The National Union of Teachers (NUT) has voted at their recent conference to launch a campaign to protect teacher’s rights and reduce their workload. One of the primary reasons for pursuing this, according to the NUT, is that recent surveys have shown the teaching is the most stressful profession in the UK.

The NUT set up a working group in 2006 to investigate issues of stress, anxiety, depression and burn-out in teachers, and their findings were presented to conference last week. This included one study by the HSE which concluded that 41.5% of teachers classified themselves as highly stressed.

There are various stress inputs into a teacher’s workload, and the NUT are seeking to minimise the effect of these with decreased working hourse negotiated through a national (England and Wales) employment contract.

Meanwhile, in Scotland, recent figures show teachers are taking up to six times the national UK average in sick leave due to psychological ill-health. Figures were obtained from all but one of the twenty three local authorities who supplied sickness statistics and absence rates. Teacher Support Scotland, a support network, has also reported that as many as 3 out of every 4 teachers felt their work was having an adverse effect on their health, both physical and mental, with stress, exhaustion, and disturbed sleep patterns being the most common symptoms. Teachers Support Scotland have been operating a 24hour helpline to assist teachers to cope and to identify any further needs they may have.

Whilst the absolute “most stressful” accolade is not one that can be attributed with any degree of confidence, there is no doubt that teaching is one of the most stressful occupations. This is not limited to a particular sector, i.e. primary or secondary, as the figures are consistent irrespective of stage being taught. In addition, further education professionals have similar figures to secondary school staff.

Compass Scotland have been working in schools in Scotland over the past four years, and we have seen first hand the causes, symptoms and effects of stress and anxiety in teaching professionals. There is no easy solution to these problems, as the stressors have several vectors, from the institutional to the personal. We have achieved success in lowering staff stress levels, but only as part of a combined approach to culture, ethos and personal responsibility.

Teaching is a difficult occupation, and teachers deserve our respect, however, they also deserve adequate support and an environment which does not impact upon their mental health.

pressure or stress?

Few people understand that there are two types of stress; as discovered by Dr. Hans Selye; distress (bad stress) and eustress (good stress). Distress is the disrupting, troublesome, and catastrophic form of stress. Conversely, eustress is the stress that enables a person to get in the zone, be motivated by the challenge, and enjoy the experience. Unlike distress, eustress results in better health, accomplishment, pride, euphoric feelings, and success.

Almost everything, from playing cards, to falling in love, to being on the frontline of war, involves stress. Therefore, not experiencing stress is synonymous with not experiencing life. Unfortunately, people who are quick to identify all stress as bad, concentrate on reducing or removing stress altogether. Essentially, these people reduce the joy of living. However, the type of stress experienced is dependent on how the person feeling the stress perceives it.

People who define and manage stress correctly do not concentrate on stress reduction, but rather enjoy greater amounts of eustress, and as such, enjoy a fully lived and enriching life.

Just as food is as essential for life as it can be harmful, so is stress. A person who consumes a large amount of food requires extra exercise and more healthy food than unhealthy food to survive. Likewise, high-stressed individuals such as a working parent who is also a college student, process a lot of stress (food). People who process large amounts of stress require mental exercise and more eustress (good food) than distress (bad food). Individuals who embrace and define eustress, create goals, take action, reflect, recover, and repeat the process are consistently healthier, more productive, and routinely successful.

Defining Stress

Say “I do” to positive stress

Two ways suggested to differentiate between eustress and distress are determining how much control a person has over the stressful situation and if there is the potential for a desirable outcome. If there is no control over the stressful event, or a desirable outcome possible, such as the premature death of a family member, then distress exists. Conversely, if there is control, and a possible desirable outcome, then the potential for distress or eustress exists. In this case, the individual should seek ways to ensure eustress prevails over distress.

People often allow initial thoughts and feelings to define stress. For example, a messy room can create bad feelings and result in distress. If not managed correctly the room remains messy and distress increases. However, though thoughts and feelings are useful in determining if stress exists, they alone do not determine which type of stress it is. When a person first defines the stress as eustress, by realizing that he or she has control over the situation and there is a desirable outcome, the rewards of eustress begin to emerge, goals are set, action begins, and the task is completed. This individual views the situation as an opportunity rather than a hindrance. By completing the task, the person develops a sense of accomplishment and success. Additionally, time that would have been spent distressing about the dirty closet is now available for other more productive things. How the individual chooses to view and cope with potential eustressful events determines whether the stress will be distress or eustress.

