purdey wrote:Is it real ? or just an excuse for a few weeks off sick ?
Stress exists and it is real. Different people experience stress differently. You must know that we all have thing we tolerate and others we don't, which is mainly a result of our upbringing.
For instance, personally I feel stressed when I do not know what is happening, others feel stress when they know what they have to do, but can't be bothered doing it. It all depends on the person.
There are different levels of stress, depending on things we most certainly cannot tolerate, to things we just don't like. An example of this is that I do not like coffee, but if you push me enough I will drink it without saying anything, but if you tried to get me to stand around in the burning sun, or tried to make me do labor intensive jobs I would most likely snap at you.
What happens if you cannot snap, because that person is your boss, what happens then? Where does the stress go. Simple, it builds up and causes you things like headaches and health risks. Do you understand how stress at work works?
I think we have to differentiate between stress and bullying, as sometimes people mistaken one for the other. Obviously we in our jobs do the job because we tolerate it and it's within our job description, but when things are added simply because a manager cannot be bothered arranging proper personnel, or does not know how to do it themselves, then we have a problem.