Managing Stress and Emotions in the Workplace

Alice Ye, Chiara Zamboni, Carson Boone, Kevin Sustaita

When entering the workforce, there are many hurdles new employees have to
face. Interacting with new colleagues, facing a different boss, learning new skills are just
some of them. For young new employees, one of the most challenging obstacles is
dealing with stress and emotions. Fortunately, these two factors are not new to anyone,
but we need to learn how to manage them as best as possible, so that we can feel
prepared when entering our future workplace. In order to do so, it is important to
understand what stress and emotions really are.
Stress is a natural occurrence in life. It is the way your body responds to any
change that requires a physical, mental, or emotional adjustment or response
(Textbook Chapter 7). Stress is inevitable to avoid in life, but especially in the
workplace. The workplace brings stress with role demands, information overload, worklife conflict, interactions with co-workers, and job insecurity.
Your role at a job can cause different types of stress. When you first get a job or
role you may experience role ambiguity. This refers to the vagueness in relation to what
our responsibilities are (Textbook Chapter 7). Being unclear about what you need to do,
and having pressure to impress higher executives at your new position can cause
stress. According to Nayab Factors that contribute to role ambiguity include: lack of
required information, lack of communication or contradicting messages regarding the
role (Nayab 4). Role ambiguity is often seen when one pursues a new job or during
group projects. However, having high role ambiguity refers to having more thoughts
about leaving the organization and lower job performance. People with high role
ambiguity often think their skills can be better applied at a higher position or different
job. They are less likely to fit into the new organization. Moreover, when you are at the

job you may experience role conflict. This is where you may be asked to do two things;
yet, satisfying one deed may contradict the other. Role overload is when you are giving
too much to do in an unreasonable amount of time. Both role conflict and role overload
have been proven to hurt performance and lower job attitudes (Textbook Chapter 7).
Informational overload is hard to avoid nowadays with technology providing us
limitless information at any time of the day. Passages of information include emails,
memos, voice mails and conversations from colleagues or personal messages from
loved ones (Textbook Chapter 7). The quantity and speed these messages are coming
make it hard for one to handle, therefore, causing stress. Current research suggests
the surging volume of available informationand its interruption of peoples workcan
adversely affect not only personal well-being but also decision making, innovation, and
productivity (Hemp 4). Having too much information at hand and receiving more by the
minute creates stress for the employee that they will not get things done. This will lower
the moral for the employee about his or her job performance.
Stress does not just live in the work place; it can happen outside as well. This
creates work-life conflict. Work-life conflict is when the demands from work and nonwork domains are negatively affecting one another (Textbook Chapter 7). In early
careers, people may experience work-life conflict from paying back students loans, and
finding suitable living conditions and relationships. In early to mid-careers, people start
having families. Parenting and relationship issues become another aspect to life. People
at this age face conflict trying to figure out how to have a life off the job, that is,
community participation, attention to wellness, hobbies and leisure pursuits (University
of Rhode Island 3). Lastly, in your mid to late career you may find stress in taking care

of older parents and children entering their adult lives, health issues and retirement
planning. Work-life conflict stays with you throughout your entire career and research
shows that individuals who have stress in one area of their life tend to have greater
stress in other parts of their lives, which can create a situation of escalating stressors
(Textbook Chapter 7). Some companies will help employees reduce work-life conflict by
offering flexible schedules and being more understanding about the employees family
life.
Interaction in the workplace is the cause of much of the stress in the work place.
A poor social environment and lack of support from co-workers or supervisors can
cause you to be stressed about doing your job. More factors like discrimination because
of race, religion, gender or age can be a barrier when creating interpersonal
relationships. Moreover, the leadership style (such as being too controlling or too
disinterested), communication style (low levels of support and interactional justice), or
displays of negative styles (abusive leadership, undermining od stress directly affects
the stress of employees) could affect the employees stress levels (Textbook Chapter
7). The relationship you create with your manager is a direct relation to the amount of
stress you have in the work place.
Unemployment and simply worrying about losing your job can cause stress. As
more and more companies downsize, the stress of losing your job increases. Research
shows that downsizing and job insecurity are related to greater stress, alcohol use, and
lower performance and creativity (Textbook Chapter 7). Losing a job leads to financial
stress. Financial stress will increase your stress outside of work, such as, providing for
your family. Furthermore, job insecurity are linked to poor health conditions. The

