Managing Stress at Home and Work

Stress…we all know what it feels like and can accurately describe its impact on ourselves, and those we know. Physically it may be experienced as indigestion, nausea or a tightening in the stomach, as heart palpitations, breathlessness or as chills, flushed face and blushing, trembling hands and fingers or fainting and light-headedness. Relationships, may be adversely affected by, irritability, anger, depression, anxiety and sexual dysfunction with the person experiencing a sense of alienation, fatigue and personal depletion. The behavioural signs may be even more telling with the person overeating, drinking excessively, smoking too much and even becoming suicidal. At work the price is absenteeism, poor performance and high staff turnover. 

 

But what is stress, how does it work and realistically what can be done to address it?

Stress is crucial to life and the task is not to eradicate it but to find the right balance for optimal performance. Stress like many other variables in life, like height and intelligence, can be represented on the normal distribution. Too much stress or arousal leads to poor performance and the development of symptoms and equally, too little can produce the same sorts of difficulties. Think of the impact on workers of being set mindless repetitive tasks on an assembly line. In these cases an increase in stress in beneficial. There is a story about parachute makers who were producing an unacceptable level of non-functional parachutes, which failed to open at the crucial moment. A perfect solution was devised whereby the parachute makers also became the parachute testers. The story goes that the failure rate dropped to zero! One explanation is that the threat of death and injury increased the workers arousal sufficiently to overcome the impact of a boring and repetitive task. 

  

So who does stress effect the most and why?

 Traditionally the hard working executive with the full weight of responsibility for the success or failure of the company has been seen as the prime candidate for stress and its attendant ills. This hypothesis was explored in a study of monkeys who arrange their personal and social lives in ways that are not dissimilar from our own. Of particular interest was the chain of command with the executive monkeys at the top having both the power and responsibility for those lower in the hierarchy. 

Contrary to the popular view it was not those who held responsibility and power who produced the symptoms we recognize in humans as indicative of excessive stress but rather those at the very bottom of the group. It was these animals whose daily lives were constantly being interrupted at the whim of their monkey bosses who expected immediate and unquestioning compliance. They may be resting, working, mating, relaxing and suddenly be ordered to stop that activity and undertake another. The explanation for their high levels of stress was simply that they lacked any effective control of their destiny a situation with which most of us can readily identify. 

In humans it is interesting to note that less than 10% of the variance between medical and psychological disorders which may be related to stress and major life events like the death of a spouse, unemployment or moving house can be accounted for by such events. Instead it is thought that it is the small irritants of everyday life that cause most stress. Think of the last time you really felt like screaming and tearing your hair out. Was it when a close relative died or when all in the same day you lost your car keys, left a crucial document at home, dropped your lunch all over the staff room and then had a helpful colleague delete a full afternoon’s work off the computer “by accident”? Like the monkeys we humans find the unexpected, unintended and uncontrollable events in life also the most stressful. 

In order to consider strategies for managing stress it is important to have an effective working model to explain how such events become significant stressors to some people. Lazarus and Folkman propose a three-stage model of stress, which recognizes the different internal responses people have to the same situation. This they say explains individual differences. 

The first is ascertaining a situation to decide on its possible impact on oneself. If the situation is considered stressful then a review of possible coping strategies occurs. Together, these two determine the individual’s emotional reaction and amount of stress experienced. The third stage involves a reappraisal of the situation in the light of the coping mechanisms employed. 

 This model applied to both personal stressors and stressors in the work place. 

In the work place potential sources of stress include factors intrinsic to the job, (work conditions, shift work, underload, overload, physical danger), the workers role in the organization, (responsibility for others, role conflict and role confusion), career development, (promotion), relationships at work and organizational structure and climate, (degree of participation in decision making, politics, lack of effective consultation). However not all workers will respond with the same degree of stress. Two people placed in the same context may well respond quite differently based on their levels of anxiety, neuroticism, tolerance of ambiguity and personality traits. (Alexander M. 1997) 

 The other important element is the degree of stress experienced from outside the workplace. Thus a worker who is experiencing marital and family problems, financial difficulties or life crises may cope even less effectively with work pressures. A vicious cycle of increasing incompetence and loss of control in both spheres can be established which can only spiral downwards.  Such a situation sees “symptoms” develop in both the individual and the workplace. For the sufferer, increased blood pressure, cholesterol, elevated heart rate, smoking, depression, drinking and job dissatisfaction and for the organization; absenteeism, turnover, industrial relations problems, and poor quality control. 

