As far as Wellness goes, stress is something that can often affect a vast number of employees at work. How does stress affect staff and how do they deal with it on a daily basis?
During my studies on Wellness I came to realise that on the job stress is a very real and sometimes debilitating problem. So I investigated as much as I could about this issue.
For example a Team leader has the responsibility of guiding and managing their staff and sometimes those staff may have problems with attitude or other work issues that can affect how that Team leader is feeling. As a Team leader they must also report to management and there are certain requirements and obligations that a Team leader must live up to. Sometimes for them they may feel like they are getting pulled in all directions, trying to please the staff and keep them happy as well as doing the right thing as far as management is concerned.
Sometimes there can be a lot of stress due to workloads and time limits to get things done. Expectations of how one should perform in these situations can also lead to added stress.
Scientifically when a person is stressing out their bodies produce a hormone called cortisol. Cortisol is designed to trigger our flight/fight response and is only meant to be in our system for short periods of time. If a person is stressed out and does not have a strategy or a plan on how to de-stress themselves, then that can become a problem as scientific research shows that it can cause sickness and disease within our bodies when the stress response takes longer than it should do to process.
Being aware of how cortisol works and how it is important to lower stress levels as soon as possible can be helpful regarding ones own Wellness. Apart from that there are other side effects of stress and being full of cortisol. It shuts down our ability to think clearly and we can be quick to respond with anger. Anger is what is called a secondary emotion and is mostly triggered by other things, one of those things being stress.
So what I am getting at here is that as far as Wellness goes it is important to understand, manage and practice strategies that lower stress levels. It is also important to know that a certain amount of stress and anxiety is good for us, it can motivate us to get things done, it can help us to remove ourselves from danger or things that can hurt us. In our Wellness course Determined Ways we teach the importance of balance, that it is healthy to implement strategies within our lives that help to keep our thinking, mind processes and bodily functions at a balanced level. When we do that we give ourselves the best shot at dealing with those uncomfortable and stressful situations that can appear in our lives at any time.
How we do that is a learned process of effort and practice. Here at SCS we are in the process of looking at the viability and practicality of having a Wellness room at each of our Warehouses so that any staff who are stressing out above the balanced levels of stress and anxiety can use these rooms to help with lowering these stress levels. A room where they can go and listen to some calming music, read some information that gives them tools to help deal with emotional issues that may be bothering them, where they can sit comfortably and relax and chill out for 5 to 10 minutes and help themselves to feel better before going back out into the work environment.
The idea behind it all is that if all of our staff end up having the knowledge, ability and the facility to deal with stress and anxiety that may be affecting their personal home life and/or their ability to work effectively then we will end up with a much happier work environment. 
