Job Stress

Posted on May 13, 2024 by Martin Hahn, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.

Stress involves an interaction between a person and the environment that is perceived to be so trying or burdensome that it exceeds the person’s coping resources. Stress can produce physiological, cognitive, emotional, and/or behavioral reactions to work, which may then threaten one’s overall well-being. Stress is aroused when a person is confronted with an opportunity, a constraint, or a demand.

An opportunity is a situation in which a person stands to gain additional gratification of his or her significant values or desires, as in a new work assignment or promotion. A constraint, on the other hand, threatens to block additional gratification, for example, when a job promotion is denied. A demand threatens to remove a person from a currently gratifying situation, as when one is fired from a job.

A particular situation can simultaneously represent an opportunity, a constraint, and a demand. A new, challenging work assignment, for instance, may represent an opportunity to develop skills and acquire needed exposure, but also constrain one from spending more time with family. It can also become a demand if it overloads one to the point that work effectiveness and satisfaction suffer. A situation or an opportunity, constraint, or demand, is stressful when it exceeds or threatens to exceed the individual’s capacity to handle it.

For stress to be aroused, the individual must care about the particular outcomes of a given situation, but lack control over the circumstances or have a weak system of support.

If a person is indifferent toward future advancement within the work organization, then a new work assignment probably would not produce a significant amount of stress because the outcome (future advancement) does not hold a high degree of importance to the individual. Uncertainty, unpredictability, and fear of the unknown breed stress. If one knows for certain that a new job will be satisfying and stable, it will be far less stressful than if there is a degree of uncertainty about how satisfying the new job will be. In this sense, a person has to be emotionally involved in an uncertain situation for it to be stressful.

Contemporary Issues in Career Management

Christie had spent several sleepless nights contemplating her first new product proposal before the executive management team of her employer. She had spent day and night for the past three weeks preparing the report and her presentation. She viewed the proposal as the first real test of her contribution to the organization, and if she succeeded, she would be considered as having managerial potential. Christie’s presentation lasted five minutes and was followed by about ten minutes of questions from the management team. Christie was thanked for making a fine presentation and was then dismissed from the meeting by the company’s president. As she left the room, she felt cold and realized she was sweating profusely. She quickly went to the nearest women’s restroom and in a release of tension, shook uncontrollably. “All that work for 15 minutes,” she thought as she felt a tear fall, “why do I let this get to me so much?” new work assignment or promotion.

A constraint, on the other hand, threatens to block additional gratification, for example, when a job promotion is denied. A demand threatens to remove a person from a currently gratifying situation, as when one is fired from a job.

A particular situation can simultaneously represent an opportunity, a constraint, and a demand. A new, challenging work assignment, for instance, may represent an opportunity to develop skills and acquire needed exposure, but also constrain one from spending more time with family. It can also become a demand if it overloads one to the point that work effectiveness and satisfaction suffer. A situation is an opportunity, constraint, or demand and is stressful when it exceeds or threatens to exceed the individual’s capacity to handle it.

For stress to be aroused, the individual must care about the particular outcomes of a given situation, but lack control over the circumstances or have a weak system of support.

If a person is indifferent toward future advancement within the work organization, then a new work assignment probably would not produce a significant amount of stress because the outcome (future advancement) does not hold a high degree of importance to the individual. Uncertainty, unpredictability, and fear of the unknown breed stress.

If one knows for certain that a new job will be satisfying and stable, it will be far less stressful than if there is a degree of uncertainty about how satisfying the new job will be.

In this sense, a person has to be emotionally involved in an uncertain situation for it to be stressful. Consider the case of Christie, a recent MBA graduate:

Christie’s presentation represented an opportunity to test herself and impress the management team, but it also posed a threat to her self-esteem and her reputation within the company. Although she did not know how well the presentation would go, she cared deeply about the outcome because it was important to her future career with the company. Under these circumstances, it is understandable why Christie experienced a high level of stress that was manifested in such a physical way.

Sources and Consequences of Stress

Stress can be produced by work roles that are ambiguous, overload (or underload one’s capacities, require extraordinary time commitments, or put one in the middle of two conflicting people or groups. Stress can have its roots in organizational policies or practices, in the demands of the job itself, and in the nature of the physical and social context of work.

