Maria Arpa
This week
Work related stress
Plus…
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
and
The Wednesday Whisper
Striking a balance
The Health and Safety executive recently published an ad stating that the 6 main causes of stress at work are Demands, Control, Support, Relationships, Role and Change.
I beg to differ.
The main cause of stress at work is inner conflict resulting from power imbalances and poor communication. Unless we decide to work alone and away from others, there will always be demands to be met, controls to negotiate, support to seek, relationships to navigate, roles to play and change to manage. Stress arises when these matters are not open to clear, fair, respectful communication, and we are afraid or unable to express ourselves because the game is rigged.
We all have different stress levels. What one person isn’t bothered by or finds easy to address, another person may find traumatic. This is why it is so difficult, in current popular thinking, to manage mental health in the workplace. Laws might protect people but they cannot heal the unnecessary human suffering inflicted by domination culture thinking. In fact they can serve to prevent dialogue and increase them and us division.
Senior management teams are often unaware of how their values and intentions are being cascaded down to the workforce, relying on middle management reports.
In the complicated world of workplace wellbeing, businesses would do well to contract with an impartial strategic critical friend with expertise in conflict management and power dynamics.
Maria’s Midweek Mindfulness
The DRM promotes fairness and respect while maintaining boundaries and accountability.
The Wednesday Whisper
How is your workplace treating you? How are you treating your colleagues? How do you look after yourself?
If you would like to access my new podcast channels for All Things Conflict
Apple Podcast Channel
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