Thriving Under Stress

What helps employees to perform well and stay healthy under high levels of stress? What are the factors that distinguish those employees? What are the best ways to recover from a stressful day at work? How can employees proactively address stressors they encounter at work, and how can they move from "coping" to "thriving"? Can stress even have positive consequences? Most employees can recall times when they have dealt with the stress they were under at work, even coming out stronger as a result of performing well under difficult conditions. Yet many approaches to stress at work view stress as a toxic experience that should be avoided at all costs, and do not recognize how stress might be used to facilitate personal growth, professional development, and higher levels of performance. In this book, Britt and Jex describe how stressful working conditions can produce positive outcomes when employees approach demands in the right way, focus on the meaning and significance of their work, and recover appropriately from stressful working conditions, both during the day and when at home. The book encourages employees to view themselves as active constructors of their work environment who are capable of proactively addressing many of the demands they encounter, instead of being passive recipients of work stressors. To help readers reach the goal of thriving under stressful work, application exercises are provided in each chapter of the book. In these exercises, employees consider how they are currently responding to work stressors, how they might identify the significance and importance of their work, and identify ways they can better recover from work demands. Given the importance of managers in creating the conditions necessary for employees to thrive under stressful conditions, each chapter also includes a box with recommendations for managers who are looking to reduce the negative effects of stress at work, enhance the positive effects, and create a work environment where employees can thrive.