Workplace Stress and its Implications for Employees Jeremy Mackey Florida State University

Introduction 3 rd year doctoral student studying workplace stress and interpersonal mistreatment Dissertation on workplace stress and Veterans’ stress when transitioning to the civilian workforce

Veterans Veterans are widely defined as men and women who have previously served on active duty in the United States Armed Forces and have since returned to civilian life (Walker, 2010) Overall, there were about 23 million Veterans living in the United States and/or its territories in 2009 (Westat, 2010) 2 million unemployed Veterans in 2009 (Westat, 2010) Forecasted an additional 1 million Veterans to hit the job market between 2011 and 2016 (Dewan, 2011)

Stress Stress arises and results from a disruption to an individual’s cognitive-emotional-environmental system and natural homeostatic balance by some external environmental demand Chronic stress

Why Stress Research is Important Job stress costs organizations billions of dollars in employee disability claims, employee absenteeism, and lost productivity Job strain has been associated with (Chang, Rosen, & Levy, 2009) : Job satisfaction (ρ = -.45) Affective commitment (ρ = -.31) Task performance (ρ = -.21) Organizational Citizenship Behavior – Individual (ρ = -.23) Organizational Citizenship Behavior – Organization (ρ = -.25) Turnover Intentions (ρ =.31)

Types of Stressors Challenges – job demands that are viewed as rewarding work experiences Examples: amount of responsibility, volume of work Hindrances – job demands or work circumstances that involve excessive or undesirable constraints that interfere with or hinder an individual’s ability to achieve valued goals Examples: lack of job security, unclear expectations

Model of Workplace Stress

How Can You Help? I need at least 300 currently employed Veterans and 300 currently employed non-Veterans to fill out surveys You can help with much fewer than 300 employees What is involved? Provide me with a list of employee addresses or forward an from me with a link to the survey (~15 minutes) Survey can be administered online or in paper-and-pencil format

What Information Can I Provide You? Executive summary of study findings, including levels of stressors and strain Implications for employees’ health and work outcomes

Contact Information If you are interested in more information or would like to participate in the project, please feel free to contact me at: Phone: (434)

Thank you for your time! Any Questions?