Individuals may become distressed due to the lack of career development opportunities, the lack of prestige associated with their job, the necessary time and travel associated with the occupation, or minimal advancement prospects for the future. There are stressors that emanate from outside of work, including the demands of the multiple roles we hold and concerns over the quantity and quality of the time spent with family and in other interpersonal relationships outside of work. Thus, stress can also occur in the non-work environment, where personal factors such as family finances, health concerns, and social relationships can create substantial burdens and pressures. As just one example, incivility within one’s family has been linked to increased psychological distress, which carries over into the work role to have a negative impact on performance at work.

Stressors may be perceived by individuals as hindrances or challenges. Hindrance-oriented stressors, which are thought to block the opportunity to achieve goals and personal growth (e.g., organizational politics, administrative red tape, role ambiguity, concerns about job security) are negatively related to job performance, whereas challenge-oriented stressors, which are thought to create opportunities to learn and achieve goals (e.g., high workload, time pressures, job scope or demands) can motivate workers, decrease turnover intentions, and relate positively to job performance even as they might evoke other strains such as fatigue and exhaustion.

The presence of an environmental stressor does not inevitably produce stress. It depends on how the situation is interpreted or appraised. Some people may not see a situation as particularly important, thereby reducing the level of perceived stress. For example, if Christie’s career were not so important to her, the presentation would not have produced much stress.

Or one may be so confident about one’s ability to handle a situation that it is not viewed as threatening or uncertain. Therefore, what is perceived as stressful by one person may not be seen as stressful by another. An individual’s internal resources and characteristics, such as personality, motivation, or coping ability, can determine how one perceives and responds to stressors. For example, those high in neuroticism (emotional instability) are likely to be less able to handle stressful situations because they tend to show a strong emotional reaction

when distressed and use avoidance or denial as ways to cope with a stressful situation.

Certain personal characteristics can produce stress over and above the effects of particular environmental pressures. For example, highly anxious employees tend to experience high levels of stress, regardless of the environmental conditions.

The important point is that stress can be produced by a variety of situations that may be interpreted as threatening, as well as by a general personal tendency to perceive various life circumstances as stressful. In addition, the amount of control an employee has over a work situation can determine whether that situation produces extensive stress. Individuals who have control over the particular tasks they perform (the way they complete the tasks or the time or place at which the tasks are undertaken) may be able to avoid a stressful incident, or perceive the incident as a challenge rather than a hindrance. Control may be particularly important on jobs that that are highly demanding.

Perceived stress can produce a number of different strain symptoms. These strains may become manifest in a variety of physical, behavioral, and emotional outcomes .

The impact of work stress on physical and psychological health is well documented. In fact, stress has been linked with pursuing an unhealthy lifestyle, and so on.

Job Stress and Careers

Pressure, cardiovascular disease, gastrointestinal disorders, increased cortisol, susceptibility to viruses, and other related health problems. Stress can also result in behavioral symptoms such as under/overeating, drug and alcohol abuse, smoking, becoming less physically active, or becoming more violent in the workplace. Those who experience excessive stress may also be affected with greater emotional exhaustion, negativity, and irritability.

Of course, not everyone who experiences stress will develop these strain symptoms. Some people have a naturally high capacity to handle stress. In addition, effective coping skills can help protect people from the ravaging effects of extreme stress. Further, the availability of support from others can help keep stress within manageable bounds so that people do not experience such negative reactions to trying situations. Coping strategies for stress will be discussed in a later section.

Extensive strain can reduce job involvement and productivity, and increase dissatisfaction, absenteeism, and turnover. In short, extensive work stress results in strains that may
not only prove dangerous to one’s physical and emotional well-being, but also produce dysfunctional consequences for the organization. Exposure to stress over a long period of time can be so debilitating that it has a significant impact on both health and productivity, and may result in burnout as well as workplace harassment and violence and other deviant behaviors at work.

It is important to recognize that stress per se is not necessarily harmful. In fact, a moderate level of stress enhances performance and health, but extreme levels of stress (low or high) can be distressful because they serve either to under-stimulate or over-stimulate the person. Optimal levels of stress can be challenging and produce eustress (positive feelings
and high involvement) rather than distress. Therefore, it is helpful for employees to consider stressors as challenges (eustress), thereby creating a more positive interpretation of the stressors and minimizing the perception of distress.