Health & Safety – Stress – the adverse reaction that people have to excessive pressures or other types of demand placed on them.

Stress is now cited as the most common cause of long term sickness absence (CIPD Absence Management Survey, 2011) and cost 15.2 million days of sickness absence were caused by stress across the UK (Office for National Statistics, 2013).

These pressures include mental, emotional, physiological and physical stresses placed upon the body and can be influenced by factors such as work life, home life, financial issues and relationships. When these stresses are placed upon the body the reaction caused by the brain stimulates the release of hormones that include both cortisol and adrenaline.

So, what can you do to help yourself manage this stress or as an employer/ manager/ colleague/ friend to help someone else manage theirs?

By introducing coping strategies, developing those that are currently in place by making them more accessible, or understanding how to use those current strategies in a more effective way. Applying this to the bucket theory, this would be the equivalent of increasing the size of the holes the water is pouring out or increasing the number of holes for the water to exit through. If someone is struggling to cope, this is when their bucket is overflowing!