Occupation | Stressors Specific to Occupation (Sulsky&Smith, 2005) |
---|---|
Police officer | physical dangers, excessive paperwork, red tape, dealing with court system, coworker and supervisor conflict, lack of support from the public |
Firefighter | uncertainty over whether a serious fire or hazard awaits after an alarm |
Social worker | little positive feedback from jobs or from the public, unsafe work environments, frustration in dealing with bureaucracy, excessive paperwork, sense of personal responsibility for clients, work overload |
Teacher | Excessive paperwork, lack of adequate supplies or facilities, work overload, lack of positive feedback, vandalism, threat of physical violence |
Nurse | Work overload, heavy physical work, patient concerns (dealing with death and medical concerns), interpersonal problems with other medical staff (especially physicians) |
Emergency medical worker | Unpredictable and extreme nature of the job, inexperience |
Air traffic controller | Little control over potential crisis situations and workload, fear of causing an accident, peak traffic situations, general work environment |
Clerical and secretarial work | Little control over job mobility, unsupportive supervisors, work overload, lack of perceived control |
Managerial work | Work overload, conflict and ambiguity in defining the managerial role, difficult work relationships |
Although the specific stressors for these occupations are diverse, they seem to share two common denominators: heavy workload and uncertainty about and lack of control over certain aspects of a job. Both of these factors contribute to job strain , a work situation that combines excessive job demands and workload with little discretion in decision making or job control (Karasek&Theorell, 1990). Clearly, many occupations other than the ones listed in [link] involve at least a moderate amount of job strain in that they often involve heavy workloads and little job control (e.g., inability to decide when to take breaks). Such jobs are often low-status and include those of factory workers, postal clerks, supermarket cashiers, taxi drivers, and short-order cooks. Job strain can have adverse consequences on both physical and mental health; it has been shown to be associated with increased risk of hypertension (Schnall&Landsbergis, 1994), heart attacks (Theorell et al., 1998), recurrence of heart disease after a first heart attack (Aboa-Éboulé et al., 2007), significant weight loss or gain (Kivimäki et al., 2006), and major depressive disorder (Stansfeld, Shipley, Head,&Fuhrer, 2012). A longitudinal study of over 10,000 British civil servants reported that workers under 50 years old who earlier had reported high job strain were 68% more likely to later develop heart disease than were those workers under 50 years old who reported little job strain (Chandola et al., 2008).