Workplace Anxiety

Nitin, welcome to the forum. You'll have to forgive us but, when someone asks a question that sounds suspiciously like an assignment title, we tend to resist spoon-feeding them an answer. However, we do like to help students, so all we ask is that you share your own thoughts on the subject first and then we will chip in with our contributions.

To be honest, even if this isn't you trying to answer an assignment on the sly, it would be nice to hear your thoughts in more detail first. And it would be even nicer to see a link provided to the study you mention so we can judge its merits.

Evidence-based HR is all the rage!

Nitin, welcome to the forum. You'll have to forgive us but, when someone asks a question that sounds suspiciously like an assignment title, we tend to resist spoon-feeding them an answer. However, we do like to help students, so all we ask is that you share your own thoughts on the subject first and then we will chip in with our contributions.

To be honest, even if this isn't you trying to answer an assignment on the sly, it would be nice to hear your thoughts in more detail first. And it would be even nicer to see a link provided to the study you mention so we can judge its merits.

Evidence-based HR is all the rage!

Thanks Robey. Although I am currently a student studying CIPD level 5, this is not an assignment queston. I wanted to get an overview and thoughts of other HR professionals to provide me with a better overview on Resourcing while undertaking this module.

www.cipd.co.uk/.../positive-side-of-anxiety

Reference attached above. The actual study is from Bonnie Hayden Cheng of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and Julie M. McCarthy from the University of Toronto Scarborough.

My personal thought is that II agree with workplace anxiety can boost performance by helping employees focus and self regulate their behaviour. As previously anxiety and mental health was viewed in a negitive way and employees wouldnt really speak up with problems they are suffering with in the work place. However I believe in modern society employers are now supporting and are asking employees to speak up to help support their staff. This I believe helps builds condifence and can boost performance.

Thanks for clarifying Nitin and welcome to the community :)

I've seen first hand someone suffering from the results of sustained workplace anxiety (not at my current employer :)) and it manifested itself with difficult physical symptoms that required medical attention. So whilst a little adrenaline can keep us on our toes, generally sustained workplace anxiety doesn't sound like a positive thing to me at all. However resilience and a sense of perspective in handling the challenges work throws at us is also key - also training and coaching in the way we respect and communicate with our colleagues and work through problems - so as not to cause harm in the first place can be useful!

I'm with Robey in supporting evidence based practice.

So the academics have developed a theory. I was unable to access the evidence on which the theory is built. Who did they study and in what context? I ask because we all know a lot of studies use students at the researcher's institution as subjects. If that was the case then I would ask if there is any difference between anxiety to pass exams and anxiety in workplaces.

I would also like to know how we draw the line. How much anxiety is good for me? How do I know when it's moving towards being detrimental?

Overall in terms of mental health support in organisations I still think it's better to address anxiety at the outset.