SA professionals are in a low-grade war with stress

Over 3,500 professionals from the medical insurance provider’s membership base across a variety of sectors took part in this year’s survey, with the bulk of respondents (43%) from the medical industry, 10% from the engineering field and 1.5% from marketing and media sectors.

Profmed has conducted the survey for the past three years in a drive to understand and benchmark stress among South African professionals.

From 2017 to this year, the results have remained fairly consistent, with 71.5% of professionals saying they manage their stress well, compared with 71% in 2017 and 75% last year.

Profmed chief executive officer Craig Comrie said: “If the Stress Index has taught us anything over the years, it’s that work-related stress remains one of the biggest health concerns for South African professionals.

“Stress can affect us physically and impair our health, so we all need to learn how to recognise stress and find healthy ways of coping.”

For public relations consultant Nonkululeko Mahlangu, stress is part of her job and, contrary to popular notions, her job is not for the faint-hearted.

“People often see our industry as glamorous. However, it ranks number eight on the most stressful jobs of 2019,” the 29-year-old said.

Mahlangu, who has been a public relations consultant for six years, said the most stressful part of her job was juggling multiple clients at the same time.

She has devised a number of coping mechanisms to deal with the high stress that comes with her job, including reading poetry or a good book and having a glass of wine, as well as keeping a journal to offload in.

The majority of respondents (56.8%) said stress caused them to lose sleep, the second-largest group (52.4%) said stress made them lose their temper, 25% said stress made them work overtime while 14.7% increased alcohol intake as a result of stress.

But how do professionals prefer to cope with stress?

Of the respondents, 59% chose exercise as the best way to channel negative energy compared with 41% in 2017 and 37% last year.

Going on holiday was second, with speaking to family and friends coming in third.

According to integrative medical practitioner and author of Breathe: Strategising Energy in the Age of Burnout Dr Ela Manga professionals are more stressed than they realise. “We almost become accustomed to the feeling of low-grade stress and it feels almost normal,” Manga said.

Manga defines stress as a set of physical sensations such as muscle tension due to feeling overwhelmed and anxious, which is caused by overthinking and an inability to rest and recover. – siphom@citizen.co.za

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