Dr. Joe Hurrell, Editor of the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, keynoted the final day of the Northwest Occupational Health Conference (NOHC) in Seaside, Oregon, on October 11 (pictured below). Dr. Hurrell’s talk, the topic of the day, was on Job Stress: Causes, Consequences and Interventions. He reviewed the scientific surveys revealing that one third of all workers report high levels of job stress and that work is the primary source of stress among employed men (women were a little lower than this).
Key points from his presentation are listed below.
The primary costs of stress to organizations:
- Disability
- Grievance
- Workers Compensation costs
- Tardiness
- Sabotage
- Productivity
Key job stressors are:
- Job demands
- Organizational demands
- Interpersonal relationships
Individual signs of stress:
- Sleep disturbances
- Headaches
- Anxiety
- Difficulty concentrating
- Fatigue
- Job dissatisfaction
Interventions to reduce stress do the following:
- Reduce or eliminate stressors (increased control over work, participation in decisions)
- Modify the person’s response to stress (coping mechanisms)
Job stress is one of the key areas of well-being being addressed by research in the Oregon Healthy Workforce Center (OHWC).
See CROETweb for ways to combat job stress.
