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Enjoying Your Work Richard Brislin |
Stress in the workplace can
come from many sources,
including parties
Many of life's stresses involve people's relations with others. Social scientists interested in the effects of stress on health have developed various measuring instruments. One of the best known is based on people's ratings of life events that they feel are stressful. In developing the scale, researchers presented people with a known event that is highly stressful for almost everyone. This event, known as an anchor, is the death of a spouse when a couple had a loving and highly committed relationship. This event is given a score of 100. Then, people consider other events and tell how stressful they are while keeping this anchor in mind.
Some stressful behaviors involve their places of employment.
Being fired yields a stress score of 47 points. This score is undoubtedly higher if people face a tight job market where employers have many applicants competing for available jobs.
Adjusting to a major workplace disruption brought on by changing economic conditions has a stress score of 39 points.
Having trouble with one's boss brings a score of 23 points. If people have two or three bosses and are having difficulties with all of them, then this score is doubled or tripled.
People might be able to cope with one troublesome relationship involving their boss, but two or three hassles can add up to a stress level that threatens their health.
Several behaviors receive stress ratings that may seem surprisingly high. Experiencing an outstanding personal achievement receives a stress score of 28 points. Why is this stressful? Wouldn't people think that personal achievements are pleasurable and could actually counteract other ongoing stresses in their lives?
One reason is that if an achievement is outstanding, there is usually a ceremony and publicity attached to it. The person receiving the achievement may receive congratulations from many well-wishers at the same moment.
Thanking each individual personally, showing appreciation graciously, and not shortchanging anyone by giving them too little attention can challenge a person's social skills.
It would be easy to suggest that people should practice being gracious with multiple well-wishers. But even the most able people receive only one or a few major awards during their lifetimes, and so practice is difficult.
Another reason personal achievements bring stress is that others may expect the person to keep up the same level of productivity and to win similar awards in the future.
Again, social skills have to be very well developed if a person can gently remind others that award-winning performances cannot be expected every day.
Experiencing activities during the Christmas season can bring a stress score of 12 points.
One reason is that if people are coping with other troubles in the lives, seeing co-workers joyfully participate in various Christmas events can intensify their own feelings of sadness or loneliness.
Mildly troubled people may try to be good employees and sing the Christmas songs during office parties and applaud when Santa enters the door. However, these appeals to their social skills can be stressful since they have to put energy into masking their true feelings.
Many stresses can be alleviated if people turn to others with whom they have well-developed relationships. These others can sometimes give helpful advice for dealing with stress and sometimes can provide emotional support. Just having someone to talk with can reduce stress and move people away from the health risks of suffering in silence.