F. Recent research, such as last year’s study of public servants by the British epidemiologist Sir
Michael Marmot, shows the most important predictor of stress is the level of job control a person has. This
debunks the theory that stress is the prerogative of high-achieving executives with type A personalities and
crazy working hours. Instead, Marmot’s and other research reveals they have the best kind of job: one that
combines high demands (challenging work) with high control (autonomy). “The worst jobs are those that
combine high demands and low control. People with demanding jobs but little autonomy have up to four
times the probability of depression and more than double the risk of heart disease,” LaMontagne says.
“Those two alone count for an enormous part of chronic diseases, and they represent a potentially
preventable part.” Overseas, particularly in Europe, such research is leading companies to redesign
organisational practices to increase employees’ autonomy, cutting absenteeism and lifting productivity.
G. The Australian vice-president of AT Kearney, Neil Plumridge says, “Often stress
is caused by our
setting unrealistic expectations of ourselves. I’ll promise a
client I’ll do something tomorrow, and then
[promise] another client the same
thing, when I really know it’s not going to happen. I’ve put stress on
myself
when I could have said to the clients: Why don’t I give that to you in 48 hours?
The client doesn’t
care.” Overcommitting is something people experience as an
individual problem. We explain it as the result
of procrastination or Parkinson’s
law: that work expands to fil the time available. New research indicates
that
people may be hard-wired to do it.