Each day will come with it's own challenges, but we must be strong believing that God will get us through. Remembering his promise for our eternal peace and happiness.

What is a healthy job?

A healthy job is likely to be one where the pressures on employees are appropriate in relation to their abilities and resources, to the amount of control they have over their work, and to the support they receive from people who matter to them. As health is not merely the absence of disease or infirmity but a positive state of complete physical, mental and social well-being (WHO, 1986), a healthy working environment is one in which there is not only an absence of harmful conditions but an abundance of health-promoting ones.

These may include continuous assessment of risks to health, the provision of appropriate information and training on health issues and the availability of health promoting organisational support practices and structures. A healthy work environment is one in which staff have made health and health promotion a priority and part of their working lives.

What is work-related stress?

•           Work-related stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope.

•           Stress occurs in a wide range of work circumstances but is often made worse when employees feel they have little support from supervisors and colleagues, as well as little control over work processes.

•           There is often confusion between pressure or challenge and stress and sometimes it is used to excuse bad management practice.

Pressure at the workplace is unavoidable due to the demands of the contemporary work environment. Pressure perceived as acceptable by an individual, may even keep workers alert, motivated, able to work and learn, depending on the available resources and personal characteristics. However, when that pressure becomes excessive or otherwise unmanageable it leads to stress. Stress can damage an employees' health and the business performance.

Work-related stress can be caused by poor work organisation (the way we design jobs and work systems, and the way we manage them), by poor work design (for example, lack of control over work processes), poor management, unsatisfactory working conditions, and lack of support from colleagues and supervisors.

Research findings show that the most stressful type of work is that which values excessive demands and pressures that are not matched to workers’ knowledge and abilities, where there is little opportunity to exercise any choice or control, and where there is little support from others.

Employees are less likely to experience work-related stress when - demands and pressures of work are matched to their knowledge and abilities - control can be exercised over their work and the way they do it - support is received from supervisors and colleagues - participation in decisions that concern their jobs is provided.

What are stress-related hazards at work?

Stress related hazards at work can be divided into work content and work context.

Work contents includes - job content (monotony, under-stimulation, meaningless of tasks, lack of variety, etc) - work load and work pace (too much or too little to do, work under time pressure, etc.) - working hours (strict or inflexible, long and unsocial, unpredictable, badly designed shift systems) - Participation and control (lack of participation in decision-making, lack of control over work processes, pace, hours, methods, and the work environment)

Work context includes - career development, status and pay (job insecurity, lack of promotion opportunities, under- or over-promotion, work of 'low social value', piece rate payment schemes, unclear or unfair performance evaluation systems, being over- or under-skilled for a job) - role in the organization (unclear role, conflicting roles) - interpersonal relationships (inadequate, inconsiderate or unsupportive supervision, poor relationships with colleagues, bullying/harassment and violence, isolated or solitary work, etc) -organizational culture (poor communication, poor leadership, lack of behavioural rule, lack of clarity about organizational objectives, structures and strategies) - work-life balance (conflicting demands of work and home, lack of support for domestic problems at work, lack of support for work problems at home, lack of organizational rules and policies to support work-life balance)

Work-related stress: scientific evidence-base of risk factors, prevention and cost

Work-related stress is still an evasive concept to many, although the topic is covered in hundreds of papers published every year. Many seminars  focusing on the main evidence of risk factors extracted from existing research, as concerns in particular work-related stress interventions and related costs.

Embracing Hardships

In life we can be hit with rocks so big, leaving us bruises and scars so deep, that one can barely get up. With every hit one falls, but God always catches us. He pulls those rocks off us and helps us by walking with us hand in hand.

Life will be filled with tests and hardships. I call them storms - storms that can consume so much of our being, storms that leave us holding on with all our might, struggling not to let go, struggling to survive.

Some of us get tested harder than others but the strong ones who live through these storms are the ones who come out victorious. There is an amazing feeling that comes with the victory of strength, perseverance, determination and most of all loyalty to God. With each fall… with each hit…a lesson is learned. With each lesson comes growth. With growth comes maturity. We learn not to regret the hardship, but to be thankful for it. Because of it we become better for it.

We must not look back at our past mistakes. We have to take those mistakes as part of our journey for a better future. We must embrace those experiences and allow them to mold us into the best we can be. No one knows what life will bring. Each day will come with it's own challenges, but we must be strong believing that God will get us through. Remembering his promise for our eternal peace and happiness.