mind has immediate benefits in relieving stress!!!

-      Visualize a calming image.

• Start with your eyes closed and in a relaxed position either sitting or lying down.
• Then imagine a lavender-colored, healing light moving through your body, taking away any stress or pain.
• Another visualization technique comes from a stress expert is putting your hand in front of you, palm up and closing your eyes.
• Visualize a crystal sitting in your palm, or actually place one in your hand, if you have a stone.
• The healing properties of crystals are believed to date back centuries to many ancient cultures, including Egyptian, Chinese and Native American.
• Some of the most popular ones are the amethyst (calms the mind), citrine (healing properties) and variscite (eases anxiety).
• Visualize the stone glowing and spreading warmth into your palm and then into the center of your body, spreading the light and color throughout your chest, up to your head, down your arms to the fingertips, and then down both of your legs to your toes.

-      Soothe your senses with calming scents. Aromatherapy is another centuries-old form of alternative medicine, the natural plant extracts are used to help boost psychological and physical well-being. According to the Alliance of International Aroma therapists, some of the most popular essential oils for stress relief are lavender and rose to relieve anxiety and marjoram to promote relaxation.

• A good way to use them is to first put a small amount i.e. a couple drops on first three fingertips.
• Then, place your hands under your nose in the prayer position, index fingers resting against your lips, and slowly and deeply breathe in the soothing scent.
• Repeat the breathing three to five times and you’ll be well on your way to restoring calm and quashing the stress of the business day.

Reference: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/220080

Ragging – is just a word to those who have not experienced it and hence all of us will not fathom the grief of Mr Rajendra Kachroo, father of Aman, when he expresses his disappointment on the quantum of punishment.

Let us try and understand what Ragging is like?

Ragging has been defined differently

-      According to the Chambers English Dictionary, Ragging is an outburst of organized horseplay, usually in defiance of authority, riotous festivity, especially of under-graduates in British Universities, associated with the raising of money for charity.

-      According to the Reader’s Digest Great Encyclopedia Dictionary, “Ragging means a noisy disorderly conduct, annual parade of students in fancy dress to collect money for charity, playing rough jokes, or throwing into wild disorder a person’s room etc.”

-      The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India perhaps has given a more comprehensive meaning of ragging as under: “Ragging is any disorderly conduct, whether by words spoken or written, or by an act which has the effect of teasing, treating or handling with rudeness any student, indulging in rowdy or indisciplined activities which cause or are likely to cause annoyance, hardship or psychological harm or to raise fear or apprehension thereof in a fresher or a junior student and which has the effect of causing or generating a sense of shame or embarrassment so as to adversely affect the psyche of a fresher or a junior student.”

Ragging in recent years has transcended all of the above definitions; there have been umpteen instances of students leaving college, studies, suffer a scarred psyche for life or even commit suicide.

Ragging today borders on lowest form of humiliation!

Have you ever been humiliated? I am sure, yes!

How did you feel then?

I am sure that is one instance you would rather not remember; but however hard you may try, it is not humanly possible to forget that humiliation!

For those fortunate of us, who have never been humiliated, please read on…

“A leading researcher on humiliation, Dr. Evelin Lindner, defines humiliation as “the enforced lowering of a person or group, a process of subjugation that damages or strips away their pride, honor or dignity.” Further, humiliation means to be placed, against ones will, in a situation where one is made to feel inferior”. One of the defining characteristics of humiliation as a process is that the victim is forced into passivity, acted upon, made helpless.” Johan Galtung, a leading practitioner, agrees with Lindner that the infliction of humiliation is a profoundly violent psychological act that leaves the victim with a deep wound to the psyche.

Reference: http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/Humiliation/

All of above, put together, is what a victim of ragging undergoes, today. One can now understand why students leave colleges they entered against fierce competition; give up careers for which they dreamt all their life or even end their life because they cannot take the humiliation any more or face their family afterwards.

Despite four state legislations in India that prohibit ragging and two landmark Supreme Court judgments prohibiting ragging, ragging continues unabated because average Indian does not understand the agony faced by the victim and misery of the family.

Till there is mass protest against ragging, there is faint hope that it will stop!

