Occupational Stress

1. Occupational Stress Chapter 16

2. Chapter Overview • Definition, contexts, and importance of occupational stress • Disease and occupational stress • Occupational stressors • The workaholic • Burnout • Women and work outside the home • Sexual harassment • Working in the home • Interventions

3. What Is Occupational Stress? • First, complete Lab 16.1 • Pertains to sources of stress at work • Involves individual characteristics • Related to the employee’s role within the organization

4. Occupational Stress Model

5. Sociocultural Organizational Work setting Interpersonal Psychological Biological Physical/ Environmental Multi-faceted Look at Occupational Stress Occupational Stress Evaluation Grid (Table 16.1) recognizes that occupational stress occurs in seven different contexts:

6. Why Is Occupational Stress of Concern? • Cost to businesses was >$200 billion/year, (Swoboda, 1992); probably much more now • Employees “always on call” concept • Leads to increased sick days, drug or alcohol abuse, and early death • Can promote high turnover rates of employees • Liability (i.e., workers’ compensation, disability, or litigation)

7. Did You Know? • Absences attributed to stress tripled between 1995 and 2004 • 62% of the time when workers called in “sick,” they were not really “sick” • Most heart attacks occur on Mondays

8. Gender and Occupational Stress • Stressors that particularly affect women include: • Career blocks • Sexual harassment • Male-dominated climate • Performance pressure • Gender stereotyping • Isolation • Lack of role models

9. Occupational Stress and Disease • Physiological effects • Elevated serum cholesterol • Elevated blood pressure • Increased left ventricular mass • Increased catecholamines • High plasma fibrinogen concentrations

10. Occupational Stressand Disease (cont.) • Disease states • Coronary artery disease • Obesity • Psychosomatic symptoms • Diabetes • Hypertension • Peptic ulcers • Lack of control over amount of work and work-related processes appears to be a major factor in whether stress will affect an employee’s health

11. Control/Demands Interaction Control Psychological Demands

12. Occupational Stressand Disease (cont.) • Psychological effects • Low self-esteem • Increased job tension • Low job satisfaction

13. Occupational Stressors • Workers feel stress at work because of: • Lack of participation in decision-making process • Role problems • Role overload • Role insufficiency • Role ambiguity • Role conflict

14. Occupational Stressors (cont.) • Workers feel stress at work because of: (cont.) • Job dissatisfaction • Motivational factors affect job satisfaction • Work environment

15. Human needs and their job related satisfiers

16. The Workaholic • Immersing oneself excessively in work at the expense of nonwork activities • Identifying oneself more with the role of a worker rather than as an individual • Are you a person who happens to be a student, or are you a student who happens to be a person?

17. The Workaholic (cont.) • Two factors for classifying workaholics (Naughton, 1987) • Career commitment (CC) • Obsession-compulsion (OC) • Naughton believed there were three types of workaholics: • Job-involved workaholics (high CC, low OC) • Compulsive workaholics (high CC, high OC) • Non workaholics (low CC, low OC)

18. The Workaholic (cont.) • Scott et al. (1997) classified workaholics as: • Compulsive-dependent • Perfectionist • Spence & Robbins (1992) proposed a workaholic triad: • Work involvement, drive, and work enjoyment

19. Ways to Combat Workaholism • Focus on the work you most like doing, work that you wouldn’t mind “doing for free” • Use your time; don’t let it use you • Build friendships at work • Schedule open time into your work life • Learn to say no sometimes • Create an environment you enjoy working in • Look for the positives in your job

20. Burnout • Adverse stress reaction to work with psychological, psychophysiological, and behavioral components • Symptoms include: • Diminished sense of humor • Skipping rest and meals • Increased overtime/no vacation • Increased physical complaints • Social withdrawal • Changed job performance • Self-medication • Internal changes

21. Five Stages of Burnout • Stage 1: The honeymoon • Stage 2: Fuel shortage • Stage 3: Chronic symptoms • Stage 4: Crisis • Stage 5: Hitting the wall

22. How to Combat Burnout • Identify the value and meaning of your job • List all activities you like and rank them in order of importance • Create a support group • Start a physical self-care program • Start a psychological self-care program • Do something silly every day

23. Women and Work Characteristics • Women are clearly disadvantaged in the world of work: • They make less money than their male counterparts • Women are subjected to more sexual harassment • Minority women earn less than non-minority women • Women tend to be primary caretakers of children

24. Sexual Harassment at Work • Unwelcome sexually-related actions that interfere with work performance • The Equal Employment Opportunities Commission defines sexual harassment as sexual advances or conduct that: • Makes submission to the conduct a term of employment • Makes submission to the conduct a basis for employment decisions • Interferes with the individual’s work performance or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment

25. Working in the Home • Homemakers experience denigration of their role • Homemakers are at risk for all of the same occupational stressors: • Role overload • Role insufficiency • Role conflict • Role ambiguity • Empty-nest syndrome is a potent stressor

26. Interventions • Life-situation interventions • Perception interventions • Emotional arousal interventions • Physiological arousal interventions

27. Occupational Stress