The 4 biggest job stressors

Shape, Nov, 2002 by Alice Lesch Kelly

Workplace stress can drain you emotionally and physically. Here are strategies to help you cope with:

1) Fear of job loss

2) An overwhelming workload

3) An unsafe work environment

4) Inflexible hours.

For three years, Heather Case had little time for anything but her job. During that period, Case, now 30, worked in public relations in New York City. She routinely put in 60- to 70-hour workweeks, not including the time she spent working at home or commuting 90 minutes each way from Westchester County, NY. "You had to work those kinds of hours to keep your clients and your boss happy," she recalls.

But Case was not happy. She felt fatigued, run-down and irritable. She lost touch with friends. She rarely had time for the five- to six-mile training runs she loved or to compete in 10k's and half-marathons. "In a nutshell, I was burned out and stressed to the max," she says.

About 40 percent of people who work report that their job is "very" or "extremely" stressful, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in Washington, D.C. Workplace stress can cause or contribute to a variety of health problems, including headaches, insomnia, depression, high blood pressure, aching muscles, loss of appetite, exhaustion and irritability; and people who suffer from occupational stress (women are 60 percent more likely than men to suffer from it) miss four times more workdays than those with other occupational injuries and illnesses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The primary cause of job stress is knowing that we have little control over what goes on in the workplace. No matter how hard we try, we can't have power over a mercurial economy, back-stabbing co-workers or temperamental managers. "People who feel they don't have control are the most stressed," says Barbara Reinhold, Ed.D., director of the Career Development Office at Smith College in Northampton, Mass., and author of Free to Succeed: Designing the Life You Want in the New Free Agent Economy (Plume, 2001).

When your job sends your stress levels soaring, your body reacts by unleashing torrents of stress hormones into your bloodstream, and your muscle tension, blood pressure and heart rate increase. This set of physical symptoms, known as the fight-or-flight reaction, won't cause much trouble if stress occurs only occasionally. However, if you're chronically stressed and your body is constantly in red-alert mode, your risk for a variety of diseases and ailments, including headaches, muscle pain and heart disease, goes up.

Are you so burned out by work that you're ready to pop a blood vessel just thinking about it? Here are tips on how to deal with the most common workplace stresses.

JOB STRESSOR NO. 1: Fear of Losing Your Job

Layoffs, a weak economy, an unpredictable stock market and corporate mergers are very real concerns and can mean pink slips for employees. "There's no permanent job security at all anymore," says Rosalind Chait Barnett, Ph.D., director of the Community, Families & Work Program at Brandeis University in Waltham, Mass.

What this can do to your body and spirit Many women have a profound fear of failure, says Alice D. Domar, Ph.D., director of the Mind/Body Center for Women's Health at Boston IVF, and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School in Boston. And panic about losing your job can inflame this fear. It can dampen your self-esteem and sense of self-worth, and trigger anxiety (financial or otherwise) that may show itself in physical symptoms such as panic attacks, chest tightness or gastrointestinal problems.

How you can reduce this stress

* Make sure your boss knows your value. At pinkslip time, your manager will work hard to hold on to her best workers. But she won't fight for you if she doesn't know what you're contributing. "Most people make the assumption that their manager knows about everything that they are doing," says Marjorie Brody, M.A., a Philadelphia-based management consultant and author of Help! Was That a Career-Limiting Move? (Career Skills Press, 2001). But they often don't. Meet with your manager monthly and update her on your projects and accomplishments. If it's not possible to chat with your manager regularly, give her a written summary each month.

* Don't wait for a layoff to look for other opportunities. "Make a few networking calls," says Barbara Reinhold, Ed.D., director of Smith College's Career Development Office. Keep your resume updated, go on informational interviews, research companies you admire and have coffee with people who may be able to help you find another job. Then, if you are laid off, you won't have to start from scratch with a job hunt. Plus, you won't feel so "stuck" when you realize there are options out there.

* Even though it's hard to find a new job in a slow economy, look anyway. "If you have an attitude that there's nothing out there, then that's exactly what you're going to find," Brody says.

JOB STRESSOR NO. 2: Too Much Work, Too Little Time Thanks to downsizing, the same amount of work is being distributed among fewer people. Technological advances like e-mail, voice mail, cellphones and laptop computers have made it possible to take our work anywhere. For many people, the only way to stay on top of the workload is to arrive early, stay late, work through lunch and on weekends, and bring work home.