Stress

Everyone has experienced or witnessed a meltdown at work. Sometimes the pressures of the job or the day can build and build until something snaps. Of course, if you aren't careful, such an event can lead to someone being fired.

Stress is unavoidable. But while stress can be positively beneficial and stimulating, it can also be enormously damaging to both our productivity and, ultimately, our health. So what's the difference between good and bad stress?

On TV they're always be hanging about the barbie in shorts, but in reality Australian managers work harder and for longer - and suffer more illness than their counterparts in the UK.

Workplace stress and general un-wellness is costing the Australia economy $14.81 billion (Australian) every year, a new report suggests.

One of Toyota's senior car engineers died from working too many hours, a Japanese labour bureau has found.

Too much anxiety kills performance. Yet anxiety is often ignored in the workplace or considered a sign of weakness that needs to be swept under the desk. So what can those who manage others do about it?

With almost everything you read suggesting that the working world is getting more and more stressful, how does anyone manage to survive in the modern office without going insane?

One thing everyone seems to agree on is the fact that the world has gotten more hectic and that surviving in the world of modern business is getting more and more difficult.

It isn't only older people who are at risk of heart attacks. Academics have found that those under 50 in highly stressful jobs may be two thirds more likely to suffer from heart disease.

An interesting idea bandied about by a Welsh clergyman is certain to gain heated responses both for and against – it's probably for that reason that it wasn't published in the press until the Xmas weekend!

Any idea how much anguish and mental distress is costing the UK economy? Probably not, but if you did, you'd likely start to feel anguished, too.

Stress is an avoidable side effect of working - or playing – in a competitive arena. Staying on top of it requires three steps: recognising when you're stressed: identifying the sources and developing suitable coping strategies.

Workers who feel chronically stressed and fail to get support from their managers are at much greater risk of being tipped into a bout of depression.

In an example of research that hardly needed to be funded to know what the outcome will be, a study from the UK has revealed that checking e-mail regularly at the office increases stress levels and diminishes stress levels. Wow - I never would have guessed that!

Emotional, rather than cognitive intelligence could well be the key to a successful career. But new research suggests that stress can seriously damage emotional intelligence and with it, workplace effectiveness.

Managers are supposed to be able to handle the crises each day throws their way. In reality most end up dropping something equally important and tearing about in a stress-induced panic.

Most organisations, be they large or small, haven't got the slightest interest in the wellbeing of their workforce. And issuing yet more bureaucratic edicts about working practices and stress management policies isn't going to do a thing to change this.

If your job has you stressed, rather than snapping at colleagues, try venting some steam over at Workrant.com, a site that claims to be the place to "rant away all your work related stress."

Is your employer supportive or helpful when it comes to workplace stress, or do they just try to pretend that the problem doesn't exist?

Is your employer supportive or helpful when it comes to workplace stress, or do they just try to pretend that the problem doesn't exist?

Nearly five months into the working year and the holiday season is starting to loom large. But if you expect to come back from vacation refreshed and recharged, you might want to think again.

While many countries have rushed to embrace the perceived money-saving benefits of offshoring, the French have proudly summoned the resistance to break offshoring's momentum.

If more managers and leaders understood the root causes and costs of stress, they would do something about it and it wouldn't be the problem that it is.

Europeans are working fewer hours a week, but the extra pace and intensity of the workplace is pushing stress levels higher, a 31-country study has found.

Before you start to climb the career ladder you might want to reflect on the fact that the only thing more stressful and challenging than securing a long sought-for promotion is going through a messy divorce.

Changes in the way that organisations are structured mean that office politics have grown from being a peripheral worry ten years ago to the single biggest cause of stress in the workplace today.

Stress is blamed for everything from poor productivity to absenteeism. But now a new poll has found that for most of us, domestic life is more stressful than anything we encounter in the office.

Stressed? Try screaming. Apparently work-related stress can be cut by up to a quarter by letting out a loud scream - although many of those quizzed by UK theme park Thorpe Park said they were too inhibited to "let it all go".

The Rising Sun Anger Release Bar in Nanjing, eastern China has come up with a novel way of attracting clients - they are allowed to beat up the staff, the BBC reports.

Thousands of Britons may have headed off on holiday this week, but for nearly a quarter of workers there's no holiday in sight, compounding Britain's reputation as an overworked nation with a poor work/life balance.

