Add Stress Prevention and Management as a Safety Topic

If you are an employer that knows your employees are facing high stress situations on a regular basis, then you need to incorporate stress prevention and management into your safety training program.

Any workers with physically, mentally, or emotionally demanding jobs may be frequently stressed about work-related injuries, chronic pain, physical demands the job requires, co-worker and supervisor relationships, the ability to continue to make the right decisions for the situation, or personal issues that affect their ability to fully focus on the job putting themselves and their co-workers at risk. Demands of the job, the pressure to provide for one's family, and concern about losing employment prevent many from seeking help which increases their risk for injury, mental distress, depression and anxiety.

OSHA Standard Section 5(a)(1) Each employer shall furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees.

If you are at risk for having negative stress affect your life and your work performance, please take into consideration the following important points that could help. If you are an employer that knows your employees are facing high stress situations on a regular basis, then you need to incorporate stress prevention and management into your safety training program.

• Manage the workload and set priority levels for tasks with a realistic work plan.
• Eat nutritiously, avoid excessive junk food and caffeine.
• Avoid alcohol and recreational drugs, and don't smoke.
• Get enough sleep and rest.
• Outside of work, do activities that are pleasurable.
• Exercise regularly, the body can fight stress better when it is fit and exercising is often an immediate form of stress relief.
• Identify the specific source of job stress and come up with targeted ideas to eliminate or reduce the exact stressor. Management should be open to hearing ideas from workers that will make the work environment less stressful for employees.
• Speak up at work if something is causing stress - often, management will be unaware of the situation and that is the reason nothing has been done to fix it.
• Learn to recognize the early warning signs for stress reactions and seek help if needed.