 

What Can Be Done?

 The key element to addressing the problem of stress is to enhance the workers experience of control. 

In the workplace

Two key elements can be identified in the workplace which appear to enhance workers ability to manage stress The first is the capacity to initiate change in the organization which is clearly directly connected to people’s sense of being in control. 

The second relates to the need to receive praise, which must of course be appropriate and accurate. This not only gives people accurate feedback about their performance but also makes them fell that they and their contribution are valued and appreciated. 

In the individual

Inside

• One’s mind-set is hugely influential in how we perceive and then manage stress. Thought processes are involved in three ways. Initially, a situation is only experienced as stressful if perceived as such. On occasion people may increase their distress by exaggerating the threat or demand posed by the situation. Once we have decided a situation is stressful there will be an expectation of how well equipped we are to manage the situation. Some people consistently underrate their capacity to manage a situation, even if they have successfully dealt with it before. Finally even if we reasonably decide that this is not a situation we manage well people vary greatly in their assessment of the negative consequences that will eventuate.
  We can learn to identify the messages we give ourselves that are excessively negative or unrealistic that undermine the capacity to deal with life’s difficulties. While it takes considerable time, effort and sometimes pain to alter this dialogue with ourselves (a little like undertaking a fitness program) the benefits of more accurately appraising the world and our capacity to manage it are considerable. One way of considering this self-dialogue is to consider how one speaks to ones children and friends. Would we ever be as denigrating, negative and pessimistic as we are with ourselves? And if we were, what would be the likely consequences for them as individuals and our relationship with them. 

• Tension is often held in the body and for someone who has been stressed for a long time, this may come to feel “normal”. Releasing muscle tension from the body is one effective way of reducing stress. This may be done by, progressive tensing and relaxing muscle groups, which helps focus attention on the difference between the two states. Exercise, which may simultaneously distract the mind from worries, may have a similar relaxing effect. 

• Another physical approach to stress and tension is to breathe calmly. As shortness of breathe is a stress symptom, the activity of consciously and deliberately moderating the intake of air while thinking “calm” can be counter-productive to stress. 

 Outside

• Uncertainty and indecision enhance stress and working in a context where one is confronted by multiple demands and impending deadlines with little sense of order can only be distressing. Goal setting and a realistic plan to meet them introduces greater certainty and hence reduces stress. 

• Another major source of tension is poorly managed time which brings with it a greater sense a chaos and feelings of being “out of control”. Time management strategies can enhance one’s productivity as well as providing a greater sense of relaxation and well being. 

• Keeping track of yourself is another strategy for feeling more in control. People find their own preferred way of doing this, which may range from keeping a personal diary to doing a quick check on yourself. Ranging across all the key areas that characteristically generate and manifest stress for you is a thorough way to do this. 

• Difficulties in any key relationships, either at home or work can be highly stressful and very distracting. Directly addressing these to either resolve them or find a way to live with them is a better and less stressful option than ignoring them in the misguided hope that they will “go away”. 

• Clearly developed boundaries, interpersonal rules about the nature and terms of relationships, are important in reducing uncertainty and hence promoting a sense of well being. People relate more comfortably and productively with each other when they clearly understand what is expected of them and what they can expect from others in each situation. 

• Being inundated by multiple demands can be highly distressing especially when it feels as if everything must be done “yesterday”. Setting rules about priorities is one way to avoid this situation. 

• Finally it is important to recognize that in our current world the experience of stress is very common. Speaking openly to appropriate friends and colleagues about those matters that are particularly difficult and seeking their support to effect change can be extremely helpful. Another person can often provide a perspective quite different from one’s own and provide the impetus for effective change. 

 

Stress is inevitable and like many things in life it is not the all or none approach that is helpful but being able to strike the right balance. For most of us the struggle is to moderate the amount of stress to which we are exposed, a task that must become part of everyday life. Like all those somewhat tedious “everyday” tasks, they are not necessarily intrinsically enjoyable, but the advantages certainly outweigh the costs.