Causes of stress
Various definitions of stress have been given over the years, but the individual experience of excessive pressure is common to all of them. Pressure, however, is not always negative; in fact, the right level of pressure increases productivity and motivation. By contrast, stress arises when we perceive that the demands placed on us are greater than the resources we have to meet them (Lazarus and Folkman, 1984). Growing trends of global competition, an ageing population and changes in the nature of work are contributing to increased levels of stress in the population. The European Working Condition Survey (EWCS) revealed that 22% of working participants experienced high levels of stress in 2005. The latest survey reports that the working conditions triggering stress have been on the increase since 2005 and 18% of people report being highly unsatisfied with their work-life balance (Eurofound, 2012). In the UK, the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD, 2013) found that over 40% of the respondents felt under increased stress compared with the previous year.
We call 'stressors' those elements that contribute to and/or trigger a stress response. You have probably noticed that some people react differently to the same type of pressures at work. What seems like an impossible task for some might be a routine activity for others. The stress an activity generates may also change for the same person at different times of the day. For instance a challenging task at 9 a.m. after a good breakfast and a good night's sleep is easier than at 6 p.m. after a hard day. The negative value of a stressor may also change with experience. For example, it might be that doing a presentation at work used to be a highly stressful event when you started your job and now, through positive learning experiences, it is something that you enjoy doing very much. In short, a variety of personality traits, values, experience and life circumstances play a part in determining what causes stress for you, and these perceptions can change over time.
It can be very helpful, as already noted, to develop an awareness of the issues that make you stressed, and in Activity 2 you will practise reviewing and auditing these issues. There are two different ways of doing this. The first is by completing standardised questionnaires or checklists which list different elements that have caused stress in other people across different professions. The other more personalised way of evaluating stress is through completing a stress diary. In Activity 2 you will conduct two stress self-audits using an example of each of the approaches just described.
Activity 2 Auditing your stress levels
Part A Self-report evaluation
Go to the NHS's 'Beat stress at work' page [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] and read about the main reasons for work stress, as well as some stress management tactics.
Discussion
Building on the scientific literature on stress, the NHS identifies six areas of work design that can potentially lead to stress:
- control over the way you work
- the way your organisation manages change
- the support you receive from your manager and peers
- the quality of relationships at work
- the level of clarity in the definition of your role
- your overall workload and well-being.
You will find a variety of resources about conducting stress and well-being audits in your organisation on the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website.
In Part B of the activity you will complete a personal audit of the stressors that affect you and the degree to which they do so.
Part B Diary evaluation
Over the next three weeks you should collect information in the form of a diary under the following headings:
- The date, time and place of a stressful episode
- What you were doing
- Who you were with
- How you felt emotionally
- What you were thinking
- What you did.
For each episode you should record a stress rating between 0 and 10, where 10 represents the most stressed you can be.
Try to record as many events as possible, so you have a wide range of highly stressful to moderately or minimally stressful events, with a view to gaining a better understanding of your priorities when managing your stress.
Once you have completed the questionnaire and diary, try to identify whether there are common stressors, and look at the intensity and frequency of the stressful events annotated in your diary. This will give you an overall idea of your priorities for stress management.
This exercise is taken from the NHS (2012).
Discussion
Filling in a diary helps to identify different stressors and to evaluate both the intensity of the impact they have on you, and the frequency of occurrence. It is particularly helpful to acquire an awareness of behaviours that you may think are not important as they are 'one off situations'. However, the impact of stress is cumulative; hence the consequences of low intensity yet continual stressors can be harmful over time. Developing an awareness of these can help to identify changes which can prevent stress and enhance the quality of working life.
Rating the degree of stress you experience also helps identify the issues which have the highest impact and you might want to concentrate your efforts on these. Please note: the tasks in this activity are designed to help you identify potential elements of your work that, if prolonged over time, could make you feel stressed. If you are already experiencing more stress than you feel able to cope with, you should consider seeking specialist help, for example from your GP or your employer.