Thanks to the stress mechanism, the human brain can determine in a quarter of a second whether a person, situation or object is a threat. This can be life-saving, but too high a stress level also creates dangerous situations in the workplace. Yet people can learn to deal with stress better, in which managers play an important role.
By: Dimitri Reijerman
This is what Marcel de Munck from D&F consulting says. He will during it LabSafety event 2019 give a lecture with the title 'Stress keeps me alive! How do I deal with emergencies?'. He immediately becomes specific when we talk about the pros and cons of the human stress response: “Stress can be very useful in emergency situations in the lab world. For example, if a fire breaks out in a lab, or a substance has escaped or broken, which could lead to contamination.”
De Munck explains what he will discuss during his lecture: “I will elaborate more on the role of stress, what the stress system does, how it arises after a million years of evolution. You can do three things: flee, fight or freeze.”
He continues: “Stress has to do with the structure of our brains. Our 'reptilian brain', which consists of our brain stem and intermediate brain, is our most primitive brain responsible for primary functions such as heart rate, breathing and circulation. This is also where the three stress reactions are located.”
According to the consultant, as mentioned, stress has positive aspects but also negative consequences: “On the one hand, stress has a negative effect on us. For example, continuous stress causes more accidents, because people are more distracted and have more doubts. That is the normal effect of stress. In extreme cases, for example in the event of a fire, stress can also save our lives. In emergency situations we can respond very primitively, without having to think about it. Then the brain is able to do something very quickly. For example, you react automatically to an approaching wrong-way driver.”
Preventing and influencing stress
Despite the fear that many people have of a severe stress reaction, dealing with stress, for example in the workplace, can certainly be influenced. And leadership plays an important role in this, says De Munck: “Particularly if you look at normal stress, there is also a clear correlation between leadership, safety in an organization and the number of accidents. A manager can push buttons – think of the working atmosphere, decision-making authority, meaning, participation and opportunities for self-development – which can reduce your stress level. For example, if there is a bad working atmosphere or few career opportunities, this causes stress and unsafe behavior. People are more easily distracted or lose focus. An employer can therefore influence a lot in terms of stress.”
The modern world also has a lot of influence on the tension or pressure on people. De Munck: “The stress level of the average person has increased. This has to do with the amount of information we receive. This has increased exponentially due to smartphones, etc. Our brains have to process these stimuli. But our brains were created hundreds of thousands of years ago, when life was much clearer with much fewer stimuli. Our brains are still like this when we were hunter-gatherers. The evolution of the world has been much faster than the evolution of our brain.”
(Un)healthy workload
In some countries, the government is trying to reduce work-related stress. In France, for example, legislation has been passed that prohibits companies with more than fifty employees from sending emails outside working hours. But in other countries the situation is completely different, and stress is elevated to the norm, says De Munck: “In Japan, for example, it is still very common to go to a restaurant or pub with customers after working hours. As a result, you don't get enough rest and a lot of stress arises.”
In addition, De Munck indicates that you can also train people to control their stress level. This is particularly popular in sports: “You can train the stress reflex, for example by doing fire exercises. Top athletes try to imitate a competition situation during training to experience the stress during an Olympic final. This way, a swimmer can swim his race on autopilot. But stress can also be reduced by practicing mindfulness. Practicing mindfulness has an effect on many levels. One of the most important effects is that it improves the quality of attention in the areas, stability, control and efficiency. This makes us more aware of the safety task we perform, more aware of ourselves, more aware of the physical environment around us and the social environment around us.”
Finally, when hiring new employees, their sensitivity to stress can be taken into account. “One of our personality traits is 'emotional stability'. Those who score low on this personality trait suffer less from stress,” says De Munck.
Would you like to attend Marcel de Munck's lecture? Register here for a visit to the LabSafety event 2019.
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