1. 1
The Mission of the Antares
Foundation
“…to improve the quality of your
assistance and overseas development
through advice, training and support.”

2. 2
Activities of the Antares Foundation
• Training and Support of Staff
• Organizational Consultancies and Evaluations
• Conferences, Research and Publications
• Development of Consensus-Based Guidelines
• Advocacy and Lobbying

3. The Antares Model of Stress Management

4. 4
Workshop Objectives
Discussion Point:
What would you like to take away from this training?

5. 5
Ways of Working Together
Setting ground rules
• Interactive
• Mutual learning process
• Not easy to share personal thoughts or feelings with work colleagues,
so…
– You are welcome to share your personal experiences, and the
information will benefit others
– You don’t have to share if you don’t want to
– Respect privacy of persons in the group by not sharing sensitive
information outside of this room
– Any feedback to the agency will be general and anonymous
• Other ground rules?

6. 6
Module 1:
Stress in your work

7. 7
• What are the stresses you experience in your daily
work?
• What are the stresses you see for other staff in their
daily work?
• What are the stresses you see for other staff in
emergency situations and disasters?

8. 8
What’s so stressful about your work?
1. The work environment
• Working conditions
• Team and agency factors
1. Your role
2. Personal factors

9. 9
Sources of Stress 1:
The context of your work
• Insecurity
• Threats to well-being and health
• Challenges to values, ideals and beliefs

10. 10
Sources of Stress 2:
The Work Environment: Working
Conditions
• Heavy workload (or inactivity); lack of rest
• Relationships and Communication
– Cultural differences
– Personality conflicts
– Unclear lines of communication
• Team and Agency Issues
– Intra team conflict
– Poor leadership or management practices

11. 11
Sources of Stress:
The Work Environment:
• Unclear or conflicting priorities
• Unclear job descriptions
• Lack of feedback on performance
• Perceived lack of support by management
• Overly heavy workload; lack of control over workload
• Too many meetings
• Job insecurity and/or career insecurity
• Conflict within work group
• Perceived harassment or favoritism

12. 12
 Poor prioritization of tasks
 Confused lines of authority
 Failure to provide needed supplies or support
services
 Poorly defined job descriptions
 Inconsistent (or bullying) supervision
 Intra team conflict or harassment or scapegoating
Note: The team can also be a major source of
protection against external sources of stress.
Sources of Stress 2:
The Work Environment: Team and
Agency Factors

13. 13
Some personality factors that can worsen
the effects of stress …
• Need to maintain professional role and appearance of emotional
strength:
– Fear of admitting vulnerability, of being seen as weak, or
identifying with beneficiaries
• Repressing emotions in order to keep functioning:
– Useful in the short-term, but may lead to long-term
problems with “hazardous emotional material”
• High expectations of self; need to be in control of self and
environment
– Risk of a sense of failure or loss if they don’t succeed
• Need to help others regardless of self; inability to say “no”
– Leads to failure to take care of self so as to be able to
maintain high level of functioning
• Lack of tolerance for stress and ambiguity

14. Discussion point:
Think about the various sources of stress we have
discussed. Are these experienced by staff in your
organization?
14

15. 15
Module 2:
The Impact of Stress on your work, teams
and the organization

16. 16
What is stress?
• Stress occurs when the perceived demands from
the outside world or yourself are out of balance
with your perceived ability to cope.

17. 17
Signs of Stress in Individuals
How do you recognize that you are “stressed out”?
What are your personal signs of stress?

18. 18
Signs of Stress in Individuals
Symptoms of stress appear at various levels of
functioning and feeling:
• Physically (e.g., stomach pain, fatigue)
• Mentally (e.g., difficulty concentrating, making decisions)
• Emotionally (e.g., sadness, anxiety)
• Spiritually (e.g., feeling life is pointless, anger at God)
• Behaviorally (e.g., inefficiency, reckless behaviors)
• Interpersonally (e.g, withdrawal, irritability)

19. 19
Studies show that one-third or more of your work show
clinically significant signs of emotional distress at the end
of assignment. This includes:
• Post-traumatic stress syndromes
• Vicarious (secondary) traumatization
• Depression
• Pathological grief
• Anxiety
• Psychosomatic complaints
• Interpersonal (including marital or family) conflict
Long Term Effects of Stress - I

20. 20
Chronic Stress and Burnout
Burnout is an emotional state due to long
term stress, characterized by chronic
emotional exhaustion, depleted energy,
impaired enthusiasm and motivation to work,
diminished work efficiency, a diminished
sense of personal accomplishment, and
pessimism and cynicism.
Long Term Effects of Stress – II

