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"There are two times I feel stress -- day and night."
-Anonymous

We are anxious, exhausted, and frustrated. We are stretched tight, ground-down and burned-out. Our workload is crushing; our bosses are driving us crazy; our commute to work is numbing; our parents -- who are sick or old, or both -- are needy; and, our kids... Our kids! Weren't we supposed to pick them up at daycare half an hour ago?

Ah, the joy of stress. It's become such a part of our lives, that most of us even know what we should be doing to beat it. We should be exercising more rigorously, meditating more faithfully and eating our leafy green vegetables more regularly. In fact, if we're really brave, we should be stepping out of society altogether (as Lily Tomlin points out, even if you win the rat race, you're still a rat) and retiring to a farm on Denman Island, B.C. to grow seed potatoes.

But here's the question: is our stress really worse or is it a 20th century marketing gimmick to persuade us to buy more stuff? Are we actually more stressed out than our grandparents, or do we just perceive ourselves to be that way? Is the post-modern psychological load truly heavier?

The evidence is contradictory.

On the one hand, the word stress embraces a pretty new concept. Until the middle of this century, stress was something that happened to metal, not to people. Then in 1956, the Canadian doctor Hans Selye published his ground-breaking book The Stress of Life.

Selye's innovation wasn't just to name stress. He explained it -- as something that happened both outside of us (say, a divorce) and inside us, in how we reacted (by becoming angry and bitter, for example, or by losing weight and having a makeover). "Adopting the right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one," he counselled.

Selye's message found a fast audience, and before you could say "stress test" an entire industry had sprung up. There were courses such as Transcendental Meditation, a bevy of drugs (starting with Valium in 1963, Xanax in '73, Prozac in '78 and Zoloft in '86), a mountain of books (from The Relaxation Response by Dr. Herbert Benson to Type A Behaviour and Your Heart by Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman), and even self-quizzes, such as the famous Holmes and Rahe test, which awarded points for stressful events in your life (100 for the death of a spouse; 47 for getting fired from work.)

But despite all the resources, our stress only accelerated.

A just-released 1998 study by Statistics Canada shows:

In the United States the numbers are equally sobering. The American Psychological Association estimates that:

No question about it -- stress is costly. But is it worse than ever before?

"Stress is the experience of change," says Brian Tucker, a Vancouver-based management consultant who has researched stress for the last 15 years. "The reason there's more stress today is there's more change."

But he's also aware of a paradox: despite the unparalleled resources at our fingertips, we've become less adept at handling stress.

"We're living in an age that's very materialistic and very achievement oriented," Tucker says. "We're afraid of losing what we've got. We bring up our kids to have high expectations. Our grandparents were better at letting go."

So the next time we get wound up about our stress levels, it might be worth reflecting on those grandparents. Today we may live with an uncertain economy -- but what about living with the imminent threat of crop failure?

Or how about having six children, cooking on a woodstove and washing all your laundry by hand, unrelieved by nannies, daycare or babysitters?

Or imagine being a 19-year-old soldier, on his way to Ypres. (Or his pregnant, 18-year-old wife.)

Perhaps the sense of entitlement we have at the end of the 20th century has led us to overlook one key fact: We didn't invent stress. Life is stress.

The doctor who launched the stress industry said as much, calling stress "the salt of life."

"I don't think one should avoid all stress and just live life as a vegetable," Selye told CBC in 1974. "The idea is to try to live with stress."

Executivethemes

Flight Centre ranked best employer

Flight Centre Ltd., an Australian travel company that shuns offices, receptionists and secretaries, has come out on top of an annual ranking of the best employers in Canada.

The ranking, which is based on human resource practices and employee attitudes, is published today in Report on Business Magazine.

Since being founded 22 years ago by four Australian hippies, Flight Centre has grown into the seventh-biggest travel retailer in the world, with 70 offices in Canada. This is the first year Flight Centre has been on the list of top employers.

The company has a policy of not giving perks to executives and managers unless all employees get them. That means that even the top bosses don't get their own offices or secretaries. And everybody helps out with menial tasks such as emptying the trash bins.

The work force is young and diverse and once a month, they have a "buzz night" where employees eat and drink together, learn about suppliers and get public recognition for meeting and surpassing goals.

But where the company really excels is in bridging the gap between management and workers, according to Leslie Dutton, an associate with Hewitt Associates, which compiled the ranking in conjunction with R.O.B. Magazine.

"The leadership seems to be very pro-active in reaching out to employees, understanding employees' needs and connecting with employees," she said.

Reference: ROB Magazine

Good News/Bad News

Sally phoned her husband, Bill, at work for a chat.

"I'm sorry dear," said Bill, "but I'm up to my neck in work today. I don't have time to chat."

Sally replied, "But I've got some good news and some bad news for you, dear."

"OK darling," said Bill, "but as I've got no time right now, just give me the good news."

"Okay," agreed Sally. "Well, the air bag works!"

For more information on this and other subjects go to Interventions Archive.  The EFAP assists you and your family resolve personal problems and maintain healthy and productive lives. 

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