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Stressed Out
Industry Week
Feb 21, 2000
by Michael A. Verespej
Pressures at work and at home are taking their toll on
employees-and the bottom line.
You're frantically working on a project for one supervisor when
another manager drops in with a rush assignment. That clearly
puts you in a bind because the second task will undoubtedly delay
the completion of the first one. Rather than say anything to
either of the supervisors-who clearly haven't talked to each
other about your workload-you scramble to finish the rush job,
then stay late and take work home to finish the first project.
You become frazzled, snap at your co-workers, miss your daughter's
dance recital, and make your family miserable until the projects
are completed. Sound familiar?
Another all-too-common scenario: You have critical work to complete,
but you can't concentrate. You have a sick child at home and
other personal issues that need to be resolved. But your supervisor
or your company frowns on taking time off for personal matters,
so you're faced with using vacation days-or having your pay docked.
Workplace stress such as this is becoming commonplace. Nearly
46% of the workers surveyed late last year by computer accessory
maker Kensington Technology Group, San Mateo, Calif., said that
their level of work stress had increased in the past year, with
a nearly identical percentage saying that technology--specifically,
the demands of voice and e-mail--had increased their level of
stress. Two-thirds said that the amount of work they were expected
to produce was the biggest cause of stress, and less than 13%
said stress levels had decreased.
"The two most common complaints we
hear from employees are that there is too much to do in too little
time and that there is too much pressure from constant deadlines,"
says David Gamow, corporate trainer and co-founder of Clarity
Seminars, Mountain View, Calif. "But often employees tell
us that their most significant source of stress is not their
workplace, but their home life. They have the feeling of being
out of control or that they are victims of life."
People feel pressured by work, personal problems, or a combination
of both. Some suffer because of personal expectations set too
high.
How does that affect the ability of workers to do their jobs?
"When you feel under stress, you find
your mental wheels spinning and you work mechanically rather
than creatively," says Gamow. "You find yourself thinking
about that last bad interaction with your manager, rather than
concentrating on your task. And tasks that normally would take
a few minutes of time sit unfinished for days because you lose
the capacity to prioritize and you put off larger, important
projects that take more energy and concentration."
Sometimes stress is mild and temporary. In other instances, it
has grave consequences-for example, last year's fatal shootings
in office buildings in Honolulu, Seattle, and Atlanta.
Although business is quick to address issues of quality, productivity,
and on-time delivery, it often ignores the impact of stressed-out
workers-even when it is obvious something should be done.
One consultant recalls a staff-wide stress-management session
he was scheduled to conduct when he received a call to cancel
the training. The reason: An executive had just committed suicide
because of stress on the job and in his personal life. When the
consultant politely suggested to a company human-resources executive
that this might be a good time to assess whether other executives
were under the same pressures, he was firmly told no. Other executives
would go off the deep end if the issues were brought up, the
HR manager said.
Why the reluctance of the business community to face up to the
impact of stress in the workplace?
"Often, management just puts its head in the sand on these
issues," says Gus Stieber, director of business development,
VMC Behavioral Healthcare Services, Gurnee, Ill. "They always
feel that it is only temporary and that they just need to get
over the hump."
Another reason: "[Executives] think that uncovering stress
among employees is going to highlight faults in the company and
they simply don't want to expose faults," says Robert Ostermann,
retired professor of psychology at Fair-leigh Dickinson University
and executive director of COPE, a Paramus, N. J., company he
founded to deal with executive health. "They don't want
to create a negative situation that exposes them to liability"
Even worse, a lot of companies are simply unaware that stress
is a problem in their corporations, says Dale Masi, president,
Masi Research Consultants Inc., Washington. "It is denial,"
she says. "They just can't believe it is going to happen
in their workplace. Managers judge others by themselves, and
CEOs and senior managers often are not aware of the stress that
the average person undergoes. They just don't see it."
One explanation for that ignorance may be that it's hard to isolate
workplace stress from personal stress. It's even harder to pinpoint
the costs to business of workplace stress.
However, Dr. Paul Rosch, president of the American Institute
of Stress and clinical professor of medicine and psychiatry at
the New York Medical College, estimates the cost of stress in
the U.S. alone to be $200 billion annually and suggests that
75% to 90% of physician visits are for stress-related complaints
and illnesses, and that 60% to 80% of all industrial accidents
are due to worker stress.
What's more, stress-largely a phenomenon of Western culture-is
spreading to places such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Singapore,
says Ostermann, because people there are adopting Western values
that emphasize earnings and what they can buy. "There is
less stress in developing countries where the value of family
and nation is much stronger and where the value system provides
the support needed to deal with greater amounts of stress,"
he says.
How can a company assess its stress level?
Stieber suggests that executives first "do the acid test"
on themselves. "Have them ask themselves what the most stressful
thing is on their job, why it is stressful, what it costs them,
and how many other people in the organization it affects."
To assess the level of stress in the rest of the workforce, he
says, companies should measure whether essential work is getting
done, whether workforce levels are sufficient, whether they are
losing people, and whether projects are failing.
If those answers paint a gloomy portrait, says Stieber, companies
need to ask themselves what high levels of stress will cost them
in lost business or employee attrition. "If they take an
honest look at that, they'll see the need to change."
That's why experts such as Ostermann suggest that the best way
to start addressing workplace stress is to admit that it is a
business issue and to provide support to employees.
Admittedly, says Ostermann, "employers get a bad rap because
if someone is stressed, he or she can readily put a finger on
things at work, but in reality the difficulty of handling things
outside the job contribute just as much." Still, he argues,
there is "a commonality with the kinds of problems at work
that cause stress and the kinds of problems that employees are
probably dealing with in their lives."