Taking Action

To experience success, create goals and action plans and then take action. Without action, goals and action plans are nothing more than wishful thinking. Developing action plans by reviewing the steps required to achieve goals, writing out the steps, and scheduling time for each of them. A day planner is an excellent tool for placing the descriptive action plans in their scheduled time slots. Evaluating the importance of every activity that takes place in a day is the best way to ensure the most important activities occur. Reviewing the desired outcome of goals and comparing the actions required to actual activities is a good way to ensure actions result in the successful completion of goals.

Stressed individuals are wise to remind themselves that actual activities determine true priorities. If watching television is not on the priority list, but is occurring, then television is more of a priority than the listed items. If television time is necessary, then television time must be included in written action plans so the time is allocated rather than stolen. Stolen time often results in distress. However, permission to watch television results in relaxation and eustress.

Reflecting on Results

Reflection helps to end bad habits and develop new good habits. For example, prior to discovering the benefits of eustress, washing up may be an ongoing problem. After discovering eustress, an individual recognizes the eustress opportunity, creates a goal, takes action, and completes the washing up. Only by reflecting on the actions that led to the completion of the task, acknowledging the good feeling of a clean kitchen, and relishing in the accomplishment, will the individual be able to continue experiencing the joy and benefits of eustress.

While reflecting on the outcome, create new or revised written goals that include action plans. E.g., reflect on the distress of dirty washing and the eustressful feelings of clean clothes. Write down the bad habits that result in stacks of dirty clothes and the good habits that result in clean laundry. Post a reminder in an obvious location to assist in remembering why the simple task of doing laundry consistently is better than putting it off. No matter how large or small the achievement, successful individuals reflect on the outcome as well as what actions led to it.

Recovering

“Healthy patterns of activity and rest lie at the heart of our capacity for full engagement, maximum performance and sustained health” To achieve success, action plans and schedules must include recovery.

be a clock watcher

For optimal health and productivity, individuals should practice approximately 15 minutes of recovery for every 90 minutes of stress, in addition to consistent sleeping habits, healthy eating, and adequate exercise. For example, if one schedules eight hours per night for sleep, the remaining 16 hours should be broken into 90-minute intervals with 15-minute breaks between each interval. That is 2.5 hours of recovery time, or 10 recovery-breaks, each day. The recovery-breaks should include activities such as healthy snacking, exercise, meditation, power naps, and reflection.

Ironically, those who believe there is no time for recovery, usually spend an equal or greater amount of time experiencing distress and complaining about problems. However, when one takes breaks to clear the mind “new perspectives and new ways of handling problems” emerge. Without breaks, the mind and body wear down. With breaks, the mind and body are re-energized and productivity increases.

Repeating

People who permit long periods of stress to exist without recovery time burn out, become depressed, and develop illnesses. These same people may end up resting too much due to burn out or depression. However, just as too much stress is unhealthy, too much rest results in lethargy, thus, accomplishes nothing but the potential for more distress. People experiencing high-stress lifestyles succeed by maintaining a healthy balance, or oscillation, between stress and recovery. To ensure life is lived productively, happily, healthily, and successfully, follow stress with recovery and follow recovery with more stress consistently.

In conclusion, successful individuals with high-stress lifestyles are able to keep going and succeed consistently because they accurately define stress, develop clear goals, take action, reflect, recover, and repeat the behavior. Successful people understand that “Stress is the spice of life” therefore, successful people consciously and consistently eustress for success.

• Clarity of expectation - make sure that everyone in your team knows what you expect from them. You should be clear what their role is, and ensure that each team member understands their role. Tasks and responsibilities should reflect their role. If colleagues are unclear on their role, duties or responsibilities, then their stress levels will increase. Strong and clear expectations help to remove this.

