How to tackle stress at work

Job-related sickness is usually connected to workload.

Workplaces can be a prime cause of stress, but there are ways people can improve the situation – or at least become better at dealing with it, says a London doctor.

If you’re feeling well, stress is also less of a problem, London GP Ellie Cannon, the author of Is Your Job Making You Ill?, told Radio New Zealand this week.

‘‘If life is going well, it doesn’t really matter if you run out the door in the morning trying to catch a train while slurping a coffee from a takeaway cup and you miss the train and you have to go to work late . . .

‘‘But if you’re feeling stressed from your job and you arrive at work having had not a good breakfast and too much coffee and having to run down the road, you’re arriving at a stressful job already stressed out.’’

Job-related sickness is usually connected to workload, Cannon says, but the work culture that is causing the problems is unlikely to change in the near future.

The result can be insomnia, anxiety and depression.

In addition, when people do take time off they often become sick as the levels of their stress hormones – cortisol and adrenaline – change.

‘‘When you relax and those cortisol levels go a bit higher than before, you can be susceptible to infection,’’ Cannon said.

‘‘Your body knows what it’s doing. It knows to keep you well and going when you need and it knows to let you get ill at a good time. That’s evolution, that is.’’

Face-to-face social interaction, and taking a good look at what is stressful and how you can change your life to accommodate that, can be helpful, Cannon said.

‘‘It can be very useful to step back and say ‘Well, actually, could I be doing this a different way? Even one day a week could you walk for 15 minutes first then get the train a bit later?

‘‘Or could you get up half an hour earlier so you’re actually not on the rush-hour train – get into work half an hour earlier and having breakfast there?

‘‘Are there ways of swapping things around that will not actually have any impact on the money you spend or what time you’re getting to work but could have a huge impact on your stress levels when you get there?’’ –Stuff