Stressors

1
|
MTL: The Professional Development Programme
Stressors
STRESSORS
Life in the rat race

2
|
Stressors
Attribution: All images are from sources where a Creative Commons license exists for commercial use. All icons are on subscription
from thenounproject. All clipart is from free sources. The MTL Professional Development Programme is copyright of Manage Train
Learn.
Stressors Introduction: Stress has become so pervasive in our modern world that practically anything
can be regarded as a stressor. Yet, often, the difficulties we face today are no different from
the difficulties that people have always faced. They just seem worse. In this topic, we’ll show
you the top 7 stressors of modern life.

3
|
Stressors
1. THE
ENVIRONMENT
The environment in its broadest sense is often
cited as the number one stressor in our lives. We
are surrounded by the products of our high-
technology inventiveness but suffer noise,
pollution and a constant assault on the senses.
We join organisational life and find ourselves
trapped into an endless merry-go-round of
working and acquiring. We feel that our self-
worth can only be measured in how we rate
against our fellow men and women. So we
compete against them for higher and higher
prizes.
Surviving the rat race
Flickr attribution: /garryknight/16626499127/

4
|
Stressors
2. THE
WORKPLACE
Bill Wilkerson conducted a survey of the top 10
stressors in the workplace. Here’s his list:
10. The treadmill syndrome
9. Random interruptions
8. Pervasive uncertainty
7. Mistrust, unfairness, and office politics
6. Unclear policies and lack of direction
5. Career and job ambiguity
4. No feedback – good or bad
3. No appreciation
2. Lack of communications
1. Lack of control.
At the end of your tether
Flickr attribution: /kcox722/3548257597/

5
|
Stressors
3. THE JOB
YOU DO
Professor Cary Cooper of the UK University of
Manchester has produced stress ratings for
different occupations. He awards 3 stars (high) to
pilots, actors and the police; 2 stars (medium) to
fire and rescue services, broadcasters and
personnel managers; and 1 star (low) to buyers,
librarians and printers. Statistically, the greatest
toll of stressful work appears to fall on doctors,
dentists, managers and administrators, though
normally quiet jobs like accountants have
stressful moments of the year.
Are you in a stressful job?
Flickr attribution: /zoom_art/3212971857/

6
|
Stressors
Workplace
Stressors
Surveys into workplace stress suggest that, while a majority of people are happy at
work, many of us lead miserable lives because of the intolerable, and often private,
burden of stress. Some of the principal workplace stressors are:
12. Job insecurity
11. The demands of
change
10. Pressures to
perform
9. Dishonest
practices by those
around us
8. Bullying and
harassment
2. A job whose
demands are too
low
3. Unsocial hours
4. Poor or unsafe
conditions
5. Working with
people we mistrust
6. Working for a
boss we detest
7. Win-lose game-
playing and office
politics
1. A job whose
demands are too
great

7
|
Stressors
4. BURNOUT
"Burn-out" is the term used for emotional
exhaustion in a job. It typically creates a de-
personalised view of others. In the caring
professions, burn-out creates carers who no
longer care. It leads to thoughts of giving up,
symptoms of frustration, depression and
defensiveness, plus the belief that nothing will
make a difference. Burn-out is both common
with the novice who throws herself into a job
only to become quickly disappointed; as well as
the person who becomes disillusioned after
years in the same job.
When you no longer care
Flickr attribution: /danielavladimirova/6627187639/

8
|
Stressors
Professional Stress
In a survey in "International
Management" magazine,
executives across the world
were asked to say what their
greatest sources of stress were.
In Western countries such as
the USA, the UK and Germany,
the top 5 were:
1. time pressures and deadlines;
2. work overload;
3. long working hours;
4. taking work home; and
5. the demands of work on
family relationships.
The busy stressed executive has long been regarded as the archetypical stress
victim.
The survey showed variations in each country for the highest stressor. In the UK, it was "the amount of travel
required"; in Sweden, "demands on private life"; in Japan, "keeping up with new technology"; in Germany,
"attending long meetings"; and in the USA, "inadequate subordinates".

