Work-related stress: The solution is management not mindfulness

Job security and change – the main 21st century stressor?

Clearly for many people these are uncertain times in businesses and organizations across a wide range of sectors. Where there are real threats to jobs in terms of headcount reductions or redundancies then not surprisingly people will feel more insecure. However, it is how secure people feel facing change when there is no real immediate threat to their employment status which is revealing. Insecurity becomes problematic when there is a creeping worry that work or the job is changing too

Work relationships – the need to balance challenge and support

Relationships are at the core of the quality of most people’s experience in the workplace. When relationships are positive, other work pressures seem easier to deal with and wellbeing and performance are enhanced. When they are negative the climate becomes fragile and getting things done seems so much more difficult. At relatively junior levels relationships with peers are important but probably less critical than the line manager relationship. So, if you line manage several people what do they

Manage the hindrances and focus on the challenges

There is an important distinction between negative hindrance pressures and positive challenge ones. Hindrance pressures, or stressors, are those that you can see no purpose to engaging with other than to get them off your plate. They are perceived only as barriers to success and your initial reaction to them is likely to be “why do I have to do this?” Whereas challenge pressures are by definition difficult, but they are quickly associated with progress in terms of working towards a goal and/or

Good management practice is the key to long term employee wellbeing and low stress

So, if you have a team or an individual struggling with job insecurity or poor working relationships would you send them on a mindfulness or personal resilience course. These types of coping skill boosts could help, but the root cause can be best addressed by direct management of the situations and contexts. Successful management interventions are those that ensure that the context is evaluated and understood. One size rarely fits all, changes need to be crafted to the specific demands of the

Selected bibliography

For the seminal work on how demand and decision latitude interact to influence stress, see: R. Karasek, “Job demands, job decision latitude and mental strain: Implications for job redesign.”

Administrative Science Quarterly. 1979, 24, 285−306. For evidence that mindfulness can help individuals cope better with stress in their life, see: M. Sharma, and S.E. Rush, “Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction as a Stress Management Intervention for Healthy Individuals: A Systematic Review. Journal of