Stress in the Workplace

Today, workloads, deadlines, and overtime hours are extremely high and it is placing a tremendous burden on the working people of our country. In 1983, Time magazine declared stress to be the epidemic of the Eighties. Many years later, in the 21^st century, it is evident that stress in the workplace is getting a lot worse. To some researchers, stress may now be the single largest issue that employers and employees face. Stress is forcing more people to be counterproductive in the workplace resulting in sub par work. The American Institute of Stress found that workplace stress causes approximately 1 million U.S. employees to miss work each day.

Unfortunately, being under too much stress decreases productivity and cohesiveness between coworkers. When people are knee deep in work assignments and deadlines, stress begins to take a serious physical and mental toll on them. Sadly, because of our current economy, workers must meet their quotas because layoffs and budget cuts have become very frequent for many entities since the market crash of 2008. As far as stress relating to cohesiveness between coworkers, it is contagious. Stress has an exceptionally strong impact on the people that surround you. For instance, when a particular assignment or workload stresses out my coworkers, I lend a hand to help them cope with their situation and suddenly I too begin to stress. I would consider it as a chain reaction.

For some situations stress is inevitable but must be addressed timely and accurately. According to Donald K. Farris, an experienced adult educator and mental health specialist trainer, “stress in neither good nor bad: it’s how we react to it that’s important.” Also, it is vital to understand that it is impossible to live a life completely stress free. Farris also replied, "You'll never be without stimulation and all stimulation produces some sort of stress," There are many coping and support strategies that people take to help them relieve their stress. Some of these strategies include, behavioral coping, cognitive coping, problem-focused coping, emotional-focused coping, social support, instrumental support, and emotional support. Each one of those methods helps reduce stress based on the type of person and situation they may be in. Aside from using any theory or strategy, some believe it is all in ones head. Donald K. Farris states, "A more realistic goal should be to no longer be overwhelmed by your stress and problems. It's important to keep things in perspective. If you predicate your happiness on being problem-free. you'll never be happy because you'll never be able to rid your life of all problems." Studies have shown that people who consistently do a relaxation process are less anxious, tense, and better able to resist stressful situations. These people also are happier, more energetic, and self-confident both at home and at their workplace.

Stress in the workplace directly relates to the theories, research and concepts we have covered in class. Whether employees are undergoing physiological strains, psychological strains, or behavior strains they must coped with in order to prevent decreased productivity. The main correlation I came across was the amount of stress that takes place at work. Both the book and the articles make it evident that stress is a serious problem that must be addressed. Many of the scholarly articles talked about many different topics of how to deal with stress related situations that greatly paralleled our lecture discussions.

Students can use this information to help them in their current classes as well as in their future careers. The piece that people must be aware of going forward in life is that stress is everywhere. Whether it is academically, athletically, socially, or in the workplace, stress will always follow. The objective is not to try and completely eliminate stress, but to cope with it effectively and make the best out of negative situations. There are many individual stress management strategies that employees use to leave some of their stress such as, peer support, exercise, and laughter. Just remember, everyone is different, the same coping mechanism will not work for every employee. Also, it is important to remember stress is contagious, both negatively and positively. The more positive energy a person gives off the better the working environment for everyone.

-Kyle Lachowicz

Sources

Siân Harrington. (2007, May 31). Stress in the workplace. Printweek, , 30-31. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/230393694?accountid=12924

Arellano, J. (2007). Stress in the workplace. Rural Telecommunications, 26(3), 8-8. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/202688522?accountid=12924

Halsted, K. A. (1993). Stress in the workplace. CPA Management Consultant, 7(3), 11-11. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/194693454?accountid=12924

Carr, J., Kelley, B., Keaton, R., & Albrecht, C. (2011). Getting to grips with stress in the workplace. Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(4), 32-38. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09670731111140748

Reducing Stress

People all around the world go through life thinking about their next worry. Overtime worrying about all of the obstacles throughout life can cause a great amount of stress on one person. Sometimes coping with stress can affect a person positively.

Simply coping with stress has not seemed to be the best method to deal with stress over the past years. When coping with stress a lot of people do not look at “the other side of the coin” (Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T.). As humans we find a way to deal with stress and never look at what other things around us are affected by our coping method. When coping with a heavy workload we may calm down the stress by just trying to finish the workload as fast as possible. Meaning that we will pay less attention to other people around us because right then getting rid of the stress by finishing the product is what matters. Or on the “other side of the coin” we may just put the work down and procrastinate with the work causing the performance of our work to decrease. Most stress does not result in something positive. People don’t normally stress out because something good in happening. It is normally the outcome, which resulted from the stress that is positive.

