Professional stress is a condition that occurs in a working person due to prolonged exposure to negative factors associated with his professional activity. Chronic stress is accompanied by physical fatigue, coupled with emotional and mental exhaustion. This is emotional burnout syndrome (EBS), which is also called “information neurosis” or “manager’s syndrome.”
People whose professions involve helping the sick or those in critical situations are especially susceptible to professional stress. These are medical and social workers, psychologists, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Emergency Situations. Teachers also belong to this group. Indeed, in the process of their work, conflict situations occur both with other colleagues and the administration, as well as confrontations of varying intensity between teachers and students.
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Features of professional stress
The development of stress reactions is possible even in organizations with a good reputation and progressive management.
This is due to the fact that professional stress is caused not only by work activity, but also by the characteristic differences of work, relationships in the team, as well as the level of interactions between employees. A stress reaction is also possible if:
- the person is overloaded with work;
- his job responsibilities and powers are not clearly defined;
- monotonous work;
- provocations and inappropriate behavior are observed on the part of colleagues, which indicates persistent bad relationships in the team;
- lack of career growth opportunities;
- the employee is not sufficiently loaded;
- working conditions do not meet standards.
Insufficiently organized information for employees and an acute lack of time also contribute to nervous tension and can cause professional stress.
Moreover, if these factors are noted, it can be caused by any additional irritants.
A. Elkin, a specialist in stress management, notes the possibility of an increase in the level of stress at work due to the severity of the psychological pressure exerted on employees and their lack of freedom in decision-making. Low moral and material satisfaction of employees with their professional activities also influences this.
N.V. Samukina presented the following classification of professional stress:
- informational - possible under strict time constraints;
- emotional - in case of dangers of various kinds;
- communicative - if there are problems in business communication.
Employees may also exhibit stress disorders when they are stressed about something, for example:
- feel strong competition;
- they are afraid to make a mistake in their work or make the wrong decision;
- perceive differences in the pace of communication with other employees.
Work stress always affects the emotional area of the psyche. And this does not depend on the reason that caused it.
Stress in professional activities
Over the past few decades, the study of stress has become one of the most popular topics in psychological science and practice. The relevance of this issue is obvious. There is no longer any doubt that the ever-increasing intensity and tension of modern life are manifested at the psychological level in an increase in the frequency of negative emotional experiences and reactions, which, accumulating, cause the formation of pronounced and long-term pathological conditions. In turn, this leads to an increased risk of developing a number of diseases of stress etiology - the so-called “stress diseases”.
The emerging trend towards increasing the role of stress as a factor destroying health is well understood by experts: if previously some cardiovascular diseases, gastric and duodenal ulcers and some neurotic conditions were considered traditional “diseases of stress”, now there is an opinion that up to 90% of all modern human diseases can be caused to one degree or another by stress.
In our life, which becomes more and more nervous every year, requires us to move more and faster, to manage to do a lot of things at the same time, we are faced with various stressful situations almost every day. Trying to somehow cope with them, to prevent ourselves from becoming fixated on one thing, we push the emotions experienced due to stress deep into ourselves and hope that over time everything will work out. But in this way, you can only achieve that stress itself, without manifesting itself externally, is transformed into problems of a purely physical nature.
The profession of a health worker belongs to the “risk group” in terms of exposure to stress. It implies stress initially.
For doctors, the most important sources of emotional breakdown are errors in treatment, difficulties in diagnosis, death of patients, especially young ones, and often a negative attitude towards their work in the family. Doctors often experience real stress due to the fact that the family does not want to take into account the peculiarities of their profession - a lot of work, the inability to predict in advance whether he will be free on weekends. The latter mainly applies to surgeons and doctors working in ambulances.
Doctors aren't the only ones who can experience stress. Nurses are also susceptible to it. They have to care for patients, sometimes in very serious condition, communicate with their relatives, sometimes ungrateful and not always tactful, as well as with doctors who themselves are under stress. This workload can often leave nurses feeling undervalued and overwhelmed.
