Stress At Work |
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Work is generally acknowledged to be one of the major sources of stress, and in our competitive society of high achievers has perhaps assumed a disproportionate significance. Certainly most people spend more time at work during their working lives than they do at home. Whether we are driven by over-riding ambition or take a more relaxed attitude, work is an important preoccupation for most of us. And as most work involves more or less repeated routines, drawing on a certain set of skills, in interaction with a certain group of colleagues, it is not difficult to see why potential causes of stress easily accumulate in the work place.
However, work also offers many opportunities to channel stress towards positive ends in a constructive way. Indeed this fact can sometimes be abused by companies who actually encourage stress in their employees, as a spur to achievement: the 'stress is good for you' syndrome, characteristic of the way many Japanese and American companies, in particular, work. But on a less extreme level, as well as providing a means of earning a living by one’s own efforts, work also offers stimulation and, often, social activity and contacts in the form of relations with colleagues. And any job, but particularly an involving, absorbing one, can relieve stress in other areas of life by providing distraction during working hours. For all these reasons, some form of work-stress can be positive and valuable.
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