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Workplace Stress and Absenteeism

Did you know that the "new backache" is now workplace stress?
The main reasons for calling in sick, have, historically included "flu symptoms", "colds", "abdominal pain" and , most of all, "unspecified back pain".

But now, "Stress" is outstripping all of the above. It's the product of the lives so many of us lead, as we struggle to achieve a balance between work and family, and to manage the increased expectations life makes of us all. The result is often a feeling that we just can't cope any longer. And calling in sick is the easy and obvious thing to do.

GPs don't like stress symptoms. They often haven't got the time or resources to talk us through our difficulties, and isolate cause from effect. Frequently, they probably feel stressed themselves anyway. So quite often, they'll just send us away with a medical certificate, or perhaps prescribe an anti depressant.
But the problem with both of these is that THEY AREN'T SOLUTIONS.

Cognnitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) can often help in situations like this. Simply by talking the symptoms through with an experienced psychotherapist, it's possible to discern whether someone's stress symptoms are caused by one single very big thing, or a combination of factors.

Finding out why is crucial to solving the problem. There is no point in helping someone to manage their time or define their priorities if the real cause of their distress is something more complex.

I've not only worked in the past with Patients (clients) but also with their employers, who, until they talked to me, had never properly understood why a much valued employee had become a long term absentee.
Getting good people back to work is a much better solution to absence problems than dismissing them on capability grounds and starting all over again.

GO TO MY NEW PAGE ON MANAGING STRESS, OR CONTACT ME DIRECTLY ON 077757 43994,

Rhiannon.