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Stress and Wellness Programs, Seminars &
Workshops
For Workplace, Corporate and Private
In a nationwide survey from the American Psychological Association 32% of
Americans report experiencing extreme levels of stress. Nearly half of Americans
believe that their stress has increased over the past five years. One in five
reported that they experience their highest level of stress 15 or more days per
month - and this was before the economic crash.
In 2007, the Journal of the American Medical Association reported
that "Workplace stress is as bad for your heart as smoking and high cholesterol"
(JAMA. 2007;298:1652-1660).
Even with all the knowledge of just how stress, disease and employee
absenteeism interact, many executives and managers still believe that ongoing
stress is essential for job productivity, while studies show that workers under
stress produce less. The federal Centers for Disease Control reports that stress
is the single highest cause of worker absenteeism, double that of all other
illnesses and injuries. It's also been proven time and again that stress
interferes with memory, concentration, judgments and decision making.
We offer many Stress Management Programs to suite any size company's needs.
You can Choose from One-time seminar presentation.
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1 hr., 2 hr., 1/2
Day, (1/2 day x2), Full Day program, as desired. Call to discuss your
objectives and fee schedule.
Or Regularly Scheduled Sessions
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Series of
sessions over time to allow for processing, implementation, and then
reconvening with new insights and questions
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Regularly
scheduled monthly or quarterly programs for ongoing support or to address a
specific issue, e.g. relocation, merger, specific to your group.
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Individual
mini-consults to address specific issues and create customized tools. (e.g.
health problem, sleeplessness, caring for aging parent, divorce, juggling work
& home.)
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Meeting with
separate departments, shifts, divisions, etc.
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Custom made to
your requirements.
Call now for more information
978.314.4560
or
Recent News on Workplace Stress
July 15, 2009 04:17 PM Eastern Daylight
Time
Sustainable Workplace Means Addressing Employee
Well-being, Too, According to Stanford Business School Research
STANFORD, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Corporate practices are affecting not just
polar bears and wetlands, but also may be killing human beings, says Stanford
Graduate School of Business faculty member Jeffrey Pfeffer. As reported in
today’s Stanford Knowledgebase the concept of "sustainability" must be
expanded to include consideration of whether workplaces are good not only for
the environment but also for people.
What Pfeffer calls toxic workplace environments, particularly in the United
States, raise rates of disease and mortality. He urges business, government, and
the media to pay attention to what has been a shockingly neglected topic. In the
present distressed economy, he says, "the problem is only going to get worse."
"The lack of attention to employee needs helps explain why the United States
spends more on health care than other countries but gets worse outcomes," says
Pfeffer, the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the
Graduate School of Business. "We have no mandatory vacation or sick day
requirements, and we do have chronic layoffs, overwork, and stress. Working in
many organizations is simply hazardous to your health."
Specifically, he says, epidemiological studies show that holding a
lower-level position where one does not have much control over job activities
and decision making puts employees at a higher risk of having—or dying from—a
heart attack. "There’s nothing more stressful than being in an environment in
which you have a lot of pressure but relatively little power," Pfeffer says.
In addition, spotty or interrupted health care insurance—a typical
consequence of layoffs and job changes—and the trend toward jobs that offer no
health coverage at all, leads to a significant decrease in routine preventive
medical screening procedures such as mammograms and cholesterol and blood
pressure testing, and as a consequence, added risk to workers’ health.
Pfeffer cites research showing that overwork and job stress lead to increases
in smoking, alcohol abuse, and high blood pressure, while layoffs contribute to
depression, violence, and even lowered life expectancy. "There is evidence that
people who experience a layoff live 1.5 years less than those who don’t,"
Pfeffer says.
The Stanford professor thus maintains that the concept of "sustainability"
must be expanded to include not only whether corporations care for the
environment and resource conservation, but also whether they are good for their
employees.
As to why the serious question of worker well-being has been given scant
attention by executives, regulators, and pundits, Pfeffer suggests it may have
something to do with current mercenary cultural values. "There was a time when
CEOs believed they had an obligation to all of their stakeholders, including
employees," he says. "But over time, we've come to look at even the simplest
things in financial terms. Childcare, for example, which used to be a matter
between parents and children, is now a service to be traded on the New York
Stock Exchange. This way of thinking is taking out the human factor."
The great irony, says Pfeffer, is that most workplace policies that are bad
for employees are also bad for companies themselves. Organizations that are more
"humane"––offering generous benefits, sick leave, vacation pay, health
insurance, and so forth––are shown to be more profitable. Pfeffer points to
companies such as Southwest Airlines, Kimberly-Clark in the Andean region, and
kidney dialysis provider DaVita as exemplars. "I hope businesses will wake up to
the fact that if they don't do well by their employees, chances are they’re not
doing well, period," Pfeffer says.
