Alternative Health Blog

We all know people who work too much. That might include the one you see reflecting back in the mirror.  Here’s hoping Labor Day was an off day in any case.

We also know people who think they work too much, whether that is true or not. There’s room to debate, say, whether the person who logs 10 hours at the office every weekday actually works all 10. Or whether the person jumping online for a time at night is working more than surfing.

So there is perception versus reality in determining work overload, which is fitting because research shows it is perceived lack of control on the job that creates the most stress for workers. A landmark study showed that British civil workers on the lowest rungs of an organizational chart experienced the highest amount of stress. That covers even middle-management supervisors who you might think would feel the pressure from above and below their authority levels.

The British study, performed four decades ago, was the first introduce the connection between sense of control and stress. Numerous other studies have confirmed that general finding, but there has been some distinction between work stress among men and women.

For instance, one recent study conducted by researchers across various European countries monitored blood pressure and pulse of clerical and supervisor during a typical work day from wakeup to end of shift. While blood pressure and resting pulse are reliable indicators of stress, the researchers took the additional step of taking cotton swab of the workers’ saliva every half-hour to measure cortisol levels. Cortisol is a hormone associated with stress in the body. The results showed elevated blood pressure and pulse among both men and women clerical-level workers and lower blood pressure and pulse among male and female supervisors. But the cortisol measurements showed higher levels for female supervisors than the men and women who worked for those women bosses.

The study authors offered no direct explanation for this rise among female supervisors, yet speculated that women in higher status jobs have likely worked hard and sacrificed than men in the same management jobs. It would follow that those women would be more stressed about keeping their positions. 

Gender or org chart level aside, there is one documented way to decrease your stress level at the office. Researchers have discovered that a nature scene out of windows (grass, trees, flowers) can reduce blood pressure and cortisol levels. In fact, even indoor plants have a similar positive biological effect.

Two University of Michigan researchers, Rachel and Stephen Kaplan, have studied this phenomenon for a couple of decades as colleagues and married partners. They are inspiring a new generation of researchers linking nature and stress relief. Here are some findings:

• One study of public housing projects showed living neare trees resulted in “more civility, less aggression and girls more likely to study.”
  
• AIDS caregivers who were most successful in avoiding stress-related burnout were those who made time, even minutes a day, to walk, run or bike. Caregivers who watched TV in their down reported feelings of burnout much sooner than the walk/run/bike group.
  
• Researchers evaluating prisoners at a Michigan prison found that those with cell views of farmland required less health care than those men in cells with no views of nature.