Different people handle stress in different ways. Each person is different so some of these methods may help while others may not. In the article “A Student’s Tips on Reducing Stress” the writer then explains the different ways students are stressed and how they can be reduced. The first tip was to have some confidence in yourself and what you can achieve. If you know that you’ve put the time into your work then there is no reason to always check your grades. Checking your grades often can result in high stress volumes with the student. Another useful tip was to create relaxing activities to do throughout your day that will get your mind off of what is stressing you. Come up with things that are flexible for you to do but also something that you’re not obligated to do. Some things that students can do are play a video games, listen to music, have a conversation with friends, or even play and instrument. Some people even result to something entertaining like watching short clips on YouTube. Anything that you can do that will temporarily distract you from your stressful activity will work.

In the article “Stress and Anxiety”, it refers to three different methods that can be used to reduce the amount of stress someone could have in everyday life. They discuss Exercise, Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), as well as Relaxation and Other Alternative Techniques. “Exercise in combination with stress management techniques is extremely important for many reasons. Exercise is an effective distraction from stressful events.

Exercise may directly blunt the harmful effects of stress on blood pressure and the heart (Health Guide). Be sure that in your exercise that you input a decent amount of cardio. The cardio allows the toxins that are in your body that causes stress to be released from your body. “Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is among the most effective ways of reducing stress, whether the source of stress is chronic pain or a chronic disease. A typical CBT approach includes identifying sources of stress, restructuring priorities, changing one's response to stress, and finding methods for managing and reducing stress” (Health Guide). If you can eliminate what ever is stressing you the do so. With CBT if you know what is stressing you out then you are already half way to reducing the amount of stress that you have. Everyone needs to have some type of relaxation method. Weather this means that you light candles and meditate or just find a comedy on television to watch and relax your mind. There should be some type of relaxation method. “Relaxation lowers blood pressure, respiration, and pulse rate, releases muscle tension, and eases emotional strain” (Health Guide).

Everyone has to deal with stress and the many ways to cope with it. Some people try to relax and take their mind off it. Some people exercise. While others may just deal with the stress and fight through it until it over passes. No matter what we all have to deal with it and some of these tips should help others over come their stress.  

-Chris Carter

                                                                                  Sources

Fan, Will. "A Student’s Tips on Reducing Stress." The New York Times. N.p., 30 Oct. 2007. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

Folkman, S., & Moskowitz, J. T. (2000). Positive affect and the other side of coping. American Psychologist, 55(6), 647-654. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.55.6.647

"Health Guide." Stress and Anxiety Lifestyle Changes. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 Feb. 2013.

EFT

            When stress becomes a part of your life, how will you handle it? To be quite honest, stress will never be completely gone, but it can definitely be something that can be managed. There are ways to handle stress in ways like exercising and meditation, but there is a certain technique that can be forgotten about. Well, people are most likely thinking, “what is that technique?” It is called Emotional Freedom Techniques, also known as “EFT.” I was introduced to Emotional Freedom Techniques by a former baseball coach that I played for. When I had first heard about this, I was kind of confused to be quite honest wondering how can this really help concentration and reduce stress levels. It also can help pain subside and help with implementing positive goals. Since our main topic is stress, this would be a great subtopic when dealing with stress.

            What is Emotional Freedom Technique? According to Gary Craig, it “Is a universal healing aid that rebalances the body’s energy system with respect to unresolved emotional issues. Energy meridians that run through our body can be blocked or disrupted by unresolved emotional issues, thereby compromising our natural healing potential. Re-aligning the energy meridians while focusing on an unresolved emotional issue can often provide increased personal peace and relief from many physical symptoms.” Gary Craig is considered the founder of Emotional Freedom Techniques. Dr. Roger Callahan, whom of which was a psychologist, served as a mentor to Craig when Craig was a student of his. There is a legend behind how EFT may have broken in. Apparently a patient of Dr. Callahan had a phobia of water. She wouldn’t take a shower, swim, or the most bizarre one which is she would not even go outside if there was going to be rain. The woman had been a patient of Callahan for about year and a half, and he was trying different techniques on her such as hypnosis and rational- emotive therapy. Then during one of their sessions, Dr. Callahan had told her to try tapping under her eyes, surprisingly the woman had tension relieved and the phobia appeared to have vanished. To make sure it was gone, Dr. Callahan took her by a pool and she wanted to jump in. Ever since that day, it has now evolved into a task that people can use on the daily. “The theory behind EFT is that negative emotions are caused by disturbances in the body’s energy field” (Brattberg, 2008)

            Now as far as how to use Emotional Freedom Techniques, there are multiple ways of how someone can use it: Tapping the top of the head making sure the fingers are back-to-back down the middle of the skull, above the eye brow, side of the eyes (temple area), under the eye, arm, and nose, chine, collar bone, and on the inside of the wrists (Mercola, 2013). When tapping, the person must tap hard enough, but obviously not hard enough to cause an injury and even if you are not tapping in the exact area that is alright. As long as you are in the right vicinity, that is more than efficient.  “This treatment is effective with most anxiety or trauma based issues, has remarkable effect with pain by treating remembered pain that contributes to chronic pain, is extremely safe, easy to teach, and is a natural self-help treatment intervention” (Gary A. Flint, 2001).