21. 21
Signs of Burnout in Individuals
Chronic fatigue, frequent
physical complaints, sleep
disturbances, weight gain or
loss
Chronic anxiety
Difficulty making decisions;
distractibility or difficulty
concentrating
Depression/chronic sadness/
negative thinking, focusing
on “failures”
Rigid, inflexible, or obsessive
thinking; diminished
tolerance for ambiguity
Increase in high risk behaviors
(e.g., drinking, driving
recklessly)
Distrust of others/ irritability/
suspiciousness/ blaming
others
Reluctance to start projects or
difficulty finishing projects
Low morale, disillusionment,
often accompanied by
absenteeism, tardiness, or
decreased quality of work
Doubt in value system/religious
beliefs; questioning of major
life decisions; loss of
spiritual zeal, feelings of
hopelessness or alienation
Withdrawal; desire to be alone
Callousness or cynicism

22. 22
Signs of stress and burnout in teams
• Increased absenteeism and lateness
• Clique formation or scapegoating or frequent intra-team
conflict
• High job turnover
• Lack of individual initiative
• Difficulty making team decisions
• Lowered work output
• Decreased quality of service

23. 23
Signs of stress and burnout in organizations
Stress and burnout adversely affect the
organization’s ability to carry out its mission:
• More accidents and illnesses
– Increased absenteeism
– Increased health care costs
• Increased turnover
– Increased difficulty retaining and recruiting skilled
staff
– Increased training costs
• Poor decision making
– Increase in behaviors that place members and
recipients at risk
• Lowered efficiency and effectiveness in carrying out
assigned tasks

24. 24
How stressed and burnt out are you?

25. 25
Is there a solution?
Myth:
“If you go out in the rain, you should expect to get wet.”
Fact:
“If you go out in the rain, you should plan to take an umbrella.”

26. 26
Module 3:
Preventing, reducing, and
managing stress

27. 27
Stress and Response
?
Resilience? Vulnerability?
Stressor
Stress! Coping
Appraisal
Long term
effects
© 2008, John Ehrenreich

28. 28
Points of Intervention
Resilience? Vulnerability?
Stressor
Stress! Coping
Appraisal
Long term
effects
?
© 2008, John Ehrenreich

29. 29
Overview of Strategies for reducing stress
• Anticipate: Prevent or reduce the intensity,
frequency, or duration of stressors
• Shift the balance: Reduce vulnerability and
increase resilience; maintain “stress fitness”
• Monitor your own stress level
• Cope more effectively
• Take action to prevent long term effects

30. 30
Strategies for reducing stress
• Prevent or reduce intensity, frequency, duration
of stressor
– Learn about assignment and potential stressors
– Think and plan ahead
– Learn about stress, stress response, personal signs of stress
– Be proactive; plan and rehearse responses (at least mentally)

31. 31
Strategies for reducing stress
• Reduce vulnerability and increase
resilience: maintain “stress fitness”
– Build social supports (close connections with colleagues,
family, friends)
– Partialize: Focus on specific issues, not a broad concern with
“all of the problems”
– Seek advice and assistance
– Identify sources of deeper meaning
– Take care of yourself
• Maintain proper nutrition, get enough exercise, get enough
rest
• Take breaks from the job (take periodic breaks during the
day; keep after-hours and weekends for yourself; make
time for socializing; take vacations
• Don’t take your work home with you (literally or in your
thoughts)
– Keep a sense of perspective: Consider the broader context and
longer term view.

32. 32
Strategies for reducing stress…
• Improve monitoring of stress
– Monitor yourself: Know your own signs of stress
– Monitor team members: Recognize the signs of stress in
others
– Be aware that “problems” in the team may be signs of stress
in individuals

33. 33
Strategies for reducing stress…
• Improve coping
– Monitor your arousal level and act to keep it under control (e.g., use
relaxation exercises, exercise, meditate)
– Respond effectively to the stressor (active coping):
• Take a step back to problem solve before acting., then take
action. Do not ignore, minimize, avoid, or wish circumstances
were different.
• Break up big tasks into smaller ones and act on the smaller,
more manageable tasks.
• Seek advice and help and support from others
– Protect yourself (distract yourself, express your feelings):
• Take breaks from problem solving to relax (recover energy)
• Take care of yourself (maintain your strength).
– Take care of everyday tasks (so that they don’t turn into additional
crises),

34. 34
A Basic Framework for Coping
Grant me the courage to change the
things I can change, the serenity to
accept the things I can’t change, and
the wisdom to know the difference.
Reinhold Neibuhr

35. 35
• Earlier, we asked: “What are the stressors
you experience in your daily work?”
• Go back to those stressors. Working in
pairs, discuss a strategy that would (or
would have) helped you deal better with
this stressor.