In these troubled times, many people have been contacting Samaritans with their work, pay and pension worries. It is not new for Samaritans to offer emotional support in this area and we have received calls about employment and financial worries throughout our 55-year history.
Samaritans is urging anyone with work or financial concerns to seek support rather than letting problems get out of control. Share your problems with family, friends and colleagues or, if you feel you can’t do this, contact Samaritans. Samaritans are completely confidential and give everyone a safe arena to discuss thoughts, feelings and problems, without fear of being judged.
Gary describes how talking to a Samaritans volunteer helped him:
Are you or your colleagues stressed?
Working smartly to avoid stress. See the video on the Guardian website with Joe Ferns and Jonathan Moran from Samaritans, and Professor Cary Cooper
Suggestions from Samaritans about what to do if you are stressed
Not sure if you are stressed?
If you think you might be experiencing stress, ask yourself the following questions:
Do you have any of these physical symptoms?
Or take our quiz to see if you are stressed
If you’re worried about a colleague, there are a number of signs of stress that you can watch out for. They include:
Ways to manage workplace stress from Samaritans
If your colleague can’t talk to you about how they are feeling then encourage them to contact us by phone on 08457 90 90 90, email on jo@samaritans.org or face-to-face at one of the UK’s 201 local branches. Log on to www.samaritans.org to find your local branch.
WorkLife
Samaritans’ Worklife programme provides practical skills for your managers or team members to deal with difficult people-based situations. It is based on core Samaritans principles that we use throughout these courses to help your people better manage their own experience at work.
Worklife has been designed to support the Health and Safety Executive's Standards and Guidelines for tackling work-based stress.
Find out more about WorkLife
Samaritans is urging anyone with work or financial concerns to seek support rather than letting problems get out of control. Share your problems with family, friends and colleagues or, if you feel you can’t do this, contact Samaritans. Samaritans are completely confidential and give everyone a safe arena to discuss thoughts, feelings and problems, without fear of being judged.
Gary describes how talking to a Samaritans volunteer helped him:
| "I'd like to say how great Samaritans are. I recently phoned them and the bloke I talked to was really calm and friendly. No one there could magically make my life better and totally happy, but talking really did help. I also know that there will always be someone at the end of the phone." |
Are you or your colleagues stressed?
Working smartly to avoid stress. See the video on the Guardian website with Joe Ferns and Jonathan Moran from Samaritans, and Professor Cary Cooper
Suggestions from Samaritans about what to do if you are stressed
Not sure if you are stressed?
If you think you might be experiencing stress, ask yourself the following questions:
- Are you angry and impatient with people close to you?
- Do you feel close to tears over small events?
- Are you behaving differently from usual?
- Do you feel isolated from people around you?
- Is your self-esteem at rock bottom?
Do you have any of these physical symptoms?
- Sleeplessness
- Loss of appetite or irregular eating
- Panic attacks and difficulty breathing
- Tight, knotty feelings in your stomach
- Low energy and lack of concentration
- Loss of interest in things around you
Or take our quiz to see if you are stressed
If you’re worried about a colleague, there are a number of signs of stress that you can watch out for. They include:
- Being withdrawn or unsociable
- Being low-spirited or depressed
- Drinking alcohol excessively or becoming dependent on drugs
- Finding it difficult to relate to others
- Taking less care of themselves
- Acting out of character
- Being tearful or constantly fighting back tears
- Being excessively irritable
- Finding it hard to concentrate
- Feeling less energetic or particularly tired
- Eating much less or much more than usual
- Putting themselves down (self-mockingly as well as seriously), e.g. “Nobody loves me” or “I’m a waste of space”.
- Being un-typically accident prone.
Ways to manage workplace stress from Samaritans
If your colleague can’t talk to you about how they are feeling then encourage them to contact us by phone on 08457 90 90 90, email on jo@samaritans.org or face-to-face at one of the UK’s 201 local branches. Log on to www.samaritans.org to find your local branch.
WorkLife
Samaritans’ Worklife programme provides practical skills for your managers or team members to deal with difficult people-based situations. It is based on core Samaritans principles that we use throughout these courses to help your people better manage their own experience at work.
Worklife has been designed to support the Health and Safety Executive's Standards and Guidelines for tackling work-based stress.
Find out more about WorkLife
| "BUPA believes tackling stress is vital to ensure a healthy and productive workforce. Our recent study on the impact of anxiety on health shows that one in every five people worry constantly or about a lot of things, leading to sleepless nights, erractic eating habits and often to higher alcohol consumption, all of which can have a profound impact on health and wellbeing - and of course on workplace performance. At BUPA, we believe it is important for employers to be aware of the signs of worry and put in place health and wellbeing work-based programmes and initatives to help reduce the stress felt by employees. It is for this reason we are pleased to be supporting Samaritans Stress Down Day". Peter Mace, assistant medical director, BUPA Wellness
|
