Stress caused when jobs don't meet expectations

Employers should look to address mismatch between jobs and employee needs.

By Lisa Rabasca
Monitor staff

When employees find their work personally rewarding, they are better able to handle the stress of workplace demands, said several psychologists at "Work, stress and health '99," a March conference in Baltimore, sponsored by APA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.

And, they said, this theory might apply to responsibilities at home as well.

"We have these great expectations about work fulfilling our lives, but the difference between the ideal and real are so great it causes stress," said Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt, PhD, a professor of leisure studies at The University of Iowa.

Americans, he said, want jobs that are secure, offer advancement and allow them to use their creative and problem-solving skills. But, jobs often fall short of employees' expectations. More employees are finding a mismatch between their goal and reality because temporary positions are growing faster than standard, full-time jobs, Hunnicutt said. The growth of temporary work is pushing people into fragmented positions that don't offer security, a chance for advancement or an opportunity to use their creativity.

"Work is still touted by our society as the most important aspect of life but the number of people who have access to anything close to their ideal job is shrinking," Hunnicutt said.

One way to determine if a position meets an employee's expectations is to assess six areas, says Christina Maslach, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of California at Berkeley:

* Workload

* Control over one's work

* Tangible and intrinsic rewards of work

* The relationship and sense of community among co-workers.

* The perception of fairness in the workplace; and

* The role of personal and organizational values.

Many employees, said Maslach, generalize their stress by complaining they are overworked. But when they're asked what makes their workload onerous, they often point to these other areas, such as the lack of control, or conflicts within the work community.

Instead of addressing these problems, she said, employers' solutions tend to focus only on how to change the workload, such as the number of hours worked or the quantity of tasks and breaks.

But says Maslach, better solutions address the five areas of mismatch between the worker and work environment. "People may not experience as much stress from long hours of work if their job fulfills meaningful values," said Maslach, "or if they have sufficient control over what they do, or if they are receiving good recognition for their accomplishments."

Similarly, high levels of rewards and responsibilities at home could be associated with lower stress levels, according to a recent study by Barbara Curbow, PhD, an associate professor of social and behavioral sciences in the department of health policy and management at Johns Hopkins University, and Joan Griffin, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow at University College in London. A study of 218 female telecommunication workers found that women who take on more responsibility in the home but feel they are rewarded are less likely to relieve their stress by driving aggressively, said Curbow. Conversely, women who said they had a lot of home responsibility but weren't rewarded for it reported the highest level of aggressive driving.

"These findings are analogous to when employees have high responsibilities and rewards at work," said Curbow. "It often leads to enhanced employee performance and mental health. They're doing something challenging but they're getting some kind of emotional reinforcement that makes the high level of responsibility worthwhile."



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