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The number of men booking onto stress management courses is on the increase and could overtake women.
Reed Training, part of Reed the recruitment and training group, said that in the year to June 2003, the gender gap between women and men attending the company’s stress management courses has reduced significantly from 22 per cent down to just 4 per cent.
Overall, Reed Training has also seen its bookings for stress management and emotional intelligence courses increase by 30 per cent in the year to June 2003.
Reed Training’s stress management specialist, Mike George, said: "Men are starting to attend our courses in significant numbers and the gender shift is very noticeable.
"It’s a positive sign that men are finally acknowledging the pressure they’re under and seeking ways to address it.
"This is happening not just because the pressures of work and family life are getting greater, but because men are now realising that seeking help is a sign of strength, not an admission of defeat.
"Statisticians talk about the cost to business in terms of days off sick, but much more harmful is the time and energy wasted when people are actually at work.
"If you haven’t accepted that the main cause of stress is yourself, you spend fruitless hours thrashing around for someone else to blame and feeling resentful. That in turn affects the morale of people working around you."