constant worry of losing your job on top of the normal stresses of the job is toxic. When
downsizing happens, the workload increases for individuals who still have their jobs.
This increases their role overload for work. There are three models of stress. The first is
the general adaptation syndrome (GAS), which by the way is a cool acronym. According
to Dr. Cannon (the founder), this model deals with the bodies fight or flight response
during a threat reaction. When we are threatened our bodies go through three stages of
GAS. These three stages are alarm, resistance, and exhaustion. In simpler terms an
outside factor can trigger the alarm stage. If the body goes into the resistance stage, it
releases bodily chemicals like cortisol, and if we make it to the third stage the body
becomes depleted and death can occur. The second model is the demand-control
model by Karasek. This model deals with work stress which is not fatal like GAS but can
be chronic (not talking about marijuana). This basically is a model that says high stress
comes with high job demand/ little to no job control. The third and last model is the job
demand-resources (JD-R) model. Unlike the job demand model this model says that
feelings of control dont eliminate all stress. Stress is caused between the interaction
and mismatch between your job demands plus job resources. This model says that less
job demands and more resources equals better management of ones stress.
Individuals can do many things to manage their own stress. We are not alone.
Everyone has stress in their lives and we need to learn how to manage it. Diet,
exercise, meditation, relaxation, support groups, and time management are important
factors in this. Diet is important because our bodies are like machines and we need to
fuel it right. Eating less grease and more greens can aid us in becoming more alert.
Omega 3 fatty acids are essential to a healthy body/mind. As Dr. Wurtman explains,

OMEGA 3 oils help you focus and learn new information. Exercising is another critical
factor. Jogging, weightlifting, biking, and yoga helps the body have faster reaction times.
Mindfulness- based meditation aids in the recovery factor following stressful events.
This type of meditation is where you pay attention only to your own feelings without
judgment, kind of like living in the moment.
Learning to relax is a key factor in stress, especially in the work place. Think
happy thoughts, take breaks/naps, and get enough sleep. There is this thing in
psychology called physical detachment. This is where you dont think of work until the
next day and focus on non-work activities like exercising. This is helpful in recovering
from stress by teaching your mind to stop thinking so much about work. Support groups
exist and there are many ways to get help including local groups, social media, forums,
clubs, and family support. Finally the most important factor to manage your own stress
is time management. You will be amazed at how much stress is reduced if you manage
your time wisely. Stop procrastinating, get on a schedule, and get in the habit of
prioritizing. Its not the daily increase but the daily decrease, use your time wisely.
Believe it or not, organizations help reduce stress at work. They have rules and
regulations for a reason. When a new employee begins a job the employer will usually
have on the job training. This helps lower anxiety. Some companies have sabbaticals
(this is where you get paid for time off work). Some organizations offer EAPs
(Employee Assistance Programs). This is technically counseling for employees. Not all
organizations are out to get you. Some companies really care for its employees and
offer assistance in social support, wellness programs, and telecommuting.

According to the textbook Organizational Behavior, by Tayla Bauer and Berry

Erdogan, emotion is defined as a short, intense feeling resulting from some event.
The nature of the feeling can be positive, like love and joy, or negative, like anger or
hate; it depends not only on type of event, but also on the way people react to the
situation and perceive it. In a work place, emotions play an important role, defining the
working environment and affecting employees behavior. Both positive and negative
emotions are malleable and contagious, especially between colleagues and teammates.
For instance, the positive and joyful attitude of a coworker is very likely to affect other
peoples mood, effectively reinforcing the environment. On the other side, negative
emotions can be contagious too: sometimes, one only angry and sad person can affect
the mood of the entire team, resulting in poor outcomes and low performance. In order
to maintain a motivated working environment, it is important to recognize our emotions,
understand them, and learn how to manage them productively.
Many, and various, are the opinions offered by experts about this topic. According to an
article written by Jenna Gourdeau on Forbes, in order to handle emotions at work, it
would be very useful for employees to begin every day from a place of happiness by
regularly exercising, meditating, writing in a journal, finding a time every day to
disconnect from work, and creating a joyful workspace with personal pictures and
mementos. According to her article, the key of managing emotions is focusing on them
and finding personal ways to liberate the negative ones in order to bring a positive,
contagious attitude to work. Instead of understanding and liberating emotions, others
prefer relying on suppressing emotions. In fact, when entering the workplace, many
employees decide to lock their emotions in, becoming passive and untouched to any

event, whether it is positive or negative. Lately, this way of dealing with emotions, is
been criticized by different researchers, who consider this way very ineffective, and
sometimes also dangerous for the individual and his work. For instance, according to
Dennis Nishi, journalist for The Wall Street Journal, emotional suppression can lead to
cloud thinking, promote job unhappiness and negatively impact work performance.
Therefore, in any work environment, it's important for people to recognize their
emotional triggers and be able to handle different situations effectively, by being active
and focusing on their performances results.