Why Stress Management Programs Don't Work

"People are our most valuable resource" - how often have you heard this corporate chant?

Are you a believer? Are you a sceptic? Do you just get on with your job and simply not care?

Regardless of your current position the fact of the matter is that stress exists in our daily lives and perhaps even more so in our working lives. Stress can produce one of the greatest expenses to be faced by organisations, primarily because staff who are absent from the work place cannot do any work and staff who are stressed and still in the work place are likely to make mistakes and not really produce their best work.

So what is the corporate response to this costly reality? Slogans? Of course.

Some organisations actually do try and give their employees opportunities to attend stress management programs. The question is, whether this is a good idea or simply one that throws more money at the problem, without any positive outcomes for either the organisation or the worker.

The answer seems to be that Stress Management programs are excellent for those who run the programs, but are markedly less useful for those who attend them.

Indeed it can be suggested that in some cases, attendance at a stress management program actually makes things worse.

A staff member who knows what to do about his/her stress and who continues to experience and suffer from stress, is likely to be even more stressed than when he/she did not have the skills or the knowledge about what to do.

In reality, stress management programs would be excellent value if they were only accompanied by two small additional things:

1. actual work by the stressed individual to use what has been learned; and
2. acceptance by the management of the organisation that no stress management program can work, unless the level of stressors in the work environment are reduced

It is in this area of responsibility that managers need to consider the consequences of their 'downsizing'; 'right sizing'; 'restructure'; 'productivity improvements' and the like.

Most often what this means, is that to get a positive impact for the "bottom line" and to impress shareholders and/or government ministers, senior executive staff make decisions that have a stressful impact at all other levels within the organisation by reducing the number of people who are available to undertake an increasing work load.

The executive is not stressed. He/she goes on to the next position with a pocket full of rewards for reducing the cost of the bottom line and increasing the profit of the shareholders.

It is the staff who are left behind who have to suffer the consequences.

Let's not kid ourselves. Stress Management programs do not work. They could - if managers only reduced the stressors in the work place and staff were given the time, opportunity and encouragement to actively do the things they learn at stress management programs.