Most people agree that stress is an unavoidable part of life in today's world. It happens at home, at school, and at work.
Workplace stress management is becoming something of a buzzword as more companies try to find ways to deal with stressors in the workplace. What is it, though?
How to Define Stress at Work
"Stress is how people react when they are put under too much pressure or are asked to do too much in other ways." (Managing Stress at Work: Discussion Document, Health and Safety Commission of the United Kingdom, London, 1999)
Stress at work can either be good stress that makes people more productive or bad stress that makes people less productive. Our definition does not say that stress at work is a response to pressure. Instead, it says that stress is a response to too much pressure. When stressors are too hard to deal with and put too much pressure on us, they become bad.
Harmful workplace stress is strong, long-lasting, or happens over and over again.
Who is impacted by stress at work?
At some point or another, everyone gets hurt. As the world tries to get more done in less time, both blue-collar and white-collar workers experience stress at work. Work that used to be thought of as not stressful is now getting close to being rated as stressful.
On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest, more and more jobs are getting closer and closer to the top. The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology recently made a table that puts police officers at the 7.7 level. At 7.5, airline pilots are not far behind. Dentists are rated 7.3, even though they may seem to cause stress for their patients. Even teachers are 6.2 times more stressed than they should be.
Teenagers and older workers often have a harder time dealing with stress at work. Women may have a harder time than men. People who have a lot of stress at home will feel the effects of stress at work more.
The stress on the family grows. Stress at Work
When there isn't a good balance between work and family, stress at work goes up. Two-income families and families with only one parent are hit the hardest. Work that needs to be done quickly can put more stress on the worker than he or she can handle. Changes in work schedules can make it hard to take care of children. When people are mean to each other at work, it can cause stress at home, which can then cause stress at work.
Stress and Your Health
People are known to have a "fight-or-flight" response when they are stressed. The beat of the heart gets faster. The rhythm of breathing changes. Blood goes to muscles and other organs that are very important. Adrenaline and noradrenaline are released into the blood, which increases the amount of nutrients that give you energy. Our bodies are ready for battle or to run away from the enemy.
The problem is that it's hard to deal with stress at work. We might want to punch the boss in the nose when he or she asks for things that are too much, but we can't. We might want to quit right away, but we need the money, so our "fight-or-flight" response can't be carried out.
When the body's systems try to deal with this problem, they may become overwhelmed and cause problems like chronic fatigue, depression, anxiety, migraines, insomnia, high blood pressure, heart disease, drug abuse, and a whole host of other issues.
Some employers have set up programmes to help deal with stress at work, with more or less success. In many cases, though, a self-help programme for workplace stress might be more effective than individual research.
Self-Help for Stress at Work
If you took a self-help course called "Stress in the Workplace: How to Deal with It," like this article is, you would expect to learn useful ways to deal with stress at work. Aside from reports and research, you would need specific help for yourself. You would want to take steps that could help you start to deal with it right now.
The following steps will help you get going. Fill in the blanks.
- Analyze your job. Do you have a clear description of your job that tells you what to do? Are you qualified enough to do the work that's expected of you? Have you got what you need? Do you get to use your skills at work?
- Think about how you feel. Do you think your job is important? Do you think you hear enough from other people about how well you are doing? Do you think that people see you as a person instead of a resource? Do you think you should be able to say "no" when you have too much to do?
- Look at where you work. Is it safe and clean? Is it nice to look at and well put together? Is it easy to find things? Is there enough quiet to work? Is there a room where you can take a break where it's quiet? Can you stop working for five minutes every hour or so? Are your hours of work fair?
Once you've answered all of the questions, decide what you'll do to change things you don't like.
You can, for example, request a clear job description if you don't have one. You can ask to talk about the job's requirements. You can ask for the missing tools that would make your life easier.
Most workplaces can be cleaned or rearranged. You can make changes to ergonomics to keep your body safe. With some thought, you can make a better work flow or move tools that you need.
If your job seems pointless, think of new ways to do it. Look around for new ways to do your job, cut costs, or make more things. Taking on a challenge can make a big difference in how you deal with stress at work.
Lastly, learn to say "no" to things that aren't important. You were asked to "help" a coworker who always took long lunches by adding some of her work to your own. Agree to do it once, but explain to them why it's not fair for both of you to do it again. Even though you get to work an hour before everyone else, are you expected to stay until the last person leaves? Since your work is done early, ask politely if you can be taken into account.
The best way to deal with stress at work is to figure out which "monkeys" are yours to feed and not feed anyone else's.
