Work-Related Stress:
A Three-Prong Approach to Job Stress Management

Work is stressful for so many reasons. There are spikes in workload that force us to do more in the same amount of time, difficult bosses or co-workers, and companies with morale problems.

Jobs are one-size-fits-all, people are one-of-a-kind

You might be a night person, but if you're a secretary, you're going to have to work 9 to 5. You might be great at talking to people, but if you can't run numbers in your head, you're not going to be good at car sales.

If you're lucky, you manage to find a line of work for which you're a pretty good fit. The more you are good at and like what you do, and get to do it in an environment and in a manner that fits your strengths and skills, the more impervious to work-related stress you will be.

Low stress jobs have autonomy, challenge, and social support

Working hard is rarely the problem. People with jobs requiring little of them and lots of downtime may not have a lot of job stress, but that doesn't mean they are happy at work, and low job satisfaction is just another form of work-related stress.

Work-related stress also tends to be linked to job hierarchy. People on the low end of the totem pole at work have more stress at work than people at the top. This is true even though bosses often have demands on them that lower level workers do not.

It's not responsibility that contributes to stress in the workplace, it's responsibility without decision-making power.

So ideally, everyone would have a job that's well-suited to them, with autonomy and supportive co-workers in a stable, well-run company with low turnover.

Which brings us to another aspect of work-related stress.

The work world is changing -- can you?

My grandfather worked at the same bank from the time he was hired as an errand boy to the time he retired as a vice president. His boss ate dinner with his family on a regular basis, and vice versa.

Nowadays, people change careers and companies, and employers reorganize, reduce or redeploy staff, and rely increasingly on a temporary workforce.

People, once...well, people... have become human resources.

We may still be encouraged to think of ourselves as part of a work family, but to paraphrase Robert Frost, it is simply not true that work, like home, is a "place that when you have to go there, they have to take you in." Today you may be family, but tomorrow you might find yourself alone and relationless.

In short, the world of work today is always changing. Today's worker has to be ready to shift gears at a moment's notice. Woe be to anyone who doesn't have an updated resumé sitting on their hard drive.

In fact, these days it may even be detrimental to stay in one job too long. Recently I was told by a personnel recruiter that employers are increasingly reluctant to consider a candidate that has been at one job for ten or more years, because they likely lack the exposure and flexibility of a "more traveled" applicant.

So, what should we do about stress in the workplace?

Job stress management: a three-prong approach

Short term is taking care of yourself.

Medium term is taking steps to make your existing job a less stressful one.

Long term is laying the groundwork to move into well-fitting, less stressful work.