National Stress Awareness Day 2015 at Imperial

Staff at the Reclaim your Lunch Break event

Last week staff attended a range of events organised by the College as part of the national day.

As part of the nationwide ‘Reclaim your Lunch Break’ campaign, senior staff hosted a lunch for colleagues, to encourage staff to escape their desks. The campaign aims to raise awareness of the importance of taking a proper break for productivity, well-being, and team-building.

Among those present were staff who make a particular contribution to supporting others, including leaders of staff networks and Mental Health First Aiders, colleagues who are trained to recognise the signs and symptoms when members of the community are having problems, to provide initial help, and to signpost appropriate professional support.

Steve Rathborn

Thanking colleagues for their support for others Steve Rathborn, Head of the Learning and Development Centre, said: “This event is a testament to the number of people across the College supporting the welfare of their colleagues. Looking after one another’s wellbeing as well as our own is an important responsibility for all of us.”

The day’s activities included workshops on stress management, meditation and mindfulness before concluding with a lecture from Dr Ed Roberts, a Research Associate in the Department of Medicine. The lecture focused on his research into how a change in hormone levels affect decision-making in the financial sector. His findings suggest that increased levels of cortisol, a hormone associated with stress, meant that people took more risks in the short-term, but in the longer-term people suffered from burn out, retreating and taking fewer risks.

Dr Roberts said: “Uncertainty is often a key cause of stress, and so taking actions to reduce uncertainty is helpful – such as managers giving staff more control over their work.”

A range of courses focused on resilience and stress management are available to staff for free through the College’s Learning and Development Centre. Find out more