Recently I have noticed an increase in articles about stress in the workplace and its consequences such as decreases in productivity and employee engagement http://www.hrmonline.co.nz/article/work-problems-spill-over-into-everyday-lives-141365.aspx?keyword=workplace Unhealthy, Stressed Employees Are Hurting Your Business. Most of the articles give us some great tips on how to manage stress. However, I wonder whether these stress management tips are simply band-aid solutions and question whether we are overlooking something - what are organisations doing to create the work stress in the first place? It seems to me that suggesting the responsibility lies with the stressed person 
who just needs to relax a bit and re-set their priorities abdicates organisations of their responsibility. It is a bit like telling a passive smoker to eat better and exercise but not telling the smoker to give up smoking. Stress management addresses the symptoms not the cause.
What causes workplace stress? It can be lots of things:
- work overload
- lack of role clarity
- people conflict
- changes in the workplace - new technology, restructuring
- a work culture where we need to "always be available"
In a time of recession often the first answer to cutting costs is cutting staff. Unfortunately this is rarely accompanied by a proper change management process to identify if this is the correct option. If cutting staffing is required the most obvious need is to scope roles to identify exactly what will be required of the people who are left behind. Frequently it is just expected that they take on the additional workload and do two jobs instead of one. Who is going to complain when jobs are at a premium? The extra workload can probably be sustained for a while but eventually the toll is either a reduction in quality or personal stress. Changes to roles can also cause boundaries between roles to become blurred - what are the tasks required of the new role, the priorities - who is accountable for what and who does this role report to, especially where there are multiple reporting lines?
People conflict is another stressor in the workplace. It can simply be caused by a clash of personalities or that people under pressure are less tolerant. Maybe the manager has been placed under pressure so they pass it down the line - they don't have the time or the capability to communicate what is happening to their staff, maybe they don't even know why changes are required. Management changes mean that people can be placed in roles where they don't have the experience or skills to manage people or to manage change; where the cuts to staff numbers are motivated by cost cutting there is little money to spend on building these capabilities.
The organisation may have always prided itself on its culture of being a hard-working organisation, achieving high productivity with few resources. Now, with less resources somehow things get out of kilter. 
How does the organisation balance the "high- performing - we go the extra mile" value with the "care for our staff" value? What exactly do these values mean - are staff expected to forego their personal lives for the fact its a tough business environment right now, that big contract we're working on, or the new IT implementation; and how long are they expected to do this? When values come into conflict with each other and we have to make some hard choices we really show what our true values are.
Yes, the people who are stressed can learn some new skills to manage stress. I use the "Powerful P's" as a simple way to build resilience.
- Planning and prioritising - time management skills
- Perceptions - reflecting on our thoughts - why do I need to keep on proving myself to be "ok"?
- People - develop interpersonal and communication skills
- Physical - a healthy balance of good nutrition and exercise
- Presence - a pause to relax , to be in the present moment and focus on what I am doing.
There are a number of ways to address the issue of stress in the workplace, placing all the onus on the worker is not a sustainable solution. A systemic approach is required where we look at all the opportunities. The organisation has a responsibility to look at what is causing workplace stress and what they can do to address it. The organisations' "Powerful P's" might be:
- Purpose - a cultural audit; who we are, why are we here and what we want to achieve
- Positions - a review of roles and workload
- Processes - opportunities to build in efficiencies to the way we work
- Planning - building strong planning, decision-making and execution capability;
- People - developing good communication skills, leadership capability and respect for each other
- Pay - the financials and how we balance these with all the above.
The current economic climate has come about because of a complex interplay of factors. Trying to address the issues with one off solutions can result in unforeseen consequences like workplace stress and the resulting drop in productivity and employee engagement. To be sustainable and truly support the wellbeing of your employees, solutions need to target both the individual and the organisation and address the cause of the stress.