Idiots are invincible
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“Ha, easy, forever!” some will assert. (Et tu, Brute?).21 You’d be surprised! Student volunteers were paid a hundred dollars for every day they spent lying in a room, eyes closed, without any external stimuli.
“Just what I need!” they thought. “Instead of carrying boxes down at the vegetable market to make some pocket money, I’ll get down to some serious idle fun and cheers to the rest of you. Sweet!”
The results? Most students gave up after 24-48 hours. Following a period of inactivity, their brain started producing hallucinations – internal stimuli – to counterbalance the lack of external ones! They still can’t believe it …
Perhaps, in that case, “Hurray for stress” is not such an absurd statement after all!
C. Sources of stress at work: When work becomes slavery
This section is dedicated to people who are exposed to “high voltage” stress at work daily. Let us try to classify the main sources of work-related stress. These groups of stressors relate to the actual nature of their work: the task and its characteristics.
a) The first group relates to the Demands of Tasks. As noted earlier, the need for increased physical effort, repetitive or hard labour, unpleasant work conditions, increased and irregular work hours, the difficulty and volume of work that must be produced, unrealistic goals and pressure for their realization, an exhaustingly fast pace, decision and choices (e.g., between an emphasis on quality or quantity), all are stress-inducing factors.
b) The Structure/Relationships group relates to stressors connected to the relationship structures within the workplace (company, factory, office, or organization). Collaboration with colleagues, the way orders are phrased, negative criticism, misunderstandings, and unclear duties and responsibilities are all important sources of work-related stress.
c) Finally, the Career group relates to issues of professional development within the workplace, such as the lack or superfluity of promotion opportunities, financial insecurity and uncertainty (e.g., maintaining a position or the future of the company).
Who do you think experiences more stress? Directors and managers or lower ranking employees and workers? The answer, as always, is not clear-cut. It depends on several parameters such as the nature of the job, specific tasks, and the personality of the employee.
Among the factors that play an important role in one’s experience of stress is the ability to anticipate stressful events and the degree of perceived control over the event. Unpredictable events, lack of control, and negative feedback relate to increased levels of stress (Weiss, 1971).
“Do you believe in life after death?” the boss asked one of his employees. “Yes, Sir,” the recruit replied. “Well, then, that makes everything just fine,” the boss went on. “After you left early yesterday to go to your grandmother’s funeral, she stopped by to see you.”
D. Internal and external Stress
Finally, quite important is the distinction between external and internal sources of stress.
a) External sources of stress. Conditions such as excessive noise, heat, pollution, and cramped urban, home, or office space can produce physical and psychological stress.
b) Internal sources of stress. These are due to either physical causes (tooth, head, stomach ache or other ailments), or psychological (often self-generated) stress. For instance, an individual may experience excessive pressure due to increased responsibilities, lack of time or skills required to cope and perform according to high … self-imposed standards.
Hence, a large part of the daily stress we are subjected to exists only “in the eyes of the beholder,” i.e., the person experiencing it. This premise is supported by the fact that humans, in contrast to animals, can trigger the stress or fight or flight response (that will be described in detail later), simply by thought, i.e., without a real, objective, external threat. Nightmares are a helpful example: the bogeyman of your childhood, an imaginary stimulus, can cause psychological (e.g., fear, terror), and actual physical responses (palpitation, shiver, or even enuresis).
Cute joke: The feeble little ghost
“Doctor, every night I have the same dream: I am asleep, nice and happy, until a little ghost appears. It says hello, I say hello back. It smiles, I smile back … and then, it asks, have you peed? And at that point I wake up and find I have wet myself.”
“Hmm,” says the doctor, “nocturnal enuresis. Interesting!”
She looks up puzzled and scratches her head for a few seconds. She then comes up with the solution. “I know! Next time it asks you if you have peed, you answer: I have. That should do it!”
“Great idea, doctor! Why didn’t I think of that! Well done! I suppose you’re the one with all the degrees! That’s what I’ll do!”
The patient walks out the office, flying high. That night, as he gets into bed, he is full of anticipation, confident of the outcome of the night. It’s not long before the ghost appears:
“Evening …,” it says.
“Evening,” responds our friend with a smile.
“Have you peed?” asks the ghost.
“He, he … I have indeed!” he giggles, full of poise and enthusiasm.
“Hmm … I bet you haven’t pooed though, have you?”
Have you peed?
A point to remember, which will be particularly useful during the discussion on stress management later, is that we can trigger our body’s physical response in a moment and in the absence of imminent danger! All it takes is simply to think of something that we consider physically or psychologically threatening. The mere thought of riding in an elevator, airplane flying, our teacher picking on us to get up in front of the class, the blonde on the bus eyeing us up (what an obsession), is enough to raise our blood pressure and produce an adrenaline rush – just like that, out of the blue.
Appraisal of the situation
Consequently, the degree of stress caused by each event depends on our own evaluation of the event, which is based on the following factors:
a) How familiar the event is,
b) The level of control we perceive we have over the event,
c) Our ability to anticipate it and, therefore, be vigilant and appropriately prepared, and
d) The imminence of the danger.