Stress awareness for staff at Randall & Payne

Today is Stress Awareness Day which is the highlight of International Stress Awareness Week and attracts media attention and interest worldwide.

Stress Awareness Day was established by the International Stress Management Association over 25 years ago. Its goals are to raise global awareness of stress and improve its management in the workplace and in our personal lives. The theme this year is Campaigning to Reduce Stress and Improve Wellbeing.

We are pleased to get behind it again this year, showing we are fully committed to doing all we can to support the wellbeing of our colleagues at Randall & Payne. Our aim is to create a mentally healthy workplace where colleagues feel valued and supported.

Working in accountancy is often a high pressured environment and roles within the profession often carry considerable responsibility. Recogising Stress Awareness Day gives us the opportunity to reflect about one mental health issue in particular, work-related stress, and what we can do to address the causes. It is important to remind ourselves that whilst work demands and pressure are very much part of our lives, being overwhelmed by stress can result in health problems.

We encourage colleagues to discuss any emerging problems and want to reinforce that it is ok to openly discuss stress, as well as other related mental health issues such as anxiety and depression. The partners and senior management team are empathetic, and want to offer reassurance that there is no stigma attached to having to ask for support.

Within our office we have a wellbeing white board, so we are encouraging our team to share something they do when they are feeling stressed which helps them to deal with it better – their tips and coping mechanisms. We are also hosting a lunch time session with tea and biscuits as an opportunity to catch up and share helpful tips for coping with stress with each other.

We have access to wellbeing resources using the Wisdom app from MetLife, our EAP provider, along with 24 hour support covering the three core areas of wellbeing; financial wellbeing, mental wellbeing and physical wellbeing.

There are some great resources to find out more about how to recognise and deal with stress, or other mental health issues. The steps below are taken from www.mentalhealth.org.uk.

Three steps to take when feeling stressed

Realise when it is causing you a problem – Try to make the connection between feeling tired or ill and the pressures you are faced with. Look out for physical warnings such as tense muscles, over-tiredness, headaches or migraines.
Identify the causes – Sort the possible reasons for your stress into three categories 1) those with a practical solution 2) those that will get better given time and 3) those you can’t do anything about. Try to release the worry of those in the second and third groups and let them go.
Review your lifestyle – Could you be taking on too much? Are there things you are doing which could be handed over to someone else? Can you do things in a more leisurely way? To act on the answer to these questions, you may need to prioritise things you are trying to achieve and re-organise your life. This will help to release pressure that can come from trying to do everything at once