We need to build resilience to master the stress potential of workplace dynamics founded more on uncertainty than stability.
In 1967, psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe conducted a large-scale research project into the relationship between 43 life events, what they called Life Change Units (LCU), and long-term stress or more serious mental illness. The result was the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale, which is designed to measure how much stress load we carry, and how we might manage it.
Not all LCUs carry the same weight – compare, for example, bereavement with a change in work responsibilities – but they are all cumulative, so that our ability to cope with the demands upon us is challenged when the demands multiply. For example, starting a new job is often an exciting and positive experience, but, if that change comes along while you’re also going through a divorce or a loved one is ill, then the transition might be more challenging.
This speaks to the heart of what we know about stress. In itself, it’s not always a bad thing. As a primarily physical response, our ‘fight-flight-freeze’ response has been a handy way for us humans to avoid existential threats ranging from woolly mammoths to a speeding car on a residential street. The sensation of such an adrenaline-fuelled heart-pounding, fast-breathing energy boost is still an essential reaction to truly life-threatening situations.
In small doses, it can also keep us on our toes when we need to step up for that important work presentation or potentially game-winning shot. But it’s less helpful when our bodies go into a state of stress in inappropriate situations, or if we remain in a state of stress for long periods.
Because stress shuts down much-needed brain function – the ability to ‘think straight’ – remaining in a state of stress, or suffering from multiple stress factors at the same time, can be detrimental to our health. The Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale is designed to identify and measure the impact of the kinds of triggers that might cause this to happen.
A closer look at the scale also gives us an insight into those LCUs. Many – like the death of a partner or going to jail – are unequivocally negative. Others – such as a holiday or a change in responsibilities at work – are not necessarily so. All of them, however, involve a change or transition that might cause us to rethink our own identities and our relationships.
This can be disorientating, leading to a feeling of helplessness, of a loss of control over our lives. It’s a feeling encapsulated in a commonly accepted definition of stress by psychologist Richard S Lazarus that sees stress as a condition or feeling experienced when a person perceives that “demands exceed the personal and social resources the individual is able to mobilize”.
It’s perhaps also not surprising that almost a quarter of LCUs involve changes and transitions associated with our working lives. They include things such as having a tricky relationship with our boss, a change to working conditions, moving to a new team or department or getting fired.
After all, we spend a lot of time at work and, for better or worse, often feel defined by the work we do; the question “what do you do?” is a common default opening gambit in any social situation. And as the boundaries between our work and non-working time become increasingly blurred, there’s an even greater chance that who we are is ever-more bound up with what we do for a living.
Social identity theory offers some useful insights here. In the 1970s, social psychologists Henri Tajfel and John Turner suggested that a person’s sense of who they are is, at least in part, based on the groups to which they belong. This can lead to strong feelings of pride and self-esteem, a sense of social identity. While we can belong to several groups at the same time, the people we work with, whether a defined profession or simply a close-knit team, will often generate strong feelings of identity, of belonging.
Little wonder, then, that transitions that interrupt this sense of identity – a redundancy, a promotion, a change in work responsibilities – can trigger that disorientation, feelings of a loss of control that can lead to stress.
We tend to think of workplace stress in terms of overload, when a person is overwhelmed by workload or a particularly challenging task or situation. And that’s certainly a reality.
However, psychologists have also charted the stress induced by interruptions at work, a disjunction caused between our best laid plans and an inability to see them through. And, as with those LCUs, the effects of interruptions can be cumulative, bringing even more stress if we are repeatedly interrupted doing something to which we feel committed.
As we move away from more traditional work patterns and anticipate careers comprising of multiple job shifts and flexible working, we need to be alert to the stress potential inherent in workplace dynamics founded more on uncertainty than stability.
A 2019 US Bureau of Labor Statistics survey showed that the average job tenure is declining for everyone, and is most marked for younger workers: of the jobs that workers began when they were 18 to 24 years of age, 70% of those jobs ended in less than a year and 93% ended in less than five years.
It seems that, in some ways, we’re all part of the gig economy now, making our working lives feel more precarious – and potentially more stressful – as we navigate a greater number of working life transitions than we had to in the past.
These transitions are also likely to take a greater variety of forms. We might be stepping up into a promotion or taking a similar job in the same sector. But we might equally be changing sector, upskilling or reskilling, working as a freelancer or contractor, part time instead of full time – or a whole combination of these options.
And that’s not taking into account a future that is increasingly unpredictable. Historian and philosopher Yuval Harari reminds us that we’re going to have to build our emotional intelligence and our mental balance if we’re to keep learning and re-inventing ourselves, building the capability to manage the stress inherent in uncertainty and change.
Given this context, it’s incumbent on leaders, now more than ever, to be alert to the fact that even the most positive-sounding changes to people’s working lives can be stressful, and to help them to develop strategies to manage those tricky transitions.
The same goes for us as individuals. We may know that this new world of work is full of opportunities and that can be exciting; there are some very positive upsides to a broad and varied career. But we also need to remain mindful that these opportunities and transitions are not always to be taken lightly, even if we’re more predisposed than most to uncertainty and change.
We may need to channel our inner Nelson Mandela, who famously said: “Do not judge me by my success, judge me by how many times I fell down and got back up again.” And that means developing resilience.
Psychologists define resilience as the ability to adapt well in the face of adversity, setbacks or stress. Being resilient doesn’t mean that we won’t experience difficulty or distress. But it does mean that we’re better able, like Mandela, to deal with whatever comes our way.
It also means learning from what we’ve experienced, however painful, turning, in the words of Oprah Winfrey, “wounds into wisdom”. It’s often said that we don’t really know how resilient we are until we have to be.
Resilience is also about awareness, understanding that life is full of challenges. It provides a kind of emotional insurance that, whatever happens, ‘we’ve got this’. We might not be able to avoid problems, but we can remain open, flexible and willing to adapt and change as we confront them.
While some people might be more naturally resilient than others, we can all learn and develop resilient behaviours, thoughts and actions. Like emotional self-control, it takes time and practice. Fortunately, though, it’s a subject that has fascinated humans for millennia, and there are established strategies and philosophies that we can use to help us develop that ability to take the knocks and bounce back and to stand tall in the face of change and uncertainty.
We might, for example, develop a support network that can help us to gain some perspective, new insights and ideas for managing stressful situations. We might develop our stress management strategies. We can work on reframing our thoughts, focusing on the positive things we might do to tackle problems rather than seeing them as insurmountable. Or we might follow the example of the Stoics and attend to the things we can control rather than ruminating endlessly about the things we can’t.
Whatever strategies we adopt and develop, it’s clear that we need to reflect, think and build our resilience to help us confront – and master – those situations anticipated by the likes of Holmes and Rahe’s LCUs. As we navigate our new world of work, resilience is a key life skill that will serve us well, whatever the future might bring.
Identify three Holmes and Rahe LCUs that relate to the workplace.
Outline two possible strategies for building resilience.
Consider any LCUs you may recently have experienced. How well were you able to respond? What more might you do to build resilience?