Let’s be honest, the prospect of returning to work after Christmas is unlikely to fill you with anything other than dread. In fact, when you team wet and windy weather conditions with heightened workload, increased demand for performance and practically no job security – it is no surprise that January is identified as the most stressful time of the year.
Recent statistics produced by the British Association of Anger Management (BAAM) have found that the extra stresses of the season are having particuarly detrimental effects on the UK’s female workforce.
The survey concluded that stress in women has increased dramatically with 80% of women feeling unsupported, over-worked and insecure in their positions. Worringly, these increased stress levels have resulted in feelings of depression in 60% of cases and anger issues in 43%.
These peturbing statistics raise the question – is the workplace ill-equipped to deal with the needs of women and is this lack of empathy for the female workforce creating the increased stress which leads to depression and anger?
Mike Fisher, BAAM’s Founder, highlights the dramatic increase of females suffering from anger and health problems that are linked to stress at work:
“Our client base is approximately 40% female and we see the effects every day of stress and depression. The health effects are serious”.
Of the female respondents to the survey many reported feeling increased tension, negative changes in personality and hyper-sensitivity to colleagues, partners and other family members. Almost half of all surveyed claimed that the stresses of work had caused them to feel depressed and to increase their alcohol intake significantly. Even more concerning is the number of respondents who admitted to having experienced chest pains as a result of their heightened stress levels.
With nowhere to turn stressed out workers are bottling up their feelings causing them to lash out the people who love them the most.
Julian Hall, Director of the Derby Clinic, says:
“What these stats show is that an individual’s ability to deal with stress in the workplace is directly linked to their motivation, productivity and their health. What we know from our core client group is that since they are unable to express this at work they end up taking it home with them and acting it out on their families. An employer with foresight will place this at the core of their employee well-being strategy”
With the UK at risk of facing a “double-dip” recession and very little being done by employers to deal with the health of their staff, things are looking particularly bleak for our nation’s workforce and in particular, our women.