In the current economic climate, he notes, more
people will be laid off, work longer hours, become saddled with increasing work
responsibilities, and operate without health insurance. The government, Pfeffer
says, will almost certainly need to step in with regulation. If nothing else,
with health care costs on the rise, government should be looking to the
workplace as one culprit in the decline in the quality of workers' health.
______________________
INVESTOR'S
BUSINESS
DAILY
Relaxation can improve your business decisions and your overall
health
Investor's Business Daily
Wednesday, March 24, 2004
by Kathleen Doler
Ever want to just shut off your brain? The stream of thoughts is incessant:
the 65 unanswered e-mails in your in box, your son's science project, your
co-worker's annoying sighing, the roof gutter repair, the grocery list. The
endless static of brain chatter can be overwhelming.
Sure, a vacation would be great, but meditation offers a cheaper and
always-available solution. It's a way of slowing down the active mind. Like
cleaning out a cluttered drawer, meditation can have a cleansing effect on your
brain.
What's more, evidence is convincing Western doctors that the benefits of
meditation go way beyond its calming influence. Studies show it can help reduce
blood pressure and cholesterol, lower the risk of heart attack and stroke, treat
insomnia, anxiety and stress, aid in reducing chronic pain and improve treatment
of hormonal problems.
It's easy to learn, and it doesn't have to be spiritual. Clark Strand says it
best in his book "The Wooden Bowl": "To meditate is to return to our natural
state, the condition of wakeful simplicity that exists when distractions have
fallen away."
Give it a try: Meditation is about bringing stillness into your life
and mind. All you need to get started is a quiet place to practice and five or
10 minutes. Forget the stuff you've heard about pretzel postures, incense and
bells. Sit comfortably in a chair, in a quiet place, with soft light. You're
ready to begin.
The one constant in all meditation styles - and there are many - is focusing
on your breathing. This will help you bring your awareness to one single place.
Counting breaths is one simple technique. Or you may want to focus on the
feeling of the breath going in and out at the tip of your nose.
Another helpful technique is to visualize a calming location - a beach, a
mountaintop, whatever appeals to you.
Or you may want to repeat a phrase to yourself in your mind. This helps you
to focus the brain. If you're practicing meditation to reduce your stress level,
one phrase you might use is "I am, peace."
Your mind will wander. Expect it. Just keep bringing your focus back to the
breathing and the relaxation of just inhaling and exhaling and being present in
the moment.
Try not to judge yourself with questions such as "Am I getting it?" That's
not the point.
You also may want to read a meditation book, listen to a tape, take a class
or attend a retreat. All will help you reinforce your practice. But again, don't
overcomplicate what you're doing.
Author Strand advised: "Meditation ought to decrease the drivenness of our
lives, not make it worse. That is why I say meditate for its own sake, as a
hobby, without losing the lightness of your approach."
Medical benefits and reduced stress: As mentioned above, the medical
benefits of meditation are compelling and varied. In one of the most significant
recent studies, researchers found meditation may reduce atherosclerosis and the
risk of heart attack and stroke. The findings were published in the American
Heart Association Journal, Stroke in March 2001.
This was the first controlled study to suggest that stress reduction can
reduce atherosclerosis without changes in diet and exercise. The research team
included folks from UCLA, Charles R. Drew University of Medicine and Science in
Los Angeles and Maharishi University of Management, College of Maharishi Vedic
Medicine in Fairfield, Iowa.
Atherosclerosis is a hardening of the arteries due to the buildup of fat
deposits in the artery wall. In a study of 60 men and women over seven months,
participants practicing meditation showed a decrease of .098 millimeter in
arterial wall thickness, as measured by ultrasound. During the same period, a
group that didn't practice meditation showed an increase of .054 millimeter in
wall thickness. Researchers said a decrease in arterial wall thickness
approaching .1 millimeter would indicate an 11% decrease in the risk of heart
attack and a 7.7 to 15% reduction in the risk of stroke.
Finding a way to reduce stress and anxiety is what brings many people to the
practice of mediation.
Better decision-making: When we are stressed, we tend to react
instinctively . and sometimes not thoughtfully. Anger comes to the surface
because we may be feeling fearful, threatened or just tired. Meditation helps
people train their brains to react more deliberately instead of instinctively.
This can result in calmer decision-making.
Feeling in control reduces anxiety. In a study by the University of
Massachusetts, 20 out of 22 anxiety-prone people showed a 60% improvement in
anxiety levels after an eight-week course in meditation.
Up to 40% of U.S. workers describe their job as "very or extremely"
stressful, said the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Problems at work account for more health complaints than any other type of
stress. And the American Institute of Stress says 60%-80% of on-the-job
accidents are stress-related.
So it's not surprising that companies are discovering the benefits of
meditation in helping their work forces to better handle stress, and many are
offering stress reduction and meditation seminars.
Calmer workers make better decisions and are better team players. In the 2000
"Attitudes in the American Workplace VI" Gallup Poll, 80% of workers said they
felt stress on the job, and nearly half of those said they needed help in
learning how to manage stress. 42% said their co-workers needed such help.
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