• Adequate resourcing - if you don’t put the resources in place to carry out a task, then you’re asking the impossible of your team. They’ll try, but it won’t be easy, and you’ve introduced a huge problem right at the start. “Resources” covers everything that is required to do the task in hand - whether that be additional personnel, an increased capital budget, or simply access to a photocopier. It’s the tools required to do the job, and if you don’t give them to your team, they can’t do the job to the best of their ability.

• The talented team - your team is talented, each individual has their own unique strengths, you need to use these. Challenge staff, and reward and praise their success. Introducing challenges to staff demonstrates your confidence in their abilities, and provides reassurance that their talents are recognised. By praising and rewarding, you recognise their success. Colleagues who feel their talents are valued, and efforts appreciated, have sense of their worth. Conversely, individuals who do not feel valued, and feel their talents are not used effectively quickly become disinterested and resentful.

• Who knows best? - use knowledge effectively, and recognise the sources. Individuals frequently have a very clear idea on how their role, or tasks, could be improved, or made more productive. Listening to your staff, welcoming their contributions, and treating them seriously will not only give them a sense of value, but of contribution. They feel part of the bigger picture, and involved in it. The more experienced members of your team have something to contribute - their experience. Mentoring team members ensures that knowledge and experience is shared, and utilised on an ongoing basis. A culture in which colleagues are respected and their knowledge and experience valued, is supportive to all and key to reducing stressors in the workplace.

• Who cares? - take responsibility, and care, for everything you can, from the personal welfare of individuals, through to the product your team delivers. Encourage a similar approach in all your team, until the answer to the question “Who cares?” is “Everyone”, irrespective of the subject. Who cares about team members personal issues, who cares about putting a job out half finished, who cares about meeting targets? In an environment where everyone takes responsibility, individuals feel they are part of the team, not an outsider. However, if nobody cares about them, their work, or their participation, it’s all too easy to slip into a culture of negativity, the breeding ground for stressors.

Remembering the HSE stressors of demand, control, support, relationships, role and change, you can see how the above concepts contribute to strengthening the culture in all areas, thereby reducing stressors and stress. You may say that these are just good management techniques, and you would be right. Good management is about ensuring you get the best out of your staff, and maintaining a healthy, positive work culture is the start. Reducing the stressors in your organisation reduces the stress, and increases team effectiveness as a direct result.

Strategic influences

Leaders determine the current nature of the organisation, its future goals, and the method of achieving those goals. They are responsible for equipping the people of the organisation with the means to respond to change, with strategies, policies, resources in place and available at the appropriate time.

Planning the future, and planning for the future

Leaders determine, by their action or inaction, the future direction of the group, whether that be a team, a department, or an organisation. Effective leaders are pro-active in their goal setting, and are well aware of the targets they set, their achievability, and the likely timescales. Perhaps the clearest difference between effective and poor leadership in planning for the future is not that poor leadership is reactive, but that effective leaders are ready to respond. It would be foolish to suppose that everything will go according to plan, and good leaders will plan for the unexpected. In practice, this means putting in place the strategies to quickly identify deviation from the plan, and having the methods in place to deal with the deviation, whether that is remedial action on the cause, or course correction for the plan. The key being that the reactive measures are taken in a controlled and planned manner, panic decisions are never made.

Equipping the team

Successful leaders ensure that the correct resources are in place when required, and they are available when anticipated. Change is inevitable, but the response to that change is directly influenced by the resources leaders have put in place. Strategies and policies which govern the behaviour and ethos of the organisation should be in place and available to everyone. Clear understanding of strategies ensure the coherent and uniform response of the team to any and all situations. Additional staff, training, funding, equipment, accommodation, systems, strategies, policies all come under the heading of resources - leaders know what’s coming, and what resources the team needs now to deal with that, effective leaders plan for other possibilities, and ensure that resources to deal with those are available to be in place if required.

Organisational Culture

Culture within an organisation is determined by the actions and goals of its leadership, and the response by the team members to those actions and goals. Positive cultures - where ethical and moral decisions are taken, where there is a strong commitment to the team, from leaders and members, and where high standards are set for all - are cultures which are confident in their ability to cope with change, and a trust in the leadership to implement change in the best way. Negative cultures have mistrust of change, of leadership, and doubt in their own ability as a team to cope. Successful teams are advocates of change, rather than observers or resistors.

