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Bosses can help employees fight workplace stress

With guarantees gone, respect's a great benefit

By Aaron Corvin, Columbian Port & Economy Reporter
Published: April 30, 2011, 12:00am

Memo to employers: You may not be able to guarantee jobs for your workers, but you have the power to back them in ways that benefit your business and their families.

That was a central point made by Tahira Probst, professor of psychology at Washington State University Vancouver, who spoke on campus Friday as part of the university’s Chancellor’s Seminar Series.

Probst’s presentation, “Economic Stress and Job Insecurity: Implications for Employers and Organizations,” delved into what she called the disconnect between the “economic realities of today” and what people actually want from their jobs.

The reality is that job security has decreased with the rise of global competition, outsourcing, technological changes and other factors, Probst said. And while workers may move from one company to another, one thing hasn’t changed about what they want from a job: security.

Data suggest that feelings of job insecurity will persist. A 1997 survey of 21 countries showed that the U.S. ranked the highest in job insecurity: 52 percent of workers perceived their jobs as being unstable and only 38 percent believed good performance would protect their jobs.

Meanwhile, unemployment is a fact of life, increasing stress levels for both the jobless and those who wonder if they’re next. In the last 15 years, an average of 2 million workers in the U.S. have been laid off annually, Probst said.

“Job insecurity seems to be here to stay,” she told more than 60 attendees of Friday’s event.

But employers can take steps to lessen the negative effects of job insecurity. Those steps include: giving employees more freedom to decide how to do their jobs and what performance goals they will pursue; increasing their role in the company’s decision-making process; and communicating with them in an effective — and trustworthy — manner.

Respect and mutual obligation also are essential between supervisors and workers, Probst said. “That quality of the relationship matters.” Workers feel more secure in their jobs when they can honestly say that, no matter what happens, “at least I know somebody’s in my corner,” Probst added.

One study Probst conducted involved 807 employees from six organizations. It found that when employees were allowed to participate in an organization’s decision-making process, the issue of job insecurity did not have nearly as big of an impact on how satisfied they were with their work.

Probst, who has researched the issues of economic stress and job insecurity for 15 years, said the negative consequences are many, including higher levels of fear and anger, depression and insomnia.

That’s why it behooves employers to take steps to support their workers. If not addressed, Probst said, feelings of job insecurity can translate into reduced job performance and increased levels of costly employee turnover.

And stressed-out workers take their feelings of job insecurity home with them, Probst said. The children of parents who are worried about losing their jobs show increased levels of acting out in school and lower levels of academic performance.

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Columbian Port & Economy Reporter