Winter is a time of year when levels of anxiety in the workplace can rise for various reasons. With mornings getting colder and the heating being turned up at work, many people will notice the beginnings of coughs and colds. Some work places will publish information about how to avoid sickness at this time, such as: eating healthily, exercising, and getting regular check-ups from the Doctor. Many people will think about taking vitamin tablets or going for a flu jab. All around people will strive to keep their bodies healthy and in good working order… but what about their minds?
Along with the cold weather there is sometimes an increase in the difficulties faced in daily life; ice on the car making someone late for work, the need for warmer clothing, darker evenings that may shorten working hours or even impact on a social life. Many people run around trying to get everything done and often to shorter deadlines due to the approach of important holidays. Another common worry is the need to fund those Christmas plans and have time for all the preparation.
In the Bible Jesus teaches about not having an anxious mind and encourages Christians to seek God for the answers (Luke 12 v 29). For many people this is not an easy thing to do during a busy workday in a company where results are important. It is easy to forget that minds also need to be kept healthy and are in need of a regular check-up or rest. Whether this is in the form of an evening of downtime with a good book, or a chat with the company Chaplain about how things are going. Sometimes this can help to just create that clearer picture about how to prioritise all those jobs and continue to work successfully and healthily.
Yesterday evening BBC’s Panorama broadcast a documentary on Ryanair centering on the company’s ‘low cost at all cost’ attitude. This showed the relationship between hardline business practicalities and perceptions directly affecting how staff thought of the airline they worked for.
