Job stress is something that seemingly everyone in the professional world experiences, and it is essential to develop healthy habits to cope with job stress to avoid negative effects like burnout or illness that could reduce productivity. To learn more about how I personally cope with stress, I took the three tests required for this assignment.
Test Results
Based on my results from the three tests, I learned firstly that as of right now in my life, I have a low amount of life change and therefore a low susceptibility to stress-related health problems. This is likely because I have yet to experience many big events in my life that I will start to experience over the next few years after graduation, such as starting a new career, moving into a new place, or marriage. I also learned from the test results that when dealing with stress, I tend to focus more on the problem and trying to fix the problem, rather than working on changing my emotional reaction to the problem. According to the Type A test, I learned that I sometimes exhibit impatient or irritable behaviors while under stress, however I am not Type A enough to where I would be likely to experience health problems from that.
Steps I Can Take to Manage Stress in My Career
- Focus on work-life balance to reduce stress that can be caused by spending too much time at work
- Exercise to release endorphins that can help relieve my stress
- Recognize what changes I can make at work to reduce stress, such as not taking on more assignments than I can handle
- Participate in wellness programs provided by my company to improve my wellness and take advantage of company provided health benefits
The Role Organizations are Playing to Improve Employee Health
Organizations recognize the impact stress and other health problems can have on employees and therefore their presence at work, and how unhealthy employees may lead to greater turnover, higher health costs, and more absenteeism at the company. Specific conditions that companies are currently concerned about include obesity, mental illnesses like depression, low physical activity, high blood pressure, diabetes, infertility, substance abuse, and plenty more. Specific concerns in the construction industry, the industry I am going into, include suicide and physical fitness. To address their concerns, more and more companies are offering ways for employees to cope with job stress and live overall healthier lives. Some of these include:
- Fitness competitions: Companies may host individual competitions at work like step competitions where employees compete against each other to get the most steps, or they may sponsor competition teams like for the Hood to Coast race in Oregon to encourage employees to move
- Wellness programs: An organization may offer reimbursements for things like massages, gym memberships, nutrition therapy, or exercise equipment that can help improve employee wellness
- Expanded health benefits: Companies can include coverage for specific treatments within their health benefits that can help employees with problems relating to mental health, fertility, or oncology, for example
- Healthy workplace environment: Providing elements like ergonomic chairs, standing desks, healthy snacks, water, quiet rooms, and windows in an office can contribute to a healthy workplace environment where employees may feel less stress and experience fewer health problems
URLs to Websites Used for Research:
https://www.weforum.org/stories/2024/10/employee-health-programmes-obesity
https://articles.percihealth.com/employee-health-issues-in-workplace