9
|
Stressors
5.
PERSONALITY
In the 1950's, Dr Meyer Friedman and Dr Ray
Rosenman discovered a high level of heart
disease amongst men who displayed certain
personality characteristics. They called these
types: Personality type A in contrast to
Personality type B who displayed fewer of the
characteristics. Typically Type A’s are
competitive, ambitious, and hard workers. Types
B’s on the other hand, are easy-going,
unambitious, and unhurried.
How do you normally react to life demands?
Flickr attribution: /rawgimaheather/8422780768/

10
|
Stressors
What Is Your Stress Personality? The 3 stress personality types are:
1. Personality Type A:
The restless achievers. These are
the highly competitive players who
do everything at break-neck speed.
They are driven by the need to
succeed both at work and socially.
These people are the most
susceptible to stress-related
disease.
3. Personality Type C:
The paddling ducks. These are the
perfectionists who find it hard to
say "No" to any request and then
try to make it look easy.They are
dependable, stoic, and hard-
working.They always do more than
they need and set high
expectations of themselves.
2. Personality Type B:
The easy-going plodders. These
are the opposite of type A.They are
uncompetitive in both work and
play. Content with where they are
now, they have little ambition to do
more or climb the ladder.These
people tend to have low stress
levels until someone holds them to
account.

11
|
Stressors
6. LIFE
EVENTS
The Social Readjustment Ratings Scale was
devised by two American doctors, H. Holmes and
R. H. Rahe, who noticed the connection between
stressful life events and the onset of health
problems in their patients. The scale lists 41 life
events which, when they happen to someone,
require different levels of personal adjustment.
At the top of the scale is: death of a spouse and
divorce. Midway are retirement and pregnancy.
At the bottom are trouble with the boss, changes
at work and Christmas.
Divorce, death, illness, retirement, pregnancy, etc
Flickr attribution: /wolfgangfoto/5406395549/

12
|
Stressors
Life Events
The Social Readjustment Ratings
Scale was devised by two American
doctors, H. Holmes and R. H. Rahe,
who noticed the connection
between stressful life events and the
onset of health problems in over
5000 of their patients. Some of the
problems included infectious illness
and injuries. The scale lists over 40
life events which, when they happen
to someone, require different levels
of personal adjustment. At the top of
the scale is: death of a spouse and
divorce. Midway are: retirement and
pregnancy. At the bottom are trouble
with the boss, changes at work and
Christmas.
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
1.2
Holmes-Rahe Scale: Top 10
Death of a spouse
Divorce
Marital separation
Detention in jail
Death of a close family member
Major injury or illness
Marriage
Being fired at work
Marital reconciliation
Retirement from work
Each event is given a rating, the largest being 100. By adding up the number of events which have occurred in the last six or
nine months, an individual can arrive at a stress vulnerability score. A score of 300 or more is regarded as high vulnerability.

13
|
Stressors
7. DRIVERS
Much of the stress we feel in our lives originates
with ourselves and our own self-image. When
our self-image is fashioned by what we think
others expect, as it is in our growing years, then
much of the stress we feel comes from not
meeting others' expectations. These so-called
"drivers" often make stressful situations worse
by driving us on to do better than before.
Stressful drivers include the need to be perfect at
all times, the need to be successful, and the
need to be strong at all times.
I must, I must, I must…
Flickr attribution: /abbilder/7065677049/

14
|
Stressors
The Nine Personal Drivers
1 2 3
4 5 6
7 8 9
The Drive to
be Perfect
“I must do
everything well
and be even
better at the
next job than the
present one.”
The Drive to be
Nice to Others
“I must relate
well to everyone
I meet.”
The Drive to be
a Success
“I must be a
winner in
everything I do.”
The Drive to be
Oneself
“I must be special
and different from
everyone else.”
The Drive to
Know
“I must know
what’s going on
in my
environment”
The Drive to be
Safe
“I must watch
out for dangers
to my well-
being”
The Drive to
be Happy
“I must be doing
new things that I
enjoy.”
The Drive to be
Strong
“I must be top
dog”
The Drive for
Peace
“I must be able
to do what I
want”
The nine personal drivers are the key features of our personalities that emerge when we are stressed.

15
|
Stressors
This has been a Slide Topic from Manage Train Learn
AFinal
Word
Most of the stressors we face in our lives have their origins outside ourselves. Only when we learn
to take back control and responsibility upon ourselves will we be able to manage them properly.

Stressors

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to Stressors

Similar to Stressors (20)

More from Manage Train Learn

More from Manage Train Learn (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

Stressors

Editor's Notes