Pressures at work are escalating, job satisfaction is falling and Americans are feeling increasingly stressed and dissatisfied about they way their organisation treats them and the gulf between what employers say and what they actually do.

Our thoughts may be starting to turn towards the summer vacations, but most of us find it hard to unwind or switch off when we are taking time off from the office, according to new U.S research.

Stress is causing illness, depression and job dissatisfaction among huge numbers of male workers, with one in three turning to drink in an attempt to switch off, according to a new British study.

British businesses are badly under-estimating the extent to which their workers and managers are suffering from stress, anxiety, depression and other forms of mental ill health, a disability charity has warned.

A third of British workers cannot get to sleep at night because of anxiety, and three-quarters cannot switch off when they leave their office, new research has concluded.

Increased anger and loss of humour amongst are just two of the knock-on effects that businesses now have to deal with due to stress and poor workplace health, according to new research.

For decades, American workers have suppressed their anger about the indignities and disrespect perpetuated by inadequate leadership. But now this anger is finding expression and recourse in a sympathetic generation of judges and jurors.

Red tape and long hours can grind down the best of employees, but it is the people we work with who who irritate us the most.

A clock-watching approach to tackling the issue of long working hours only perpetuates a 'presenteeism' culture that measures time served, regardless of productivity or efficiency, HR specialists have warned.

More than half of Britons enjoy the challenges of their jobs and make sure that work does not dominate their life. But half also want to work fewer hours and two million would prepared to take a pay cut if it meant having better work-life balance.

Stress levels around the world are rocketing, a new report has found, with more than half of executives worldwide saying they felt under greater stress last year than they did in 2004 and those in Asia's booming tiger economies feeling the greatest pressure.

Britain's managers work such long hours not because they have someone standing over them cracking the whip, but because they simply enjoy their work, according to new research.

Allowing staff to bring their dogs to work can be a huge competitive advantage for employers, so much so that most dog owners would work longer or even take a pay cut if they could share the office with their pets.

Think you have a stressful job? You should spare a thought for poor librarians – because according to research presented to the annual conference of the British Psychological Society, librarians are more significantly unhappy with their workplace than anyone else.

Sacking an employee can be a hugely stressful experience for the boss doing the firing as much as for the employee, with managers often suffering sleepless nights as a result, a survey has found.

Why do so many of us wake up in the early hours of thew morning worrying about work?

Workers who are unhappy in their jobs are more likely to suffer low self-esteem, emotional burnout or become ill, according to new research.

Workers in Switzerland and Sweden are the most stressed in Europe, a new survey has suggested, with stress levels in British workplaces well below the European average.

Having a supportive spouse to go home to can help lower the negative impact of a stressful day at work on a person's blood pressure, researchers have revealed.

The number of hospital consultants in the UK who are suffering from mental health problems and burnout is on the rise according to new research published in medical journal The Lancet.

A new report suggesting that only one in four of us feel that we are in 'good' jobs has underlined that employers need to do more to boost performance through people management and good communication.

A grim picture of working life in the telecoms sector has been painted by new research revealing that almost six out of 10 telecoms employees have experienced symptoms of burnout in the last six months.

Employers and workers in London are now in grimly uncharted waters as the terrorist attacks of the past fortnight have changed London, and how Londoners work, forever.

Employers have been urged to put the excitement back into the world of work, as latest figures have shown six out of 10 workers consider themselves trapped in "bad" jobs.

Although HR professionals consider absence management their number one challenge, more than half of Britain's employers do not know how much absence is costing their business while one in five do not even know their annual absence rates.

Anxiety about job prospects, staff performance and the increasingly demanding performance targets they are subject to is leading to a wave of uncertainty and sleepless nights for the UK's business leaders.

Health and well-being in the workplace should be higher up the corporate agenda as a new report find that few companies are investing enough in improving the health of their employees.

A revolution in the way that employers deal with stress is on the way after scientists announced the development of the first accurate measure of the impact of stress on the human body and the ability to cope with adversity.

More than half of British workers claim they have experienced symptoms of over-work or burnout during the past six months, according to new research.

Stress costs the UK economy 10 per cent of its Gross National Product, a new report claims. Yet fewer than one in 10 companies have policies in place to tackle the problem.