Stress Management in the Workplace

Part 1 - What is Stress?

At present we are living in very stressful times; changes in society, advancements in technology and communication devices and the external environment all have an effect on the amount of stress we feel and experience in our everyday lives.

One place where greater exposure to stress is being noticed is in the workplace. We all have a personal responsibility to be aware of our own and our colleagues stress levels and when they are potentially reaching “breaking point”.

In this series of articles, we are going to examine the concept of stress and quell some of the myths surrounding it. The first instalment of the series will look at defining stress and the theory behind it. The second article will look at the causes and symptoms of stress, while the final article will look at how to reduce the levels of stress in our lives and some stress reduction techniques.

What is stress?

When ever we are asked this question, we automatically think of the signs of stress, such as tension in the shoulders, sweaty palms, headaches etc. As we all have at some point experienced stress, we feel we should be able to define it, but this is quite difficult to do.

The most commonly accepted definition for stress is “stress is a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize” - Richard S Lazarus.

As business owners and employers we may feel stress in our jobs when we are asked to complete a project ahead of time, or deliver a presentation to the senior management team on your departments annual performance, or get paid on time to manage the cash flow of the business. In these situations we may feel the negative effects of stress because we perceive we lack the time or experience to complete the tasks.

We therefore identify with the negative feelings of stress. However not all stress is negative, there are times when we can use the pressure we are under to improve and heighten our performance. The diagram below depicts the relationship between pressure and performance

Source: Mind Tools 2009

From the diagram we can see that as pressure increases, we move into the area of best performance. When we enter this area, there is adequate pressure to allow us to focus our attention, but not so much that it affects our performance negatively.

When we are experience high pressure and stress that we can’t cope with our performance decreases dramatically. The area of best performance and the point at which stress affects performance negatively varies from person to person.

There are two general reactions to stress: Flight or Fight and General Adaption Syndrome.

Fight or Flight

The Fight or Flight Syndrome was highlighted by Cannon in 1932, when he first conducted experiments and plants and animals, he noted that when they experienced a shock or perceived threat they released hormones that helped them survive, i.e. allowed them to run faster or fight harder. In reality for us in our working lives, we can use the Fight or Flight to deliver a great sales pitch or complete a task under a short deadline. However further research went on discover that if we are continually exposed to these shocks or threats over a longer period of time they will have a negative effective on us.

General Adaption Syndrome

Hans Selye, conducted research on the longer term effects that stress had on individuals. He noted there where three reaction stages when individuals and organisms where exposed to stress:

Phase 1: Alarm Phase – The initial reaction to stressor

Phase 2: Resistance Phase – Each individual will adapt to cope with the particular stressor for a certain period of time, this period will vary from individual to individual.

Phase 3: Exhaustion Phase – In this phase the individual has reached their optimum level, they can on longer work at this rate and performance will decline dramatically. This is commonly referred to as “burnout” in the workplace.

While most of the stress we will experience is subtle, it is the build up of the stress, in the resistance phase, that can cause us most harm. However as each individual is different, so will the incidences that cause us stress. To be able to reduce the levels of stress in our lives, we have to be able to define what causes us stress. In the next article in this series, we will be looking at techniques that we can use to help us identify the causes of our stress.

If you have any queries about the content of this article, would like to discuss the issues raised in it or would like articles 2 and 3 in the series, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Orla Doyle, Training Manager, Innovo Training and Development, odoyle@innovotraining.ie