With all the turmoil in the banking industry, the high stakes gambling behavior, constant pressure on financial turn-arounds, legal 
quandaries financial services companies have put themselves in, it makes me wonder how a new employee will fare in a job in this industry, or any other industry for that matter.
It makes me reflect on the early years in my career. I worked for a big publishing company. And I had a number of friends who worked for a big bank. Some of them worked for a guy whom I knew because we both worked out at the downtown Y. This guy was a VP, probably in his 60s, and they called him “Mr. Wonderful.” Believe it or not, they were not being sarcastic. “Mr. Wonderful” was his name because everyone loved working for him. Why? Nothing too complicated. He was kind, had a sense of humor, trusted people to do their jobs and supported them. Wow, what a concept. And his management style must have been successful because he had a long career there and had ascended into upper management positions.
I think fewer companies today place much emphasis on management training and development. I question whether they put the resources into developing managers who can engender positive attitudes in their staffs, retain great performers, and produce employees so good that others inside and outside the company want them.
Why the topic of managers for a health blog? Because bad managers can make employees physically sick. In the UK, The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence cited incompetent managers as the single biggest source of workplace stress and anxiety. And stress and anxiety are directly connected to imbalanced immune function, leading to physical illness. Even if you work for a struggling company that may be teetering on the brink of bankruptcy or being sold, a good manager may still make working for that company more fulfilling and less angst-ridden than working for a highly profitable company under a terrible manager.
I’m not just talking about managers who are outright jerks that anyone could identify: the bullying a-holes, the drill-sargents who think belittlement and verbal tirades motivate through fear, the boss who believes staying chained to your desk until 8 p.m. every night proves your loyalty and work ethic, regardless of how productive your aren’t. I’m also about talking managers who stay holed up in their office, not communicating with staff all at except through policy updates on email; or managers who take staff ideas and success, and transfer complete ownership and credit to themselves, refusing to let a subordinate “shine” in front of the board or senior executives. Or the manager who never assigns goals or objectives, then complains when those non-existent objectives are suddenly not being met. They all add up to big time stress, even if the management deficiencies are quiet and subdued (but deadly just the same!).
The list could go on and on. And here’s a really cosmic statistic: That British project on incompetent managers mentioned above showed that companies with good management talent can decrease sick days by 28%. When Embria Health Sciences teamed up with the city of Ankeny to track employee sick days while employees took nutritional supplements containing EpiCor, sick days also decreased by 28%. How wild is that?!?
Filed under: Balanced Immune Health, EpiCor, immune, Immune Balance, Immune System, Stress, Stress-Related Illness | Leave a comment
EpiCor among its ingredients. The interest in year-round, holistic immune health through balancing is a growing trend. Immune balancing means your immune system is “tuned” very well to respond strongly when needed, and to back off when needed. So many health challenges we face are, in part, due to immune cells over-reacting to various physiological developments. That over-reaction itself fuels health conditions, many that are chronic.
