Science behind Stress and how to deal with work-related stress

Work-related Stress

No sane person can deny the fact that today’s work environment is characterised by huge amounts of stress. Changing business landscape, competition, fear of disruption, difficult bosses/colleagues, work culture, unrealistic project timelines, et al can all be good reasons for inducing stress. According to World Health Organization (WHO)-

• Work-related stress is the response people may have when presented with work demands and pressures that are not matched to their knowledge and abilities and which challenge their ability to cope
• Stress occurs in a wide range of work circumstances but is often made worse when employees feel they have little support from supervisors and colleagues, as well as little control over work processes
• There is often confusion between pressure or challenge and stress and sometimes it is used to excuse bad management practice

According to Statista.com, Stress is the biggest threat to workplace health followed by Harassment and Overwork. According to another source, People Issues ranks №2 source of stress at work place (Workload being №1)

Workload and People Issues are top 2 contributors to stress at workplace. Together these two account for 67% of work-related stress.

The science (or biology) behind stress

Our bodies are made in such a way that it can combat any external threat. Just like other living organisms are blessed with traits or qualities that can be used to protect themselves, humans can also react naturally to external threats. When posed with a problem, our adrenal gland (small triangular organ located on the top of kidney) starts secreting 2 hormones — Adrenaline and Cortisol.

Adrenaline’s job is to prepare the muscles of the body to handle physical threat while Cortisol’s job is to increase the production of Glucose and Dopamine in the blood stream. The body controls the levels of glucose in the blood through hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis. Glucose provides enough dose of energy to handle the situation.

How does Stress impact us

Human body was designed to function like this from the days when they habited in the caves. It was ok to get an occasional adrenaline rush or dopamine boost then. It kept the mind and body active and charged. However frequent boost of these hormones cause tearing of cells in the body, surge in the heart rate, shaking of limbs, etc. These situations gradually progress into early aging, hypertension and diabetes.

Frequent boost of Adrenaline and Cortisol in bloodstream can cause life threatening diseases like hypertension and diabetes

How to deal with Stress

• An obvious first solution should be to look at the root cause to make sure it does not happen in the first place. Organizations need to think deeper to ensure employees are not exposed to unnecessary stress in the name of critical delivery/no.1 priority/ customer expectation/(any other management mumbo jumbo). They could start with anonymous surveys to find whether employees are going through stress and then think about corrective measures
• As an employee, it’s important to maintain a good separation between work and personal life (home, friends, family). Parkinson’s Law states that “work expands so as to fill the time available for completion”. Hence its important to time-box work and change priority after work
• Develop a hobby so that you can divert your mind from work (and related issues). Hobby not only revitalises your brain but also add to your skills
• Have a good 7 to 9 hours of sleep. Studies suggest that a minimum 7 hour sleep is needed for the brain to rest. Sleep also nourishes the skin by secreting melanin that makes the skin look young.

A healthy job is the one where the amount of pressure matches the employees’ abilities and skills. And a healthy work environment is the one in which there is not only an absence of harmful conditions but an abundance of health-promoting ones.