This Friday (February 1) is the Samaritan’s national ‘Stress Down Day’.  According to www.stressdownday.org it is a day when “Samaritans will be raising awareness of the effects of stress in the workplace and encouraging people to take better care of their emotional well-being”. The charity is organising a fundraising day, asking everyone in the UK to wear their slippers or take part in stress reducing activities and donate £2 each so it can continue helping those in need of emotional support.

Stress Down Day will this year raise awareness of stress across all work environments - not only in offices - but in factories and also for people who are at home such as working mums or dads who look after the children and the home. Use the day as an opportunity to obtain employee feedback on stress levels, encourage employee suggestions on reducing stress at work or debate the difference between 'stress' and 'pressure'.
If you think you are suffering with work related stress, you may have symptoms such as not being able to sleep, feeling tired, withdrawing from social events and a poor appetite. The Samaritans advise sufferers of any of these to visit their GP to rule out any other medical reasons for these symptoms, such as depression.  If you find this is not the case and believe it is your job that is making you stressed then there are things you can do about it:

• Make time for non-work related activities like hobbies


• Talk to your friends and family


• Make sure you take breaks when at work even if you are really busy


• Learn to say no to extra work that you can’t handle


• Manage you time and work effectively


• Have a very relaxing Stress Down Day on Friday!