This week in 1995

Bearing all

With clients clocking on to the benefits that wellbeing can have on office productivity, we look back to 1995, when the impact of stress on building managers was becoming apparent, with claims their daily work was “like spinning plates in the circus”.

Reporter Andrea Carpenter spoke to successful managers about measures they took to handle the stress of such a demanding job. She wrote: “With variety come problems. Medical experts say building managers are perfect candidates for stress-related illnesses. Many work 12-hour days, put in extra time at weekends and deal with high financial stakes - in category one, for example, building managers control projects worth £28-£121m. It is a wonder there are not more breakdowns on site, say doctors.

“’The main characteristics of construction generally make it a high-stress occupation and a building manager has all the ingredients: budget constraints, tight deadlines, pressures from above and below and having to manage a whole range of people in a top-heavy industry,’ says Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.”