ress is the single greatest stress in their life. (http://www.ncci.com/html/ncfoj2.htm). In another case Hearsh vs Hughes Aircraft the employee accepted a lump settlement of $20,000 for a stress claim when he suffered a minor nervous breakdown and lost his job with the company. Yet another case in 1986 was settled out of court for $50,000 that involved a manager of a furniture rental store. After one year of hearings and court costs, the employee was awarded the lump sum payment due to stress induced by a hostile supervisor (Newsweek 1986). There is no doubt that stress claims are on the rise, and industry is spending billions in court costs, lost wages and medical benefits.Methods of Reducing Occupational Stress:Research displayed in this paper establishes the increase of stress related problems in industry, the next logical step is to become pro-active; prevent the degradation of mental health through stress management. In a survey performed by J. Fielding (1989) over 59% of companies with 750 employees or more have some type of stress management program in place and 87% have a health and fitness program in place. Although this source is not too recent, these statistics demonstrate the commitment companies are making to help the employees' mental health and physical well-being.There could be many different methods that can be used by managers to help with stress management and reduction. The following section discusses these techniques and analyzes their use.Employee Assistance Programs: Many benefits packages offer an employee assistance program (EAP) to improve the ability of workers to cope with difficult work situations. According to Murphy(1995), Anearly one-half of large companies in the United States provide some type of stress management training for their workforces. Stress management programs teach workers about the nature and sources of stress, the effects of stress on health, and personal skills to reduce stress-for exam...
