1 Key points about the topic

The following points caught our attention because they encapsulated themes that are or have been emerging, were new and pithy or draw attention to important, unrecognised issues.

1. Stressed managers create stressed employees.
2. If you take a year to get stressed you can take a year to get over it.
3. Psychiatrists and GPs have very different patterns of diagnosis when they are faced with psychological disorders.
4. Physical work can result in physical injury. Mental work can result in mental injury.
5. It is not the nature of the tasks at work that people find most distressing, it is the bureaucracy – the way they are managed. “Not the work experiences but the workplace.” (This is a recurring theme at many conferences. Recent research indicates that the conclusion applies also to senior executives as much as front line workers.)
6. The correlation between exposure to specific stressors and (a) the submission of stress claims and (b) employee responses – is negligible.
7. The impact of operational stressors is mediated by: levels of individual morale (plays a critical role);
   • levels of supportive leadership
   • the overall quality of the work team climate
   • individual employee susceptibility.
8. A wet floor in the entranceway gets cleaned up quickly. Conditions leading to psychological injury deserve the same treatment.
9. Young men invariably have problems at work in their 20’s.
10. The Australian Police refer to staff on stress leave as ‘broken biscuits’.
11. Accident investigation is being approached with more and more rigour. The same rigour should be an increasing expectation in investigations of mental health problems.
12. The popular leader syndrome is passé.
13. The Mental Health First Aid Course has had an unexpected benefit. Better mental health in those who attended!

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