Work Stress

Work now more than ever consumes large portions of people's lives. The importance of work in people's lives, alongside the demands on one's time and energy, can be a tremendous source of stress. Increases in work stress may result from people having longer work hours, threats of job loss due to organization downsizing, or a host of other factors, such as the day-to-day strains in the work environment. Aspects of one's personal life can make dealing with stress at work even more difficult. Although many sources of stress are apparent in everyday life, most people would probably report at least some level of stress at work. In some cases, work stress can be the number one source of stress in people's lives. Work stress can result from a lack of control over work, which can leave a person feeling undervalued and underappreciated, or it can be due to particular issues in the workplace environment, such as shift work, long work hours, time pressures, noise, surveillance and monitoring, and working with hazardous products. Interpersonal conflicts with coworkers and supervisors can also contribute to increases in work stress.

Work stress is perceived and interpreted differently by individuals, and people will cope and respond to stress in different ways. Situations that may impose stress on one individual may not be stressful to others. Individual characteristics such as personality traits and coping style can influence how a person responds to work stress. Although these characteristics can be partly responsible for how people respond to stress, working conditions such as workload demands and pressures, conflicting expectations, or fear of layoffs or being fired can influence the amount of stress that one feels. Individuals with certain personality characteristics, such as type A personality traits or people prone to depression, may respond more often and more intensely to work-related stress. Work stress can also result from an imbalance between a person's [Page 1685]efforts and the personal rewards he or she receives from work: for example, workers who take on responsibilities above and beyond their normal workload but who do not receive the promotion they felt they deserved.

Work stress can depend on a person's developmental stage of life, with sources of work stress being different for a new high school graduate compared to a worker in his or her 60s. Demographic and personal factors can also be associated with work stress and include age, gender, race and ethnic differences, financial problems, family issues (i.e., caring for children or aged parents, dual-career couples). Work stress can result from a poor fit between the worker and the environment. Poor person-environment fit can lead to psychosocial stresses and strains that adversely affect the worker. A poor fit between the person and work environment can be longstanding or brought on by recent changes in the work environment, such as requiring workers to learn new forms of technology (i.e., computers).