Leisure and Workplace Stress

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At your Leisure - 21 November 2005

How should workers cope with the pressures of work? What's the best way of dealing with workplace stress? Has work become a more stressful place to be? What role should leisure activities play in managing workplace stress? How can employers help staff deal with greater stress levels and what benefits can result from a better work-life balance?

This At your Leisure looks into the links between leisure and stress in the workplace. It considers the action recommended by employer and employee organisations and governmental bodies. It investigates recent research into stress and leisure and asks how people in work can be helped to help themselves manage stress more effectively.

But first, let's consider the degree of stress present in people's everyday working patterns:

Coping with the world of work and the stress this involves is increasingly important in modern Britain because:

From absenteeism to presenteeism?

These and other factors are seen as contributing to what has been termed a 'presenteeism' culture in the UK. Presenteeism is a fairly recent addition to the language of human resource management. It stems from awareness of the problems caused by staff who continue to turn up for work even when they're sick. It is recognised that employees who work when they should be at home recovering are usually unproductive and may compromise workplace safety.

The Health and Safety Executive has commissioned research indicating that around half a million people experience stress that they believe is making them ill. In addition, the HSE says that up to 5 million people feel very stressed at work. HSE data shows that in 2004-05 a total of 12.8 million working days were lost due to stress, depression or anxiety.

The problems posed by long working hours in Britain have been recognised by a range of key employer, employee and governmental organisations.

The partnership project was based on a series of free 'master class' sessions held across England and Wales. The sessions involved business organisations which have successfully introduced changes in the hours and patterns their staff work.

Stress-free research

So what does research show us about how leisure activities can help people reduce their stress levels? Leisure can be viewed as a 'coping strategy', it may involve family support, hobbies and other non-work activities.

The idea of escape is important here: escapism tends to refer to activities where people try to distract their attention away from work and its potential to cause stress. Stress and health have been closely associated for years. Leisure plays an important role in well being and good health. One of the key ways in which leisure is thought to be helpful is in its ability to cut tension and stress.

Some recent research indicates that exercise is good for your state of mind because you expect it to be so. In a paper written by Trenberth and Dewe (2002) two different types of leisure are identified:

People are motivated to carry out a leisure activity for different reasons. Here's a list of motivating factors given by people at work explaining why they get involved in different forms of leisure:

Active Challenging Leisure

Image: White water rafting - an active, challenging leisure activity. Copyright: Melvin Green

To do something challenging
To work towards a goal
To use my skills and talents
To achieve recognition and status
To compete with others for excitement and stimulation
To learn new things
To do something risky
To keep busy
To be totally focussed
To meet new people
To meet people of the opposite sex

Passive Recuperative Leisure

Image: Yoga - a passive, recuperative leisure activity. Copyright: Martin Louis

To relax
To do something different from work
To do something quiet and peaceful
To be free to do what I like
To reduce stress
To feel better mentally
To do something that is important to me
To get pleasure
To do something absorbing
To do something for its own sake
To have fun
To enjoy nature

Trenberth and Dewe carried out their research using a sample of 695 principals and deputy principals from secondary schools in New Zealand. Their findings emphasised the importance individuals attach to leisure activities which provide the chance to be passive and to recuperate.

One of the authors states that this finding shows that those interested in stress management in business organisations and elsewhere, 'may need to consider the benefits of providing recuperative-therapeutic opportunities in much the same way as they have provided opportunities for employees to engage in social, sporting and health-related activities'.

Evidence from industry

So does this emphasis on passive leisure really work in practice? If so, we could expect to find many examples of organisations adopting policies which encourage staff to achieve a better work-life balance. Some examples of these (drawn from the DTI report highlighted above) are given below:

These aspects of work are seen increasingly within large organisations. The DTI campaign aimed to spread these practices across a wider range of businesses.

If you have yet to start your first serious job you may find in the future that your employer may offer opportunities for leisure as part of your contract. Generations of workers in the past would be mystified at the suggestion! But all the signs are that employers who offer effective work-life balance opportunities believe they gain a competitive advantage over employers who don't. Once again, we see leisure at the forefront of change in the UK - a trend that's quite likely to continue.

Does this mean that all workers will be receiving basket weaving training and going on paintballing days out from work? Probably not, but it could mean the end of presenteeism and the long working hours culture in the UK. Such changes take a long time to bear fruit, but there is at least a recognition that we cannot expect to produce a world-class workforce by working people into the ground - sometimes, quite literally.

Sources of further information

Activities

Here is a list of staff development activities to help staff achieve better work-life balance.

Active Challenging Leisure or Passive Recuperative Leisure? You decide!

White-water rafting
Obstacle course army training
Fire walking
Abseiling
Indian head massage
Reflexology
ICT training
Yoga
Introductory basket weaving
Tie-dye master class
Local natural history tour
Talks on notable local historical figures
Astronomy for beginners
Learn to play boules
Paintballing
Careers interviews

For each of the above suggestions received from staff at your workplace, choose which belong under the headings of 'active' or 'passive' leisure activities.
Which do you think would be most likely to help staff who have complained about feeling stressed? Give your reasons.
What other activities would you recommend that an employer offers their workforce to help them manage stress more effectively? Use the findings of Trenberth and Dewe's research to inform your answer.
What's wrong with the concept of presenteeism? Surely people should be encouraged to spend as long at work as possible. Otherwise, how is the work going to get done?

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