Stress and stressful situations in business communication. Stress resistance in business communication. The concept of stress as an inadequate response to external and internal stimuli. The process of stress occurrence in everyday life, people’s subjective attitude

INTRODUCTION

It is almost impossible to avoid conflicts in business communication. An obligatory companion of almost any conflict is stress. Its unpleasant signs (increased excitability, inability to concentrate, a feeling of unreasonable fatigue, etc.) appear instantly and are visible, as they say, to the naked eye. “Don’t be nervous”, “relax” - those around us advise us. Yes, we would be glad not to be nervous, but for the most part it doesn’t work out. A stressful situation grabs us and doesn’t let go: unpleasant thoughts “climb” into our heads, harsh words come out of our mouths of their own accord...

So it’s not far from a serious illness. Can anything be done about this? It is possible, but only under three essential conditions:

1) a clear understanding of the nature of stress and the stages of its development;

2) a clear understanding of the limits of possible influence on the course of a stressful situation;

3) readiness for active efforts to achieve stress resistance.

This work will address issues such as:

Concept and nature of stress;

Causes and sources of stress;

Prevention of stress in business communication;

Individual strategy and tactics of stress-resistant behavior.

§ 1. Concept and nature of stress

The word “stress” translated from English means “tension”. This term was introduced into scientific circulation in 1936 by the outstanding Canadian physiologist Hans Selye (b. 1907), who developed the general concept of stress as an adaptive reaction of the body to the influence of extreme factors (stressogens). The ordinary popularity of both the concept itself and its leading concept is apparently explained by the fact that with its help many phenomena in our ordinary, everyday life can easily be explained: reactions to emerging difficulties, conflict situations, unexpected events, etc.

According to the classical definition of G. Selye, stress is a nonspecific response of the body to any demand presented to it, and this response represents the body’s tension aimed at overcoming emerging difficulties and adapting to increased demands.

The term “nonspecific” in this case means something common to all adaptive reactions of the body. In the cold, for example, we try to move more to increase the amount of heat generated by the body, and the blood vessels on the surface of the skin narrow, reducing heat transfer. On a hot summer day, the body, on the contrary, reflexively releases sweat, increasing heat transfer, etc. These are specific reactions that respond to specific environmental requirements for the body. But in any case, it is necessary to adapt to the environment and restore a normal state. The general need to rebuild the body, adapt to any external influence - this is the essence of stress. It does not matter whether the situation we are faced with is pleasant or unpleasant. Oddly enough, cold, heat, sadness, joy, and medications, according to G. Selye, cause the same biochemical changes in the body. Something similar exists in our electrical household appliances: a refrigerator, heater, lamp, bell change the physical environment in different ways (cold, heat, light, sound), but their work is determined by a single factor - electricity. In the same way, the stressor effect from external influences does not depend on the type of specific adaptive responses to them. The essence of such answers is the same.

In the dynamics of the stress response, G. Selye sees three phases:

1) an anxiety reaction, manifested in the urgent mobilization of the body’s defenses and resources;

2) the resistance phase, which allows the body to successfully cope with the stress-causing influences;

3) the phase of exhaustion, if too prolonged and too intense a struggle leads to a decrease in the adaptive capabilities of the body and its ability to resist various diseases.

The physiological and biochemical nature of stress has been studied quite well to date. Schematically, the physiological “underside” of the stress response looks something like this. Under the influence of any stress factor (conflict, unexpected event, etc.), an intense, persistent focus of excitation is formed in the human cerebral cortex - the so-called “dominant”. Its appearance triggers a kind of chain reaction: one of the most important structures of the diencephalon, the hypothalamus, is also excited, which in turn activates the closely related leading endocrine gland, the pituitary gland. The latter releases a portion of a special hormone into the blood, under the influence of which the adrenal glands secrete adrenaline and other physiological active substances(stress hormones), which ultimately give a well-known picture of a stressful state: heart rate increases, breathing quickens, blood pressure rises, etc.

Biochemical changes during stress are the body’s defensive reaction to an external threat, formed in the process of long-term evolution. Unused hormones circulate through our blood, agitating the body and preventing the nervous system from calming down. Whether they were immediately spent on any kind physical activity, stress would not have destructive consequences. But a person leading a modern lifestyle has few such opportunities. Therefore, his body falls into a kind of stress trap: an emergency release of stress hormones into the blood depletes their supply in the adrenal cortex, which immediately begins to intensively restore them. That is why, even with relatively weak repeated emotional arousal, the body reflexively reacts with an increased release of hormones. This is the biochemical nature of stress, which “stands behind the scenes” of nervous, inappropriate human behavior.