"If a problem at home distracts people from their jobs,
why can't companies provide training to deal with that?"
asks Ostermann.
There are a number of resources that companies can provide to
ease the daily pressures that employees face. "Anything
that makes work easier reduces stress and engenders loyalty,"
says Odette Pollar, syndicated columnist and founder and president,
Time Management Systems, Oakland, Calif. "If you allow people
more flexibility in how they work, if you offer them work-at-home
options, and if they are not worried about child care or elder
care, they will feel that they have more control. That's why
companies provide concierge services and on-site day care and
encourage car pooling."
Companies' growing awareness that they need to help workers balance
work demands and personal lives is the reason for the emergence
of work/life programs over the past 10 years, says Pollar.
Among the corporations that are offering these programs is Autodesk
Inc., San Rafael, Calif. "We are very attentive to work/life
issues because when someone is close to the line and is going
to burn out, he or she is not productive," says Lynn Fazio,
director, work/life programs, at Autodesk. "We stress to
our managers that they should be on the watch for employees with
signs of burnout and should encourage employees to take some
time off-at no charge to vacation time-to refresh and renew themselves."
Like many high-tech companies, Autodesk grants sabbaticals. Its
employees receive a six-week paid sabbatical every four years.
People who are stressed can come forward and get their workload
adjusted, says Fazio. "It is acknowledged that you have
a life at home that comes with you to work."
Contributing the most to stress reduction at Autodesk is time
flexibility. "There is no such thing as being late,"
says Fazio. "[Employees] set their own times and hours to
get the job done, except in customer service. They can leave
early. They can come in late." Autodesk doesn't track sick
time either. "We know that employees will put the time in
and get the work done some other time. That takes away a lot
of the pressure ... because there is nothing worse than rushing
to work to be on time when you are trying to solve a personal
problem that needs to be taken care of first."
Similarly, Baxter Healthcare Corp., Deerfield, Ill., has made
alternative work arrangements part of its corporate culture.
In the mid-1990s Baxter revised its job posting system so that
a manager has to specifically say whether he or she will consider
an alternative work arrangement-job sharing, flextime, compressed
workweek, part-time hours-when filling a job. In addition, employees
don't have to give a reason why they want a flexible work arrangement.
They just have to get the work done.
"We do not ask employees why they want flexibility,"
says Donna Namath, manager, work and life initiatives, at Baxter.
"That takes the manager out of the position of judging the
reason for the flexibility."
To help ease work/life stress, an increasing number of companies
are offering services to help employees deal with personal tasks.
Autodesk, for example, has on-site dry cleaning, a fitness center,
concierge services, ATM machines, and a cafeteria that can prepare
take-home meals.
Andersen Consulting began concierge services five years ago.
"We had a lot of people who were trying to deal with the
stress of day-to-day travel that left a lot of things in their
personal lives [undone]," says Patrick Coyne, director of
services for the Chicago metro area. "We had to fill that
void."
He estimates that more than one-third of the 7,000 people in
Andersen's downtown Chicago location use the service for tasks
such as buying movie or theater tickets and gifts, getting clothes
altered or dry cleaned, getting an oil change, or waiting at
their home for new furniture, carpeting, or a repairman.
But providing services, programs, and resources is only one aspect
of dealing with employee stress. It's also critical that companies
give workers more control over their work and allow them to modify
their work environments.
Giving employees more control over their jobs "seems to
be a great reliever of stress in all countries," says Ostermann,
who's directing an international research project on stress in
different cultures. "If an individual has that kind of control
at work, it will help give him or her the flexibility needed
to deal with stressful problems outside of work."
That's why it's important that companies assess the work environment,
says Steve Kaufer, cofounder of the Workplace Violence Research
Institute, Palm Springs, Calif. A company needs to ask whether
its work environment emphasizes common goals or competition,
says Kaufer, as well as whether it has addressed what effect
repetitious, tedious, and boring tasks may have on morale. Also,
does the company offer employee-friendly work schedules? Are
employees well compensated and treated professionally? Do employees
have concerns about job security?
"The most effective way to reduce workplace stress is to
identify the stress factors and make organizational changes,"
says Linda Rosenstock, director of the National Institute for
Occupational Safety and Health, Cincinnati.
Her suggestions: Keep the workload inline with an, employee's
capabilities, design stimulating and meaningful jobs, clearly
define employees' roles and responsibilities, give employees
the opportunity to participate in decision-making, improve communications,
and design work schedules that are compatible with the demands
and responsibilities an employee may have outside the job.
Such an assessment can be static. "When people leave
an organization" in a restructuring or downsizing, says
Pollar, "you can't just add the work to someone else's responsibilities.
You have to find a way to redesign the work. You have to find
out what's redundant, what's unnecessary, and what can be made
more efficient."
Employee stress often is exacerbated by poor communication within
companies. "When people are left out, they get stressed
and often it is because of poor communication," asserts
Stieber. "You need to emphasize having supervisors who can
communicate because, in the final analysis, the amount of stress
in an organization ultimately depends on the tone that the manager
sets."
Pollar agrees. "People take their cue from their individual
managers. Even if top execs advocate [dealing with] work/life
issues, if a person's individual manager works 90 hours a week
and makes comments such as, 'Oh, you're leaving at 5 p.m.,' then
the worker will follow that lead."
That's why she cautions people to keep in mind that "there
is a limit to what any one person can do.
"The only time things will change is if you, as an individual,
draw the line on what your limits are," says Pollar. "Negotiate
your workload with your manager. Set priorities whether it's
once a week or once a day."
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