Work stress, sleep disorders and how to manage it
The present grade thesis is part of the contributions of work psychology, a circumscribed area in the study plan of the degree in Psychology of the University of Buenos Aires, Argentina and encompasses the concerns of the psychologist in the work area.
The work represents approximately 70% of our useful life and is one of the most important activities carried out by the human being throughout its existence. Structure time and organize the life cycle of people promoting socialization, facilitating the sense of belonging and molding their identity. In turn, it promotes status and social prestige, transmits social norms, beliefs and expectations and most of the time seeks access to consumer goods and satisfaction of basic needs.
While in everyday language people generally call the one who provides economic compensation work, in fact it would be strictly talking about what is called employment since work is a complex construct that covers much more than this only aspect. It should be noted that many of the compensation that arise from work are social and psychological and does not necessarily imply the money in between.
If we take work from a psychological perspective, it can be affirmed that this promotes personal self-realization and the scope of opportunities to develop skills and certainties. It is considered one of the activities that gives meaning to life and totally influences people’s self – esteem.
On the other hand, Dejurs states that this term implies a subjective dimension and an intersubjective dimension, being in the latter where the need for recognition can be located, of expressions that validate the achievements obtained. The new approaches to motivation realize that this goes far beyond the extrinsic, economic, material and that today intrinsic factors such as interests, expectations, desires and emotional variables in general, occupy afundamental role. As Bauman says today there is a need for instant gratification, so this concept is fundamental.
When people work with motivation and are aware that their effort is recognized at work are able to obtain better results and perform better roles. As stated in the cognitive social approach of Albert Bandura, individuals are more efficient and successful in those tasks in which they obtain positively valued results and when they believe they have the ability to carry out the necessary activities to achieve achievements. This is obtained is great measure by recognition.
When entering a job, a series of expectations are put into play that strongly influence what is going to be job performance. But not only the worker has them, but they can also be seen in the company that decides to hire someone. These expectations are appointed by Shein as a psychological contract. The author clarifies that it is essential that there is a constant renegotiation to avoid all types of misunderstanding because it is modified over time as the needs of both the organization and those of the individual change.
It is essential that the worker knows that he is expected to be able to perform properly so it is extremely necessary for this psychological contract to be put into words to avoid any type of situation of tension, anxiety and psychic suffering.
Another concept that is essential when talking about work is that of mental models. Senge states that this concept directly influences how we understand the world and how we act on it. They are present at all times and define how people interpret and interact with the rest. You could say that they are the glasses through which they see the world for which they will define and explain the reason for the actions of individuals. These models are built from our relationships, orientations, idiosyncrasy as a country, religion, etc. And they can vary over time.
It is clear that times have changed and that the work of before is not the same as now. Bauman will name work and the worker of principles and the mid -nineteenth century as belonging to a context of solid modernity, while at the end of the 19th century a passage to a liquid modernity occurs today. But why does this happen?
In solid modernity the nature of progress was cumulative and this was associated with self-confidence allowing the meticulous design of an expected destiny. The feeling of having everything under control reigned and there was a long -term mentality and horizon so everything was more predictable. If a person entered a company, it was most likely that he was there all his life there and even the organization was expected to include the following generations.
But things were modified and the change towards a liquid modernity occurred where the base of self-confidence was filled with cracks and breaks. Today people move without a destination idea that guides them because there was a solution of the solid, the stable and the permanent. Progress was individualized by waiting for subjects to use their own ingenuity and resources to grow and become someone. The work is no longer in most cases, a place where one can affirm a life project because at present everything is replaceable and there is no guarantee of anything. This era is characterized by ephemeral, the disposable, where instability governs.
You could say that the Empire of the works characterized by short contracts or non -contracts is being faced in front of the empire characterized. The future became completely unstable and maze where chance prevails from instability and flexibility installing the impossibility of anticipating. Today capital flows lightly because everything is inside a computer or a cell phone highlighting the speed that defines current technology.
From this it is that one might think that work not only generates satisfactions, but can also cause discomfort and suffering. This instability and uncertainty affects workers and can generate diseases or conditions such as anxiety, depression, stress, etc. that affect the individual as a whole. In turn, technology contributes to non -separation between working hours and personal life since it allows the person to take home, vacations, etc. work tasks.
Byung Chulhan (2015) will propose that people are currently part of a neoliberal system in which they themselves are the ones who self-control and self-exploen despite believing. An internal coercion can be located based on self-expendence, the need to constantly increase the performance and the message of personal optimization and overcoming that governs in these times.
Today the individual is able to perform more because there is no resistance to exploitation since coercion is internal and no longer comes from an external agent to whom you can criticize and blame. Now who fails to blame himself and so that the aforementioned disorders and the new diseases associated with excess self-exploitation appear. A state of constant exhaustion stands out since it is no longer about exploiting only the working time but also to the person and their life.
Aubert and Gaulejac comment that the principle of excellence and that of perfection currently constitute two fundamental premises for the internal functioning of society that pushes individuals to be the best, better than the rest, but mainly than they themselves. There is an internalization of moral values proposed by organizations, which generates that people work as machines because all their actions will be predictable by acting according to the culture of the company, the culture of excellence, highlighting internal obedience. On the other hand, these organizations manage.
These authors mention a double process in which, on the one hand, the individual triesThe body that has undergone these strong demands to meet the philosophy of the company, is consumed by this one that uses it to feed and regenerate.
The impossibility of failing, shame in the case that happens, the need to meet the imposed objectives, the fear of not being part of the "successful" of the organization, extreme competition with colleagues and indifference towards them, is whatthat leads to the innumerable negative consequences in which workers are immersed and the pressure of constant success.
From what was developed, it can be thought that high ideals, the accelerated rhythm that leaves out the biological needs of eating and sleeping what is necessary, work overload and the avalanche of technology that sweeps, consumes people andMany times it prevents differentiating working hours and personal life, it contributes it to the fact that a large part of the population manifests work stress.
The International Labor Organization [ILO] considers that work stress is one of the main health problems of workers and the proper functioning of organizations because a stressed worker is usually less motivated, becoming more sick, which leads to increasing absenteeismand be less productive.
A fact that is important to understand the impact of the problem, is that in industrialized countries, although positive effects are not observed, people know that work stress is treated and more and more internalize in how to handle it. On the other hand, in some developing countries, ignorance reigns and individuals are not aware of the importance of informing about this issue and acquiring tools to deal with this problem that is on the rise. In Latin America, work stress is already recognized as an epidemic, however, there seems to be no interest in regulating the risks that go beyond the traditional ones;leaving aside other extremely important factors such as long working days, time demands regarding the work to be carried out and labor insecurity, among others.
These changes that occur both worldwide and in the country cause an increase in demands and demands towards workers who, not being able to meet them, express work stress. When this problem occurs repeatedly it can cause several negative results. First, it affects workers who begin to have various health and psychological health problems affecting their cognitive skills and behaviors. In turn, it can lead to dysfunctional behaviors and in extreme cases to promote psychiatric disorders.
According to the World Health Organization [WHO], the consequences of work stress can be multiple and can include from physiological, emotional, cognitive and behavioral reactions to more long -term effects such as depression, anxiety, affective disorders, intestinal problems, fibromyalgia andamong others, sleep disorders, which constitute one of the variables of this research.
Finally, work stress not only affects workers, but can also have an impact on the performance of an organization for the costs generatedAnd at accident rates, increase in customer complaints, replacement of absent workers, training of alternate workers, etc. This could directly affect the survival of the organization itself.
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