Dr C H Asrani

While it is an employer’s legal and moral responsibility to ensure safety of its employees, what would one say about the scope of that responsibility when it comes to law makers and enforcers themselves?  For a group the general public relies on for protection and safety, sexual harassment needs ‘zero tolerance’ classification.
The number of cases that one has seen in the recent times within the police force itself suggests an urgent need for sensitivity training and stringent action; the twin objectives being: prevention of such cases and a sensitive and appropriate handling of sexual harassment cases that come from the common man.

It’s time that the authorities stop relying on media pressure and start cleaning up the dirt within its ranks.

In most reported cases, the perpetrator is either let off too easily or if he or she is a good performer then matters are often even overlooked, what is worse is that the victim is made to believe that it was perhaps his or her doing that lead to the sexual misdemeanour in the first place.
The need of the hour is not punishment; employers need to take up this issue more seriously and take concrete preventive measures to ensure the safety of its most valuable resource – the human capital.  Employees need to be made fully aware of what constitutes sexual harassment (am sure most of you would be surprised to know that sending lewd jokes on the office e-mail does indeed fall within this purview); sensitivity training for employees could go a long way in fostering a respectful, professional and congenial working environment.
What is foremost is that the employers offer the aggrieved employee the comfort of approaching an unbiased third party (such as an external counsellor) without the fear of demotion or loss of employment.
It goes without saying that proven cases of sexual harassment be dealt with utmost seriousness with the punishment itself acting as a deterrent.

Today, several cases of sexual harassment go unreported causing much emotional distress to the victim; it is the employer’s legal and moral responsibility to ensure that sexual harassment be dealt with in a sensitive and appropriate manner.

Such instances of sudden death(s) bring forth the question – ‘you eat well; you exercise regularly BUT are you truly healthy?’

In 1970 the American sociologist Alvin Toffler predicted that the rate of change in modern civilization would accelerate to such a degree that enormous numbers of people would experience shattering stress and disorientation. Toffler described this condition as FUTURE SHOCK. With human biological evolution lagging behind developments in technology and lifestyle, physiological and psychological stress emerges as a result of the growing deficit between daily demands and coping resources.

This third dimension of STRESS is well recognized but not attended to. Why? It is macho to be a fitness freak and eat exotic healthy foods (you get mentioned in the media) but seek a counselor – not macho at all, gets negative publicity and hence an attempt to convince self “I am not stressed. I thrive on challenges”. Truly macho!

Every one talks of SLEEP for 6-7 hours! Easier said than done; try catching that 6 hour sound sleep – the only help stressed individual gets is a pill – making him worse. Sleep hygiene has to be customized to the individual, based on his stressors and resources. Try asking someone staying in a 1BHK rented apartment to have a good mattress, soft relaxing music and dim red light.

Time has come that corporate India appoints counselors, accessible to their top management through the digital media with no fear of negative publicity or time wastage. Stress can be anticipated and sessions organized.

Imagine country head of a MNC seeking a session with his counselor via voice (plus video) chat prior to a meeting with principals flying down for annual appraisal.

Truly Macho!

Dr C H Asrani

While the physical stress is visible and thus easier to deal with it is the mental or emotional stress that is the silent killer.
And often, emotional stress manifests itself in the form of physical symptoms such as, recurring headaches, nausea, aches and pains which do not have any pathological explanation; add to that irregular eating habits, erratic sleep pattern and lack of exercise and you have yourself a recipe for disaster.  

Let us understand the key types of stress that one could face at the workplace:
•    Performance related stress (meeting targets and goals at work);
•    Stress due to tough or uncooperative superiors or colleagues and sub-ordinates;
•    Stress arising from jobs that require frequent travel;
•    Stress due to a challenging work environment (recession or downturn in sector of work).

It is important that we keep in mind that stress at the workplace is a common occurrence and look for signs that indicate that we are suffering from the same.  Acknowledging that we are going through work-related stress is the first step to finding the solution to the problem.

Some simple measures which if adopted as habits could help eliminate or minimise work stress:
•    Setting aside daily or weekly time for some activity that relaxes you; this does not include competitive sports/ activities.
•    Spending time with people you genuinely like (social commitments not included) and making a conscious effort to ensure that your discussions are not solely work-related;
•    Taking regular breaks or holidays with loved ones; mini-breaks over long weekends are great stress-busters;
•    Ensuring healthy eating habits and trying to exercise at least 3-4 times every week.

Seeking professional help when things seem overwhelming is also recommended for those suffering from chronic work-stress.