Operational influences

The strategic influences are long term issues, ones of culture, policy and planning, however, leaders have a short term effect on day to day operational circumstances which contribute to ethos and stress.

Lead by example

With the strategies and policies in place, the ethos of the organisation is set, the “way we do things” is clear for all to see. Equally visible are the day to day actions of leaders. If team members see consistency in the application of strategies by their leaders, then the strategies have meaning. However, disregard for the team, disregard for strategies, and disregard for others quickly trickle down from leaders to team members. If leaders don’t practice what they preach, why should the team even try? Effective leaders will ensure that they lead by example.

Compliance with legislation

Compliance with the law, and with internal procedures, enables leaders to demonstrate the ethical nature of their culture, and provides reassurance to the team. However, if the key to the drive to compliance is avoidance of prosecution, this is quickly apparent to all concerned, and has a negative impact on culture. Compliance should be focused on the need to protect the organisational members, and compliance is the minimum standard. If leadership increases standards to above those required for compliance, and the ethos behind such a move is not avoidance of litigation, then team members will respond positively.

Communication

Effective communication ensures that organisational members have full knowledge, and therefore full understanding of the actions of others. Leaders who practice an open communication style benefit from increased loyalty, increased trust and increased commitment from team members. A focused team, like this, acts as a cohesive unit and acts and reacts in positive ways, increasing productivity and personal satisfaction.

Summary

Stress is affected by various stressors such as:

• the demands on the individual
• the degree of control the individual has
• the support given, and confidence in that support
• they are valued and respected, as are others within the team
• change is managed, planned and effective

Leaders have direct control over all of these areas - strategically, and operationally. Effective planning for the future ensures that change is controlled, and effective application of resources during that change ensures that colleagues are supported. Good leadership plans for change. Having the resources, whatever they may be, in place and available provides effective support for staff, and having a positive ethos and culture ensures that leadership decisions are trusted, and implemented by all.

Operationally, leaders must lead by example with respect to strategies and policies, and communicate clearly with all, ensuring that all team members feel respected and valued. Compliance with, or exceeding legislative requirements provides the safety net that enables team members to believe that their well being is not taken for granted.

Strong leadership and style influence greatly the culture and ethos within an organisation, whereas poor leadership can only cause damage. Damage to an organisation at either a strategic or operational level will have an effect on the stressors noted above, and will lead to increased levels of stress within the individual and the organisation.

At times of economic downturn we listen to the news with a growing sense of despondency, economic recession, job losses, company closures and repossessions. We can, at times like these, begin to catastrophise our own situation, will we lose what we have built up over the years? Will we have to down size our house or car? Will we have to use our savings if indeed we have them?

For many people, external factors over which we have no control, impact on us more severely. We can feel a sense of helplessness and loss of control. One of the most significant factors in the creation of stress is the feeling of loss of control of our lives and destiny.

How does it affect us?

The descent into stress is subtle and sometimes hardly noticeable. We will however reach a point very quickly where the stress levels we endure become almost normal because we have had them for so long we forget what it was like to feel good. We will lose our short term memory, have difficulty reading books or watching anything on television, we will arrive at our destination and occasionally forget how we got there.

We soon become “stress saturated” What this means is stress becomes a part of us. We are so stressed so much of the time that the idea of resting, switching off, relaxing and taking it easy becomes alien to our lifestyle. This is the very time we need to take that time out, take that opportunity to rest, learn to relax and switch off. Take a walk, go for a swim, cook a meal slowly and eat it even more slowly. Spend a bit of time with someone you love, read that book that has been with you for months.

Looking back?

Imagine being at the end of your life and looking back over all that you have achieved, all you have seen and done, all the beautiful and wonderful things you have experienced. Can you imagine saying to yourself ‘do you know what, I wished I’d spent more time at work’ Or ‘I wish I’d spent more time worrying and getting upset’

Would you rather be saying ‘I wish I’d spent more time singing and dancing and having fun’ ‘I wish I’d spent more time with the people I loved’

Today is the day to look seriously at your lifestyle and stress levels. Today is the day to address the things in your life that you are not happy with. It is your life and whether you are in your 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s or 60s….you still have 30, 40, 50 or 60 years left to live. They can be happy, joyful and rewarding, you just have to decide if you want them to be.