Employee Stress - Let's fight it out!

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Authors: Subhadra. K, Niharika Atchyutuni
Faculty Associate, Faculty Associate
ICMR (IBS Center for Management Research).

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How Do We Make the Workplace Healthy & Happy? Contd...

Laughing:
"Laughter is the best medicine"- goes the saying. Laughter helps a person to fight stress and come out of any depressing situation. A person can reduce stress by trying to inject humor into stressful situations. It not only helps a person to de-stress, but it also helps him to inculcate positive thinking under stressful conditions.

Stress can be managed by practising simple and easy techniques. The first step is to prevent stress and then to identify early signs of stress if one has failed to prevent it. If ignored, stress can change into a silent killer. Following are some stress-busting measures taken up by some top companies:

* TCS established a gym and meditation center for helping employees to combat stress. It also initiated health campaign for its employees for spreading awareness about correct sitting postures. Further, the company also initiated research about radiation impact due to increased usage of computers on its employees.

The company organized workshops on stress management for group leaders to create awareness about the impact of employee stress.

* HCL Infosystems organizes lectures on the stress management and importance of positive and healthy living.
* IT&T re-designed office furniture according to Ergonomics and also introduced 'break out method' - allowing employees to take two - three breaks before lunch hour.

* Many companies provide assistance to their employees to balance their work and home. For example, companies like - HP, IBM, Cisco etc. help employees by providing emergency baby sitters, take out food, and laundry services.
* Companies have recognized the need to take preventive care about employee stress. For instance - Indian Airlines, State Bank of India, Onida, Tata Group and BSES (Reliance Energy) etc., focus on the executive health management. These companies conduct regular workshops on the stress management, diabetics, hypertension and cardiac care during office hours.
* Many companies, in association with healthcare majors such as - Apollo Hospitals, Wockhardt and Hinduja, provide complete medical checkup for their employees.
* HSBC employees enjoy salsa dance in their Mumbai office every evening as a means of combating stress.