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xchrom

(108,903 posts)
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 05:09 AM Sep 2012

Why You Are Way More Stressed Than Your Boss

http://www.alternet.org/labor/why-you-are-way-more-stressed-your-boss



“As you become a leader or climb up leadership ranks, is it true things get more intensely stressful for you?” That’s the question a newly released study aimed to answer, said James Gross, one of the study’s authors.

The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , found that the more leadership responsibility a person has, the lower the person’s stress level is.

Researchers from Stanford University and Harvard University recruited 148 managers in various fields, including government officials, military officers and business supervisors. The researchers then asked them questions concerning their power and control in relation to others. A saliva sample was then taken to measure their levels of cortisol, a hormonal indicator of stress. High levels of cortisol have been linked to heart disease, depression and several other diseases.

Researchers then recruited 65 community members of similar ethnicity, sex and age, who do not manage others and repeated the steps. They found that those in leadership positions were less stressed than workers who were not. According to reports, the cortisol levels in those who were not “leaders” were, on average, 27 percent higher than those who were.
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HiPointDem

(20,729 posts)
1. kr. And this is likely part of the reason that, for example, health and longevity decrease stepwise
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 05:35 AM
Sep 2012

as you go down the income scale (it's not just 'the poor' -- it's the middle class in comparison to the rich; the middle-middle class in comparison to the upper-middle, etc.)

 

obxhead

(8,434 posts)
6. Exactly, Money is one of the most powerful stress relievers out there.
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 09:23 AM
Sep 2012

Money may not be able to buy happiness, but it sure makes happiness a lot easier to obtain.

 

B Calm

(28,762 posts)
2. If my boss would ever want to know
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 05:38 AM
Sep 2012

what stress really is, he needs to climb up in my freightliner and do my job for a few weeks!

callous taoboy

(4,582 posts)
4. Driving does have its stress.
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 08:04 AM
Sep 2012

I drive limo on the weekend for extra dough, and the dumb things people do on the road is unnerving. Had someone throw a plastic cup full of some drink at me last weekend.

 

slackmaster

(60,567 posts)
5. My boss's wife is eight months pregnant and has a two-year-old at home
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 08:09 AM
Sep 2012

There's no way on Earth I'm more stressed than he is.

Response to slackmaster (Reply #5)

Populist_Prole

(5,364 posts)
9. No doubt! Must be why it's so popular with A-hole bosses
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 12:54 PM
Sep 2012

I've seen where micromanaging types don't like being micromanaged. Imagine that!

Populist_Prole

(5,364 posts)
11. Most of the stress bosses feel is stress they put on themselves
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 01:21 PM
Sep 2012

Over 25-somewhat years it's been my observation, coupled with the admissions of the few supervisors or managers that were candid enough to give me/us an inside view. They love trying to up the ante ( and outdo one another ) by telling their superiors what they want to hear or by claiming they can get more done. They do this before really sizing up the situation and so that means we "on the floor" as they say, are being set up for failure or large odds against us. The supervisor will then get frantic and start being a micromanaging pain in the ass, lest his superiors call his bluff.

It sucks working for a fearful boss, and what really sucks is that in some cases it's a lose-lose for us: Our immediate boss will look good for claiming a certain amount of productivity....having a "can do" attitude and all....but then he paints us as the bad guys when it blows up in his face, since he has no idea of the realities of what actually must and does transpire. Sometimes they believe him, sometimes I surely hope not. The best ones to work for are the ones that were once one of us, and knows how things really work. "It takes as long as it takes" and he can be regarded as giving reliable, if not the most "can do" viewpoint. Plus, we work better free of meddling.

Nikia

(11,411 posts)
12. I am less stressed not being a boss, but it might be my line of work and probably the companies
Sat Sep 29, 2012, 02:10 PM
Sep 2012

I think that it is extremely stressful being a quality manager. You have higher ups that do not value paying for the tools of a good quality program but blame you if anything goes wrong. The things that usually go wrong might have been prevented by a good program but were originally caused by people who don't work under you. Considering the interviews that I have gotten where the person left because "they could not handle the job" and high turnover for people in local positions, I don't think that it was unique to the company that I worked for. Maybe well run, non family owned businesses don't have this problem as much though.
I am now just a tech. The quality manager seems stressed but generally insulates from either program problems or fall out from specific incidents. I know that this is highly dependent on the manager though.
What is stressful is being responsible for things that you have less control over. Regardless of rank, it is a lot less stressful if you have control over what you are responsible for.

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