More on Stress

Stress is on my brain right now as I’m piloting a new workshop offering called SPUN Up that teaches people how to think about Stress in a proactive way. Let’s face it, we all have some level of stress in our lives and it’s not going away anytime soon, so we might as well learn how to make peace with the parts we can, let go of what we can’t do anything about, and have fun despite it.

A fellow workshop facilitator friend sent me an updated number about the cost of stress that is absolutely mind boggling. According to the American Institute of Stress, in the United States it’s estimated that stress costs $300 billion annually to U.S. business. The cost is attributed to “absenteeism, employee turnover, diminished productivity, medical, legal and insurance expenses and Workers' Compensation payments.” That is a whole lot of cash that could be used for innovation, education and maybe even higher salaries, if only people were more balanced with themselves and their work environments.

For those of you that work from someone, there is also a nifty little stress test on the site to measure how much stress you have. For those of you that work for yourself the questions are a good reminder to ask yourself what type of environment are you offering your employees and yourself.