Today’s topic is prompted by a question asked by a participant from Mbeya, during my seminar on Stress Management at a client organization, where we are promoting Healthy Lifestyle amongst the employee population. His observation was that obesity is a sign of a calm and relaxed individual and so why are we linking obesity with stress?
According to a study titled “Obesity, Overweight and Perceptions about Body Weight among Middle-Aged Adults in Dar es Salaam” published by Alfa J Muhihi et al in 2012, the perception about body weight is influenced by several factors, which include culture and ethnicity. In a developing country like Tanzania, heavier body is preferred, though people in the higher socioeconomic strata are more conscious about their weight. In addition, HIV pandemic has had a great impact on people’s perception about body weight, where many people prefer to be overweight or obese so as not to look suspicious of having HIV/AIDS. Such false beliefs that an overweight or obese person is healthier need to be addressed by means of health education and other interventions to address issues related to perceptions about body weight. Corporates can play a huge role by promoting healthy work environments and policies and clearing such misperceptions.
Obesity constitutes a major public health problem and increases the risk for non-communicable diseases, which are the main causes of mortality worldwide. Obesity is a condition involving excessive amount of body fat – Obesity is diagnosed when the body mass index (BMI) is 30 or higher. Obesity isn’t just a cosmetic concern. It increases your employees’ risk of diseases and health problems, such as
- Heart disease
- Type 2 diabetes
- High blood pressure
- Joint problems (eg arthritis)
- Gallbladder problems
- Certain types of cancer (breast, uterine, colon)
- Digestive disorders
- Breathing difficulties (asthma, sleep apnea)
- Psychological problems such as depression
- Problems with fertility and pregnancy
- Urinary incontinence
The principal causes of obesity are inactivity and unhealthy diet and eating habits. Employees under stress may find it harder to eat healthy and be active, which results into obesity.
So what is stress? The Health and safety Executive (HSE) defines it as “ The adverse reaction people have to types of demand placed on them”.
Numerous studies show that job stress is by far and away the major source of stress for adults and that it has escalated progressively over the past few decades globally. Increased level of stress as assessed by the perception of having little control but lots of demand have been demonstrated to be associated with increased rates of health attack, hypertension and other disorders. Major causes of work stress are:
- Excessive workload
- Limited opportunities for growth and advancement
- Work that is not engaging or challenging
- Lack of social support
- Not having enough control over job-related decision
- Conflicting demands or unclear performance expectations
- Lack of job security
- People Issues
- Juggling work and personal issues – work-life balance
Unfortunately work related stress doesn’t disappear overnight and when it persists, it can take a toll on your employees’ health and well-being. In a short term, a stressful work environment can contribute to problems such as headache, stomachache, sleep disturbances, short temper and difficulty concentrating. Chronic, persistent stress, on the other hand, can result in anxiety, insomnia, high blood pressure, depression, obesity and heart disease. Compounding the problem, people who experience excessive stress often deal with it in unhealthy ways such as overeating, eating unhealthy foods, smoking cigarettes or abusing alcohol and drugs. Alcohol and drug abuse can cause physical and mental impairment such as liver disease and depression.
According to Harvard Public Health professors Christopher Murray and Alan Lopez, depression will rank second only to heart disease as the leading cause of disability world-wide by 2020.
All of this culminates onto increased frequency of accidents, absenteeism, high employee turnover, diminished productivity and high medical and insurance costs. So what warning signs should employers be alert to and what can they do to tackle stress?
Below are five tips for employers to follow to ensure a culture to guard against workplace stress:
- Employees should feel valued and involved in their organization. Managers should have open lines of communication with staff
- Make sure jobs are flexible and well designed. Managers should inform and consult employees on changes that are likely to affect them before they take place and encourage them to ask questions before, during and after workplace change so that they feel involved, buy into it and feel that their opinions are valued and respected
- Tackle absence and help people back to work by using appropriate health services and return to work interviews
- Employee assistance programs, such as confidential telephone or in person counseling should be available.
- Managers should “walk the walk” and not just “talk the talk” and should actively promote a healthy lifestyle themselves by having a good work-life balance, managing their working hours, using their full holiday entitlement and taking lunch breaks
Employers can identify the risk factors for stress by conducting stress audits, informal talks with staff, performance appraisals, focus groups, return to work interviews after sickness absence or by collecting absence data, performance data, turnover rates and questionnaires.
Losing a valued staff as a result of stress is expensive not only in terms of absence time, but also the costs related to replacement and medical and insurance claims. It is important that the businesses have a genuinely supportive culture and not just polices that are applied inconsistently by different managers
This can be avoided if the line managers are adequately trained to recognize the warning signs of stress and know how to communicate with employees about this. If workers are given the necessary support, it will help them to recover and return to work as soon as possible.