A
bad job is better than no job at all
Brandy
Stowers
When
it comes to the workforce, would you agree
that times have really changed? I would.
Women work more than ever before. Men are
sharing the spotlight with women as heads
of companies (founder, president, CEO).
Women are juggling careers, families and
education, and men are too.
In
one area, with the rate of unemployment
increasing and jobs decreasing, the job
market has really taken a turn for the worse,
if you know what I mean. It seems as though
just as expenses go up, the ability to gain
financial stability has gone down. On the
other hand, the workforce has seen some
drastic changes over the years.
Since
the 1950s women have made a huge impression
on the work world. Sixty-three million women
now make up almost half the U.S. workforce.
This is a 56 percent increase since the
’50s. According to Harvard’s
Women’s Health Watch of 2002, another
positive aspect of women in the workforce
shows that when we work, we more so than
not work full time (or have more than one
part-time job), and we spend more time on
the job than women did in earlier years.
The
increase of women in the labor force did
not come easy. While there are many of us
working, there are even more of us suffering
from work-related problems. The rates at
which women suffer from work hazards are
now equal to men.
The
problems include occupational stress and
acute health problems. Occupational stress
is the type of stress where work conditions
overwhelm our adaptive abilities and can
make us sick in some way. An example of
such is when one is overworked. During a
40-hour workweek, one may have put in 10-20
hours of overtime and can be worn out, especially
if this goes on continuously over a period
of time.
A
significant amount of time is spent at work,
and no matter how you slice it, there are
some things that are bound to make one stressed,
depressed or both.
A
common reaction to stress on the job leaves
women and men resigning from their positions.
However, there are now interventions between
work and stress that companies offer, including
stress management classes such as relaxation
training, biofeedback, cognitive-behavioral
therapy and meditation as ways to help their
employees manage stress. Meditation has
been extremely effective in reducing blood
pressure, anxiety and physical symptoms
such as headaches, body aches and sleeplessness.
There
are many negative aspects that come to mind
when one thinks about working and the work
force in general, but there are also some
positive ones. Even though unemployment,
stress and bills are high, there is a solution
to every problem. The ways in which one
can decrease the effects of stress and stressors
in general are: to set priorities, assess
your stress, revise work habits, learn something
new, speak up, explore grievance channels
and make outside investments. Words to the
wise, “whenever you get fed up with
your job, imagine yourself without one”!
Brandy
Stowers is a public relations major at Cal
State Long Beach.
|
