This article by Kathleen McGinn Spring was prepared for the February 21, 2001 edition of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Barbara Simmons, an expert on reducing stress in the workplace, was raised in a bar, and that made all the difference. "My parents chose to create the environment they wanted," says Simmons. "My father had been a factory worker. He had no control over his work, and was very unhappy. My parents knew they wanted a small business."
While her parents often worked until 4 a.m. at the tavern they owned, they "were never victims," Simmons says. That is the legacy they gave to their children, and their grandchildren, too, says Simmons. Her daughter Gina is a single mother who left a 9-to-5 job to become a nanny so that she could take her daughter with her and cut the stress of juggling child care and work. Christy, another daughter, "was working two jobs and going to school." Stressed and miserable, Christy moved to the idyllic island of St. John in January. "Her life is fascinating now," Simmons says. "She's able to meet people from all over the world. She's still working two jobs, but she's happy now."
The lesson here, Simmons says, is that people not only have the ability to take control of their work, but that they need to do so if they are to avoid a level of stress that can wreck their health. On Thursday, February 22, at 6 p.m. Simmons addresses the Central Jersey Chapter of the Association of Women in Science on "Creating a Centered Workplace." The meeting takes place at Bristol-Myers Squibb. E-mail luczakja@umdnj.edu.
Simmons herself revels in her work life. A graduate of the Institute for Archaeology in London, where she dug for ruins under Lloyds of London, she says "my real education began when I learned conflict resolution." She learned of the field when she came into contact with the Peace Center, a non-profit in Langhorne that was founded in 1982 by a group of people concerned about international weapons proliferation. Their thought was to reduce all types of conflict, including war, by teaching negotiation skills. The organization now focuses on "conflict, racism, violence, anything that creates disharmony in society," Simmons says. She joined the Peace Center, which has between 500 and 800 members, in 1988 and traveled around the country taking courses that led certification in all types of mediation. "It was a new field then," she says, and no degrees were offered. Now Simmons is executive director of the organization and two of the people on her staff have degrees in peace and conflict resolution.
Simmons gives workshops and forums on conflict resolution at corporations, churches, organizations, and schools. In observing workplace interaction, she has determined that stress is often at the core of conflict on the job. It doesn't take much to create a stressful atmosphere, she says. It could be the uncertainty bred by a merger -- a problem she is seeing more of now -- or the demands of a hyper-connected, cell-phone enabled 24-hour workplace. Or it could be just one unhappy employee, she says, fingering the office manager as the employee often responsible for stressing out the whole office.
The stress caused by just one person, she says, "can infiltrate the whole workplace." Drawing a psychological portrait of a stressed out office manager, Simmons says she is often a woman who raised children before returning to work. "She is a very organized person. She has run her home beautifully and tended to her kids' needs. She has the ability to read people. She can almost read your mind before you ask her to do something."
Sounds good so far, but the problem, Simmons says, is that she wants to please everyone, "and it can't be done." Failing at this task, the office manager becomes resentful, and because she controls so much of the life of the office -- issuing supplies, fielding phone calls, scheduling appointments -- she is in a position to spread stress far and wide.
By no means all office managers fit this picture, Simmons emphasizes, and office managers do not hold a franchise spreading stress. Heads of schools are sometimes the culprits, as are managers. No matter who or what the stressor, however, there are steps that can be taken to pull it back to a manageable level. Here is Simmons' advice to stressed workers, managers, and employers:
Employers who can't afford any of the above can implement the best strategy of all, at no cost. "Listen," advises Simmons. Workers who feel appreciated are less stressed. Some companies, she says, even have one employee whose sole job is going around checking on employees and talking to them about how work is going.
Simmons asked the engineers what they planned to do about it. Well, nothing, it turns out. "I'm sure I wouldn't get the same pay somewhere else," one engineer told her. "Another," she says incredulously, "was actually offered another job with the same pay, but he didn't take it." Fear of change was the reason, she says, admitting that she just doesn't understand how workers can allow themselves to be trapped when the effects of an unhappy job situation are so far reaching.
On the whole, Simmons says, it's a wonder we cope with the stresses of our high pressure work world as well as we do. "People are acting normal in a very abnormal situation," is how she puts it.
-- Kathleen McGinn Spring