Causes of Occupational Stress Vocabulary and Expressions Cortisol gastrointestinal buffer

Causes of Occupational Stress
   Job stress results from various interactions of the worker and the environment of the work they perform their duties. Location, gender, environment, and many other factors contribute to the buildup of stress. Job stress results from the interaction of the worker and the conditions of work. Views differ on the importance of worker characteristics versus working conditions as the primary cause of job stress. The differing viewpoints suggest different ways to prevent stress at work. Differences in individual characteristics such as personality and coping skills can be very important in predicting whether certain job conditions will result in stress. In other words, what is stressful for one person may not be a problem for someone else. This viewpoint underlies prevention strategies that focus on workers and ways to help them cope with demanding job conditions.
   Working conditions
   Although the importance of individual differences cannot be ignored, scientific evidence suggests that certain working conditions are stressful to most people. Such evidence argues for a greater emphasis on working conditions as the key source of job stress, and for job redesign as a primary prevention strategy. Large surveys of working conditions, including conditions recognized as risk factors for job stress, were conducted in member states of the European Union in the last decades. Results showed a time trend suggesting an increase in work intensity.
   Workload
   In an occupational setting, dealing with workload can be stressful and serve as a stressor for employees. There are three aspects of workload that can be stressful.
   Quantitative workload or overload: Having more work to do than can be accomplished comfortably.
   Qualitative workload: Having work that is too difficult.
   Underload: Having work that fails to use a worker’s skills and abilities.
   Workload has been linked to a number of strains, including anxiety, physiological reactions such as Cortisol, fatigue, backache, headache, and gastrointestinal problems.
   Workload as a work demand is a major component of the demand-control model of stress. This model suggests that jobs with high demands can be stressful, especially when the individual has low control over the job. In other words, control serves as a buffer or protective factor when demands or workload is high. This model was expanded into the demand-control-support model that suggests that the combination of high control and high social support at work buffers the effects of high demands.
   As a work demand, workload is also relevant to the job demands-resources model of stress that suggests that jobs are stressful when demands exceed the individual’s resources to deal with them.
   Long hours
   A substantial percentage of Americans work very long hours. By one estimate, more than 26% of men and more than 11% of women worked 50 hours per week or more 15 years ago. These figures represent a considerable increase over the previous three decades, especially for women. According to the Department of Labor, there has been a rise in increasing amount of hours in the work place by employed women, an increase in extended work weeks (> 40 hours)by men, and a considerable increase in combined working hours among working couples, particularly couples with young children.