Sometimes the cause of a stressful situation for nurses can be the inadequate attitude of some doctors towards them, who place increased demands on nursing staff. Excessive nagging, reluctance to explain something, a gap between the expected and the real create devastation.
One of the main stressors in the work of health workers (both doctors and nurses) is their relationships with patients.
In modern Russian reality, the word “patient” in the sense of “patient” can be used not only because it has become international, but also because it requires a lot of patience to receive medical care without unnecessary financial and nervous costs. Of course, patients can be of different genders, ages, nationalities, specialties, social status, and health conditions. However, they all have the right to be seen by a healthcare professional as an individual who deserves respect and attention. From the point of view of doctors, there are “pleasant” and “unpleasant” patients. “Pleasant” are those who cause little trouble and at the same time do not hesitate to express gratitude in a variety of forms. There are much more “unpleasant” ones.
The next important stress-forming factor is the extremely low wages of health workers, their low social level, and as a result, high social frustration. Many of the most ordinary human needs, such as food, clothing, education of children, and family support are limited for doctors. It seems like a paradox that a doctor, a representative of the most humane and necessary profession, saving people’s lives and health, is almost at the very bottom of the social ladder. This is especially evident in the contrast between the health worker and the well-to-do patient being treated by him.
Relationships within a team play an important role in the occurrence of stress.
In the sphere of work, stressful conditions often threaten human health and even life. Suffice it to recall the well-known data on reducing the age limits for the occurrence of coronary heart disease and myocardial infarction. But, in addition, stressful conditions significantly reduce the success and quality of work, increase the level of psychophysiological cost of activity, and can also have a number of unacceptable socio-economic and socio-psychological consequences: increased staff turnover (even despite the likelihood of loss of work in conditions of growing unemployment), decreased job satisfaction, deformation of a person’s personal and characterological qualities. Therefore, the search for ways to prevent work-related stress in order to preserve physical and mental health and optimize the functional state of a working person is now becoming one of the most important areas of applied psychology in this area. And for this it is necessary to study the causes of industrial stress and their consequences.
Professional stress: main causes
Stress disorders at work are caused by objective factors that are practically independent of the actions and actions of the employee himself and subjective factors that are completely determined by the person.
Objective reasons include not very good working conditions and the possibility of emergency situations. Some enterprises initially present stress factors associated with the characteristics of production. For example, in factories and many industrial premises it is quite noisy, in foundries the air temperature is high, and dust cannot be avoided during the production of cement.
Sometimes negative factors are grouped together. Miners work deep underground, in confined spaces. Not every person can withstand such a mental load. But that’s not all, the presence of coal dust and the threatening danger of a rock collapse or an explosion of accumulated gases are added. Some miners experience biological stress, which can subsequently be supplemented by psychological stress.
The development of professional stress can be provoked by such unfavorable conditions as:
- monotonous work with a small number of operations (conveyor);
- high pace of activity (professional athletes);
- duration of work (daily schedules);
- high responsibility (air traffic controllers);
- physical activity (loaders).
Force majeure circumstances such as a stock collapse or a sharp drop in currency can cause stress among certain stock exchange employees. For a responsible employee of the supply department at an enterprise, a disruption in the supply of raw materials is also a very stressful situation.
Professional stress can be caused by a lack of knowledge, inconsistency with the position, and small rewards for hard work.
Chronic diseases and the need for treatment sometimes exclude an employee from the production process, contribute to his low self-esteem and also affect the occurrence of stress disorder.
What is stress?
This is the feeling that you are under psychological pressure. This pressure is associated with various aspects of daily life. For example, increased workload, transition, family quarrel or financial problems. You find that it has a cumulative effect as each stressor piles on top of the next. And it’s difficult to get out of this period on your own.
During these situations, you feel upset and insecure, and your brain triggers a stress response. This causes various symptoms, changes behavior and leads to more intense emotions. And professional activity does not allow you to be led by emotions. The inability to express and process negative emotions is itself a stressor and makes an already difficult situation worse.
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What are the behavioral and emotional consequences of stress?
When you are under psychological pressure, you may experience many different feelings, including anxiety, irritability, loss of control, which will cause you to become withdrawn, indecisive and whiny.
