Stress in the "Bored" Room

Some nine to five jobs aren't nine to five jobs at all. You may be in the office during those hours, but what happens when you carry your work stress home with you.

Staring at a cubicle wall, being told when you can eat lunch and being at the mercy of a constantly ringing phone can wreak as much havoc as having work overload. An unsympathetic boss can be as stressful as having to take work home with you. Being treated like a robotic work horse can give you burnout as easily as meeting constant deadlines. A bad boss can also make life miserable for everyone

In comparing the outcomes of individuals with different types of job-related stress, it was found that people with relatively little control over their own workplace destiny (clerks, secretaries and other support staff) fared far worse than their bosses. (Bosses, of course, tend to have more control over their own lives – and the lives of others. As someone once said, it’s good to be king.) A sense of loss of control, therefore, appears to be a particularly important form of emotional stress. Furthermore, this evidence seems to confirm that if some sense of control over one’s destiny is maintained, job related stress can be exhilarating rather than debilitating.