            After giving a brief background and how to perform Emotional Freedom Techniques, now it is time to put these techniques to the test. As far as students using this technique in school, the workforce, or in their careers, look at it this way, it can only help you. Stress is something that can’t really be avoided, it can only be maintained. There is always going to be those rough days where there is a lot going on and your head will be going in fifty different directions, so why not try techniques like Emotional Freedom Techniques to help control the mind and get back to solid mental state. Maybe it can be the difference someday when helping a student with an exam, or getting a task done at your job. After doing more research on Emotional Freedom Techniques, it seems that it is off to the races and will continue to become more popular throughout the world. The way these techniques are growing, it can become the leading way when dealing with mental and emotional issues.

-Anthony Capaldi

Sources

Brattberg, G. (2008). Self-administered EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) in individuals with fibromyalgia: a randomized trial. Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal.

Flint, G. A., Lammers, W., & Mitnick, D. G. (2006). Emotional freedom techniques. Journal of aggression, maltreatment & trauma, 12(1-2), 125-150.

Mercola, Joseph. (n.d.). Basic Steps to Your Emotional Freedom. In Emotional Freedom Technique. Retrieved February 8, 2013, from http://eft.mercola.com/.

What is Stress?

            Stress is an obstacle that most people have to deal with on a daily basis. The ways it can work can be in a positive or a negative manner. Trying to figure out where stress comes from can be the challenging part. Work, school, and other activities can cause stress because of the pressure that is applied by completing these daily tasks. What is stress? According to Merriam-Webster, stress is a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation. Even those that believe they don’t have stress, likely have stress because most people experience it in some type of fashion. Research of stress and knowledge development reflects the issues that are associated with medicine, sociology, psychology, and management (Cohen, 2012).

            The history of stress originated from Hans Seyle in 1936. Many ideas and concepts were studied by Seyle that became integrated in 1956 that was called general adaptation syndrome. He believed that people with external stressors try to escape them by physical stressors. This describes the first stage of general adaptation syndrome called the “alarm” stage. The second stage the “resistance” stage. This means that the way a person copes with the “alarm” stage is by reversing it. The final stage is called the “exhaustion” stage because this is when the person realizes that there is no escape from the stressors. In today’s world, we know positive stress and eustress and negative stress as distress. Integration has come a long ways and studies are still going on about this issue that many people deal with (Kenard, 2008).

An Employee’s well-being can be damaged from stress. Confidence is a characteristic that leads to job performance, and stress could affect that in positive and negative ways. Type of stress can help raise performance because it can bring more focus and ambition to a task. An example of positive stress in the workplace include a promotion at work , while an example of negative includes being overwhelmed with tasks that seem to be impossible because of the pressure that rides on completing them.

            Stress in the workplace can be categorized into topics that include factors unique to the job, roles in the organization, career development, relationships at work, work- life balance, and organizational climate/structure. Factors unique to the job include pace, workload, shifts, and a lack of appreciation. Roles in the organization include level of responsibility, role conflict, role ambiguity, and level of responsibility. Having a role that an employee is comfortable with is definitely a key factor in the overall performance of the job at hand. Being under/over promoted, job security, career opportunities, and job satisfaction are categorized under career development. Building good relationships at work make the atmosphere comfortable. These relationships can be with co-workers, supervisors, and other subordinates. Negative relationships cause lack of trust and the atmosphere may feel full of tension. Employees feel significant when they have a key role in participation. That type of example would be classified under the climate and structure of the organization. Finally, being able to leave work at work is sometimes tough to do, but it is important to enjoy family time when you are not working (CCOHS, 2007).

            There are many ways to deal with stress. Working out is one of the best ways to reduce stress. Types of workouts consist of yoga, running, lifting weights, and playing sports. Breathing techniques are used in yoga to help calm the body down while gaining strength and flexibility. Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is a popular way to reduce stress. Ways to relieve stress will be described later on in plenty of detail throughout our group postings so that the viewers can get a better understanding of how to cope with stress. Everyone goes through it, and nobody is alone. A simple term called “stress” that was made up back in the late 1930’s has come a long ways. More details are being discovered by researchers throughout time so that humans can keep their personal stress under control. Stress was second to musculoskeletal disorders in a list of top causes for worker ill health in the mid 1990’s (Staples, 1995).

-Thomas Capaldi

Sources

CCOHS. (2007, June 6). In Workplace Stress- General. Retrieved February 8, 2013.

Cohen, J. A., Tarule, J. M., Rambur, B. A., & Vallett, C. (2011). Stress and the Workplace. Handbook of 

Stress, Coping, and Health: Implications for Nursing Research, Theory, and Practice, 310.

Kenard, J. (2008, June 10). A Brief History of the term Stress. In Health Central. Retrieved February 8, 2013.

Staples, J. (1995). Stress in the workplace. Safety Management, 11(1), 12-13.