Stress management comes to the fore

Cigarettes and coffee are some of the more widely chosen palliatives exhaustion and digestive disorders are some of the less controllable consequences. But if you work for the right institution you will find there are other options.

A new survey by the outplacement firm Meridian Consulting shows that 42% of City of London employers now have a formal stress management programme in place massage, reflexology and aromatherapy are just some of the natural tranquilisers on offer.

In the UK, employer interest in stress is being focused by hefty payouts to employees who have successfully proved their employers caused stress-related illness. Cases have so far dealt with the public sector, but lawyers consider it to be only a matter of time before the private sector sees claims of its own.

Meanwhile, in the City of London, stress is perceived as a growing problem. In a recent survey by recruitment consultants Jonathan Wren, 56% of respondents said that London had become a more stressful place to work in recent years and 68% said they suffered from stress. Increasing workloads, poor relationships with managers, interruptions from phone calls and e-mails and the competitive nature of jobs were the most oft-cited causes.

Frequent travel is also a culprit. On the other side of the Atlantic, World Bank research suggests that international business travelling causes psychological disorders related to, among other things, the stress of isolation and jet lag.

Yet a degree of stress is not bad, say the experts. Without it, there is a danger of languishing in apathetic 'rustout'. Stephen Sidebottom, head of human resources at Commerzbank in London, says that stress can be caused by the failure to provide driven individuals with opportunities to fulfil their potential.

Dealing with stress is therefore a game of balancing between necessary stress and excess stress. A managing director at Credit Suisse First Boston acknowledges this: 'We have a group of driven, success-oriented people who are very bright and have a high energy level. Their coping skills are terrific, but everyone is in overload mode from time to time. At the end of the day we will tolerate some stress, but we don't want people to burn out.'

As one of the more proactive banks, CSFB has a number of firebreaks in place. The important thing, it claims, is to have managers who understand that people are on overload and who can do something to help balance the load, or at a minimum who can acknowledge the pressure. In addition to managerial empathy, CSFB also provides fitness centres at low cost in all its most important locations, and offers massage services in Paris and London.

Other stress-aware financial institutions employ the services of independent clinicians. Jane Parkin of Barbican Health has, for example, been working within Merrill Lynch for the past 10 months helping to manage its 'managing the pace' programme which involves discussion of the causes of stress with groups of Merrill employees. Stressed staff at the bank can get a shoulder and neck massage from a roving masseur or even slip away from their desks for a full body massage.

But for all the hype around stress management, 58% of firms in Meridian's survey were found to have no formal programme in place, and 40% of respondents claimed that stress is overplayed.

The idea that stressed employees are merely whingers is a lingering one. 'The banking industry is fantastically stressful, and employees get well remunerated precisely because it is so stressful,' says a board member of a leading bank.

'If you offered to make a position less stressful by hiring more people to do the job and cutting the money paid to each one, then I bet people would opt for the stress. Banking has an immediacy that makes it stressful. Events require an instant response it is an inherently stressful business and people that come to work in it are aware of that from the start.'

There are, however, those who question whether banking is really as stressful as popular machismo would like to have us believe. At the Rood Lane Group, for example, Gill MacLeod is conducting research into the stressfulness of banking. Her initial findings suggest that some areas of work in financial services may not be any more stressful than other work environments. It is not only front-office staff that suffer. Long working hours in areas such as M&A, corporate finance and law can contribute to stress, says MacLeod, but so can back-office and support staff's lack of control over their work.

MacLeod's findings are substantiated by the long-running Whitehall Study, examining the impact of stress on the health of civil servants. Fifteen years of research have shown that employees who lack control over their working environment are at greater risk of heart attacks than others.

Steven Stansfield, professor of psychiatry at Bath University, says that if employees have some control over their work, are given opportunities for promotion and are well remunerated, then stress is less of a problem. From the latter perspective at least, investment bankers should not be doing too badly.

How much stress is good for you?

A certain amount of stress is beneficial - but it is easy to cross the line between 'good' and 'bad' stress without even noticing.

What we want, say experts, is 'eustress', the stress that comes from being challenged, motivated and interested. At this level, the subject is stretched, but feels in control.

Too much stress and you enter the 'hyperstress' zone. You start to feel the strain and exhibit some of the symptoms listed below. It's time to look at your work/lifestyle to stop the problem getting out of hand. That doesn't mean you have to live life in the slow lane. Most people can cope with some periods of hyperstress as long as it is not constant. Everybody is different.

Ignore hyperstress and you end up with 'distress'. This is the kind of excessive stress that leads to major physical and mental health problems, including ultimate burnout.

How do I know I'm suffering from stress?

Top physical symptoms of stress

• Disrupted sleep
• Frequent illness - coming down with whatever is going around
• Variations in appetite - some people eat more when they're stressed, others lose their appetite
• Digestive problems - diarrhoea, constipation, irritable bowel syndrome
• Cardiovascular concerns - increased heart rate and blood pressure, sweating
• Muscle tension - headaches, back and neck pains
• Skin complaints - eczema, rashes, spots
• Lower sex drive and fertility

Top behavioural/psychological symptoms of stress

• Fatigue - burnout, emotional exhaustion
• Irritability
• Loss of humour
• Sense of frustration and suppressed anger
• Lack of concentration and poor decision making
• Leaving tasks uncompleted
• Feeling unable to cope
• Crying
• Decrease in outside interests and disappearing social life
• Feeling like a victim
• Anxiety disorders eg. panic attacks and substance abuse
• Having more accidents

How to cope with stress

Take a little longer over everyday tasks. Many highly driven individuals are 'type A' people who seek to reduce the amount of time taken to perform daily activities they have showers instead of baths, may eat ready cooked meals instead of cooking themselves don't always take breaks. Substituting some type B activities into the type A day can help diminish stress - take a bath instead of a shower, for example.

Exercise. It makes you feel better by releasing mood enhancing endorphins, and sterols, which promote tissue recovery and repair. Exercise also helps relaxation and sleep, and contributes to cognitive clarity.

Sleep enough. Any less than eight hours a night and concentration is impaired. Premature ageing also sets in - it's not called beauty sleep for nothing. Insufficient sleep can lead to rising blood pressure, which may damage the heart and kidneys. If you require extra sleep, then catch up with an early night instead of a late morning.

Reduce conflicts of interest between your work and personal life, wherever you can. Overcommitment to anything will increase stress.

Build a support network and use it. Consider who you look to to support you in times of stress. Try to balance your support network so that you're not relying on any one person or area of your life

Eat well. That means, eating little and often. Don't skip breakfast, it sets you up for the rest of the day. The following would be an ideal eating pattern: 20% (breakfast) 10% (mid-morning) 40% (lunch) 10% (mid-afternoon) 20% (evening). Avoid the binge/starve cycle.

Drink well. Drink 1 - 2 litres of water every day and avoid excessive alcohol and caffeine. Coffee and cola have between 50 and 200 mg of caffeine per cup or glass tea has 50-200 mg per cup. More than 300 mg of caffeine per day is toxic, but between 200 and 300 mg is ok.

With thanks to Barbican Health and to Drake Beam and Morin