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Baulked by a slow-starter at a traffic light, the driver of
the cross-country vehicle rams the errant driver's car.
When the latter climbs out to remonstrate with him, the aggressive offender
fatally runs him over! Traffic linked urban violence,
christened ‘road rage' by the Press, has
risen dramatically in
Delhi over the last six years, the steep graph
matching the rising urban stress-factors.
While life expectancy in the U.K.
is likely to cross 83 years in the coming century,
stress-related illnesses accounted for financial
losses of over Pounds Sterling 3000 a year, causing long-term
debility and early death. Some of the highest are:
Miner (highest quoted) 8.3
Police………7.7 Dentists… 7.3
What causes stress? When we
are exposed to an alarming or potentially life-threatening situation, our bodies
produce a hormone called adrenalin, which
is also known as the ‘emergency hormone'.
This hormone causes a massive jump in rate of heartbeat and release of
glucose to power our muscles into adopting an
aggressive stance (turn-and-fight reaction),
or go into ‘escape mode'…ready for
instant flight.
But the Smilodons
(Sabre-Toothed Tigers) and Cave Bears which our
forebears fought so well, and to combat whom Nature evolved adrenalin, have vanished, replaced, in
most cases, by indoor situations provoking the same responses. Since we cannot flee, the irreversible adrenalin reaction due to unused
emergency capability, brings us out in a sweat and tensed
muscles, heart beating away madly in vain! We are under a reaction to
stress….and it's a killer.
People thrive on pressure,
but individual capacities to tolerate stress vary from person to person, this
being the individual's ‘threshold of pressure'. Less than this can
cause boredom, listlessness and a vacant feeling; more than this can
cause irritation and blood pressure. Both can give rise to physiological
and psychological
problems.
Those of us operating well at high-pressure jobs have a high
threshold, while those with low pressure-thresholds operate well in low-pressure jobs. A mismatch here could have serious
consequences, e.g. a person with a low threshold of
stress working in the police or in advertising. More than 70% of Delhi's
Policemen have severe psychological problems, mostly related to stress.
We all have an optimum pressure
tolerance, and you, as boss, or the person himself, must manage to
contain stress to optimum levels.
Outside factors, too numerous to mention here, also play a
significant role. The symptoms can vary from irritability, fear, withdrawal,
depression, and irrational rage, to over/ under-eating, accidents, mood-swings,
and absenteeism, lack of balance and loss of humor.
A boss's role
is to control stress is start by asking himself whether he is causing stress to subordinates, some of the
situations they may be facing being: -
- Too
heavy a workload
-
Insufficient authority to fulfill assignment properly
-
Unclear job objectives
- Lack
of encouragement from superiors
- Not
hitting it off with the boss
- No
feedback on performance
But you can do something about it, perhaps by:
- Watch
out for early symptoms of stress in your men
-
Pin-point management style causing stress
-
Manage time better
-
Arrange regular medical check-ups
- 5
minute relaxation routine when stressed-out; encourage regular exercise
- Avoid
argument with anyone who is very angry
- Offer
counseling to staff who may need it
-
Ensure best possible person-job match
-
Insist on lunch/tea-breaks / holidays/ vacations being availed of by staff
Be alert…work can be done without always invoking high
stress. Aim at a person's optimum level of stress, but determine it first!
QUESTION:
1.
What is meant by the term ‘under stress'? How do managers combat stress (their own as well as their
men's), and why?
2.
What has stress got to do with people in the
workplace? Bring out all the ramifications of
placing people willy-nilly in jobs without taking stress factors into account.
