Stress and the Workplace

Shortly after receiving my original cancer prognosis, I met with Dr. Richard Sagebiel, a pathologist and specialist in melanoma research at UC San Francisco. Richard had a disarming way of carrying on a conversation, even if it was about the cancer he had discovered in my body!

“So, your life is pretty stressful?” he asked casually.

“I don’t know. I ran my own law firm for about 14 years, then moved into my current firm,” I answered, somewhat evasively.

He continued, “The reason I ask is that we all naturally produce and carry cancer cells in our bodies. But our immune system keeps them under control. However, if your immune system becomes overwhelmed, the cancer cells can take hold, multiply, and become a tumor. Stress suppresses your immune system.”

“Really?” I replied, “I had no idea. I never really considered my life ‘stressful.’ It’s just ‘life’ as I know it.” It’s been 22 years since that conversation.

Stress not only is related to increased incidence of cancer, but a variety of maladies ranging from strokes and heart attacks to PTSD and other psychological disorders. It is a condition, if chronic, that should not be trifled with. A second major fact that I would learn about stress is that while it may be “self-imposed,” it also can be contagious.

I recently attended a lecture by neuroscientist, David Eagleman, best-selling author of “Incognito - The Secret Lives of the Brain.” He observed that a “corporation” should be thought of as a “big brain” in which all the individual brains of its members are a part. I agree. And, I would add, should that big brain manifest pathologies, the constituent brains also will suffer.

Self-imposed stress, in my experience, most often arises from the incongruity between your work and your values. You may not know it at your career’s onset or for years to follow. But gradually, discomfort arises in your mind, body, temperament or health that clues you in to the fact that something is wrong. You even may have tried to sweep it under the rug, but eventually it manifests in a way too great to ignore. If this sounds at all familiar to you, take the time now to examine your circumstances, to reflect on your discomfort, to review the four questions from “Assessing Your Work Life - 1” (April 30, 2013). Focus on how much stress attends your answers. Does my work allow for personal growth and development? Does my work enable me to contribute to my well-being and that of others? Does my work bring me joy? How does my work give my life meaning? You don’t need hidden stress to manifest as physical or psychological damage.

I mentioned, in “Assessing Your Work Life - 2” (May 15, 2013), that I only first gave myself permission to become a lawyer in my late 40s. I had so long-lived under the family expectation that I would become a lawyer, that I found it important to reconfirm that decision for myself. Since I had been a lawyer for over 20 years, how real andindependent could my decision be? Had I not been prepared to abandon the career, you would have reason to be skeptical. But I had just come out of a dark cancer prognosis and survived the requisite period in which metastases had not appeared. It was an entirely appropriate time for my career retrospective. And in that process of affirmation, I found myself willing and able to fully integrate my career, my life and my values. And momentous stress was relieved.

Assessing your work has the benefit of relieving stress. It focuses your energy on alleviating it at its source. Even before you reach your destination, the inquiring itself begins to loosen stress’ strangle hold.

It’s not always easy to distinguish the source of work-related stress. Stress manifests in your mind, body, emotions and health without declaring its source. Often stress is externally generated. But to achieve needed relief, to take appropriate action in the short term, and to chart your future course, you must distinguish self-imposed and externally generated stress. Here is a straight forward approach. If your work assessment inquiry fails to manifest stress, look to the workplace itself.

Examine whether your workplace has a mission statement. Its absence, by no means, is a fatal flaw. But if one exists, it evidences values. Does it reference employee wellbeing, the value of the workplace environment, or the value of the individual? Does it refer to the work environment as a “culture” or “community”? Does it speak to individual growth and/or development? How was the value statement originally created - by promulgation or broad-based collaboration? Does it speak to the satisfaction of your clients/customers? What does it say about transparency - within the community, with its clients/customers, and with the world at large?

I probably am being unfair. I am projecting what I believe are important considerations in the creation of a healthy workplace environment. However, from my review of the many mission statements and value propositions, most are externally focused. They speak in terms of customer/client satisfaction, the quality of the product/service and revenue. Little attention is given to a generative workplace environment, the health and well-being of the constituents of the enterprise or of their potential for growth and development. Most value statements are years out of date and speak to the values of generations past. Retaining such anachronistic value statements does more harm than good. It evidences a lack of recognition that business is constantly evolving, that the best products/services originate in the healthiest workplace environments, and that employees, customers and clients understand that proposition.

Don’t be alarmed if you find no value statement. I just finished a book about the genesis and first decade of a tech startup that has become a global enterprise, employing thousands of workers internationally. It promulgated a strong value proposition in its infancy and has struggled through its exponential growth to chart a course consistent with that value. From what I can tell, that value is not promulgated in a mission statement. Rather, it passes through the institution as oral tradition, deeply embedded in the culture, and demonstrated through consistent action.

Absent a value statement, you are left to explore. There are plenty of places to look for the answer. What really matters in your workplace? What is the reputation of your workplace “on the street”? How much does gossip comprise a part of your workplace culture? What behavior is truly rewarded? What does that rewarded behavior tell you of workplace values? Does your compensation system reward collaboration and/or creativity? Are you encouraged to grow and develop your expertise? Are you supported in your efforts to maintain your health? Is unethical behavior tolerated or perhaps rewarded? Do you and your colleagues feel safe, physically and psychologically? Is individual toxic behavior appropriately reined in? Is your privacy respected? Is it possible to initiate and maintain meaningful, personal relationships with your colleagues? What do the personal lives of your leaders reflect as to the values of the enterprise? Do you see joy in the workplace? Do you witness empathy and generosity amongst your colleagues? Does your culture support and social reward community service?

Finally, if you want to change the values of your enterprise, is there a path to do so? Would it be safe to communicate with others openly on this subject? If you decided simply to “upgrade” your own behavior to a higher standard, what would you anticipate as the reaction from your colleagues?

This is a difficult area of inquiry. It takes courage and perseverance. You learn a great deal about yourself and your own values in the undertaking. And not everything is revealed at once. The important thing to recognize is there are a variety of potential responses to what you learn. You initially may find things “satisfactory,” “in need of improvement,” or “intolerable.” But as you stay in the lab, retain an open mind, and give your colleagues the benefit of the doubt, you may find that by you changing how you address your work environment, you create room for others to do likewise. Just as I no longer expect perfection of myself, I have begun to give much greater slack to my colleagues. I learn as much from my own shortcomings as theirs. I wish for their success, as well is mine. But I do not tolerate abuse, dishonesty or malfeasance. And if the culture of my workplace allows for that, then I will initiate change for my own sake and that of my colleagues.