You experience periods of constant worry, racing thoughts. You experience changes in your behavior and find it difficult to concentrate and manage stress. You lose your temper more easily, act irrationally, or become more aggressive. All these feelings lead to changes on the physical level. For example, extreme anxiety, panic attacks, causing attacks of dizziness and rapid heartbeat will make you feel so bad that you begin to seriously worry about the health of your heart and/or blood vessels. And only a doctor will help you recover. But prevention is much more important.
How can you spot the signs of stress?
Every person experiences stress at one time or another in their life. But whether he gets stuck in these emotions and puts his mental and physical health in danger or easily overcomes stress depends on how he knows how to manage tension and problematic situations. In order to understand whether you can cope on your own or it’s time to seek professional help, you need to be able to notice the symptoms of stress in time:
- constant worry or worry
- depression
- difficulty concentrating
- mood swings or changes in mood
- irritability or short temper
- decreased control
- depression and recovery difficulties
- low self-esteem
- changing eating habits
- changes in sleep habits
- using alcohol, tobacco or drugs for relaxation
- pain, especially with muscle tension. Sometimes you have to seek the help of a doctor.
- diarrhea and constipation
- feeling nauseous or dizzy
- loss of sexual desire.
If you experience these symptoms for a long time and feel that they are affecting your daily life or making you feel unwell, you should contact your doctor for professional help.
Work and stress
We are currently under a lot of professional pressure. Standards for workers are becoming increasingly higher, ambitions are growing, as is responsibility. The line between personal and professional life is blurring, we practically cannot switch: colleagues, boss and clients can reach us at any time and anywhere, thanks to advanced technologies, the Internet and cellular communications.
Increased stress levels, if left unmanaged, will lead to burnout or more serious health problems.
What causes stress?
All sorts of situations can cause stress. The most common ones are related to work, money issues and relationships with partners, children or other family members.
Changes can be caused either by major upheavals and life events such as divorce, unemployment, moving house and bereavement, or by a number of minor irritations such as feeling unappreciated at work or an argument with a family member. Sometimes there are no obvious reasons.
What happens to my body when I'm stressed?
People react differently. Common symptoms include trouble sleeping, changes in appetite, decreased sex drive, and anhedonia.
These symptoms are caused by a surge of stress hormones, they include the primary “fight or flight” response, which allows us to not be distracted by anything in order to make a quick, correct decision and avoid danger. Hormones called adrenaline and norepinephrine increase blood pressure, increase heart rate and increase metabolism, while suppressing immunity. This prepares your body for an emergency response, and allows you to manage the situation without being distracted by anything else. These hormones also reduce blood flow to the skin and stomach activity, so sometimes stress can cause a person to feel sick or have diarrhea. Cortisol, another hormone that releases fat and sugar to quickly boost energy.
As a result, you experience headaches, muscle tension, pain, nausea, upset stomach and dizziness. You also breathe faster and your heart rate increases. All of these changes are the body's way of facilitating fight or flight, and once the pressure or threat passes, your stress hormone levels return to normal.
However, if you are constantly stressed, these hormones remain in your body, leading to chronic symptoms. If the stressor doesn't go away and you can't fight or escape, you don't utilize the chemicals your own body produces to protect you. Over time, their accumulation and the changes they make will harm your health.
How to recover from severe stress?
Remember to ask for help and support when you need it. It is important to prevent the disease, because recovery is much more difficult.
Use the coping strategies available to you, which we wrote about above. They are simple and work very effectively: physical activity, proper eating habits, healthy sleep and meditation work wonders for our psychological and physical health.
Remember that it is okay to seek professional help. If you feel like you're struggling to cope on your own but can't, reach out to a professional counselor. It is important to get help as soon as possible and begin recovery. You can always get fast and high-quality help from a trusted and experienced psychologist in the Helppoint online psychological assistance service. Instant selection of the right specialist for you and any format of consultation - correspondence and video chat - is an opportunity to get help on the same day and hour when you need it, without waiting and wasting time.
Author: Editorial staff of the Help-Point.net portal
