Stress in the American Workplace

In contemporary American society, workers invest longer hours on the job than many other countries, yet, despite this commitment, productivity levels remain unspectacular. Today, workplace culture promotes policies of collaborative decision-making where democratic processes converge to arrive at a consensus. Human resource policies focus on team-building exercises and empowerment initiatives that leave the employee firmly positioned to meaningfully contribute to work progress. These focuses on cognitive pedagogy, while perhaps interesting from the perspective of the recipient, take on a pallid tone in the context of productivity levels. In considering the current social and technical environment in the American workplace, research and analysis incorporating Internet sources and relevant text material are necessary to concretely understand why Americans do not benefit from so much time working.

Stress plays an important role in the completion of job tasks. The perception of threats causes adrenaline to be released into the nervous system and allows people to take an offensive posture; such a response provides a neutral phenomenon dependent on how often it occurs and how it gets used in the situation (Nelson and Campbell 109). In the workplace, task demands contribute to stress where individuals worry about losing their job positions, being replaced by a machine, or flounder in the boredom and monotony of their current role; interpersonal demands can contribute to stress as a result of ineffective leadership (Nelson and Campbell 110–111). In such scenarios, stress detracts from efficiency in the workplace. However, Nelson and Campbell also contend that stress is a tool to be taken advantage of as demonstrated in the Yerkes-Dodson Law; top executives and managers understand that stress provides an opportunity to bring the body into peak performance condition and that the expenditure of energy requires corresponding amounts of time dedicated to recovery (112–113). All too often, however, stress proliferates the workplace environment in excess causing a decrease in individual productivity.

Stress contributes to workplace inefficiencies. The American Psychological Association reports results from a 2007 poll among workers that stress impacted 75% of workers with over half of those respondents acknowledging that the stress adversely affected their efficiency (Kraslow 1). Through "absenteeism, diminished productivity, employee turnover and direct medical, legal and insurance fees," stress costs an estimated $300 billion annually (Kraslow 1). The American Institute of Stress cited a 2000 Integra Survey stating that 42% of workers commonly experience raising of the voice and derisive language (Rosch 3). Stress in all likelihood contributes to an increasingly violent workplace environment. In the workplace, nearly a million sexual assaults and violent crimes occur each year while approximately twenty workers are murdered at work (Rosch 4). Quite literally, excess stress constitutes a danger to personal health and the well being of surrounding work colleagues.

It seems that Americans suffer from a desire to have success in all its forms where people "live to work" rather than "work to live." In her op-ed piece, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Joscelin Cooper questions the merits of a culture where "work is religion, and the rest of life is something to be squeezed in" (3). It appears that the American workplace structure has evolved into a system of opportunism rather than an opportunity. Elizabeth M. Young committed her work analysis dedicated to identifying and coping with opportunists who prey on the work of others and propose untenable financial schemes to beat the competition (1–2). With such a strong cultural value on success, the workplace represents a competitive battlefield.

The side effects of stress require meaningful coping techniques to mitigate the success-first work environment. Despite company goals and deadlines, supervisors have a responsibility to maintain a vulnerable position open to challenge where they can transparently respond to employee needs and empathize with their situations. The world of team-building features a setting where people have the rights to self-determination for setting work goals through direct dialogue. At the same time, success comes to those willing to take on uncertain situations and place themselves in a position where they could fail; these situations invariably cause stress as undetermined change looms over an individual. When it comes to setting directives, leadership can reduce stress levels by consultation, rational persuasion, inspirational appeals, and even ingratiation to create low-stress workplace culture. Such strategies manage stress.

To critically analyze the American workforce situation, one must have an insight into the current environment and an understanding of strategies used to overcome the negative factors. Also, it is important to understand that the workforce culture represents an extension of the American culture itself, and as such, deserves a broad assessment of the values held by society. Althen and Bennett assess American cultural norms with a high emphasis on individualism where people are raised "to be competitive with others, instead of cooperative, even to the detriment of interpersonal relationships" (2). When this standard is applied to the workplace, people drive themselves to excel, take advantage of the system, compare themselves to others, consistently strive to be the best, and leave the losers in their wake. Individualism drives people to work harder and longer than ever before in the pursuit of the American dream; knowing how to negotiate the stressful workplace terrain requires grace and confidence to work effectively.

Works Cited

Althen, Gary, and Janet Bennett. "American Values and Assumptions." Jim.Shamlin.com. N.p., 1 Jan. 2011. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. <http://jim.shamlin.com/study/books/7172/01.html>.

Cooper, Joscelin. "Why Silicon Valley's Work Culture Is Killing Us." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 25 Aug. 2013. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. <http://www.forbes.com/sites/groupthink/2013/08/25/ why-silicon-valleys-work-culture-is-killing-us/>.

Kaslow, Nadine. "Overwhelmed by Workplace Stress? You're Not Alone." American Psychological Association. N.p., 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://www.apa.org/ helpcenter/work-stress.aspx>.

Nelson, Debra L., and James Campbell Quick. ORGB. Independence, KY: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.

Rosch, Paul J.. "Workplace Stress." The American Institute of Stress. N.p., 1 Jan. 2014. Web. 31 Mar. 2014. <http://www.stress.org/workplace-stress/>.

Young, Elizabeth M.. "How to Deal with Opportunists at Work." Inside Business: 360. N.p., 29 Sept. 2009. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. <http://www.insidebusiness360.com/index.php/how-to-deal-with-opportunists-at-work-16916/>.