A stressful state is dangerous not in itself, but because it can provoke a whole bunch of organic disorders in the form of cardiovascular, allergic, immune and other diseases. Not to mention the fact that a person’s performance, vitality and creative activity drop sharply. Seemingly causeless lethargy, passivity, insomnia or restless sleep, irritability, dissatisfaction with the whole world are typical symptoms of stress. Here the question naturally arises: is it possible to do something about all this? Is it possible to avoid stress?

The answer to the last question must be absolutely negative. Stress cannot be avoided in principle. Because their nature is reflexive. It is the body's automatic response to difficult or unfavorable situations. Such reactions are mechanisms of human natural biological defense, a purely natural way of adapting to a changing environment. To destroy them means to extinguish the life in a person, to make him insensitive to external stimuli.

As the founder of the doctrine of stress, G. Selye, emphasized, stress is an essential component of life. It can not only reduce, but also increase the body’s resistance to negative factors. To differentiate these polar functions of stress, Selye proposed to distinguish between “stress” itself, as a mechanism necessary for the body to overcome unfavorable external influences, and “distress”, as a condition that is certainly harmful to health. (The word “distress” can be translated as “exhaustion”, “unhappiness”.)

Thus, stress is tension that mobilizes and activates the body to combat the source of negative emotions. Distress is excessive stress that reduces the body's ability to adequately respond to the demands of the external environment.

At the same time, it would be a mistake to unambiguously associate distress with the manifestation of a person’s negative emotions, and to declare all positive emotions as a protection against it. It happens differently. Any emotional upheaval in a person is a stressor (source of stress). The body's resistance to adverse external influences increases due to the resulting tension! Stress mechanisms are designed to ensure the body's resistance. Distress occurs when these mechanisms are not effective enough. Or when they “exhaust their resource” with prolonged and intense stress on a person.

Thus, the state of distress actually corresponds to the third of the stress response phases identified by G. Selye. This is precisely what we need to fight against, or rather, try to prevent stress from turning into distress. Stress itself is a completely normal reaction.

§ 2. Causes and sources of stress

The list of causes of stress is endless. International conflicts, instability of the political situation in the country, and socio-economic crises can act as stressors.

Organizational factors

A significant part of stress-provoking factors is associated with the performance of our professional duties. The authors of a popular manual on the basics of management identify organizational factors that can cause stress:

overload or too little workload;

role conflict (occurs if an employee is presented with conflicting demands);

role ambiguity (the employee is not sure what is expected of him);

uninteresting work (a study of 2,000 male workers in 23 occupations found that those with more interesting jobs showed less anxiety and were less susceptible to physical ailments than those working in uninteresting work);

poor physical conditions (noise, cold, etc.);

incorrect relationship between authority and responsibility;

poor channels of information exchange in the organization, etc.

Organizational and personal factors

Another group of stress factors could be called organizational-personal, since they express a person’s subjectively anxious attitude towards his professional activity. German psychologists W. Siegert and L. Lang identify several typical “fears” of workers:

fear of not being able to cope with work;

fear of making a mistake;

fear of being left out by others;

fear of losing your job;

fear of losing one's own self.

Organizational and production factors

An unfavorable moral and psychological climate in a team, unresolved conflicts, lack of social support, etc. are also stressful.

To this “bouquet” of stressors of an organizational and production nature can be added problems in a person’s personal life, which provide many reasons for unfavorable emotions. Trouble in the family, health problems, “midlife crisis” and other similar irritants are usually acutely experienced by a person and cause significant damage to his resistance to stress.

Thus, the causes of stress are not much of a secret. The problem is how to prevent stress by influencing the causes that cause it. The basic rule here suggests itself: we need to clearly distinguish stressful events that we can somehow influence from those that are clearly not in our control.

It is clear that the crisis situation in the country or in the world, the inevitably approaching retirement age, etc. an individual, if he can influence it, does so very little. Therefore, such events should be left alone and focused on those stress factors that we can actually change.

§ 3. Prevention of stress in business communication

We experience a significant portion of stress as a result of conflicts generated by various work situations. In this case, in any case, the “vertical” is affected business relations: leader - subordinate. After all, even if ordinary employees are in conflict with each other, the manager cannot help but interfere in the process of resolving the conflict. Therefore, recommendations for the prevention of stress, formulated by managerial psychology, are deployed, as it were, on two “fronts”: managers, whose responsibilities are charged with reducing the level of stress among employees, and subordinates, who are asked to protect themselves from stress and not serve as stressors for others. To minimize the level of stress in the team without reducing productivity, the manager should listen to the following recommendations.

Anti-stress guide:

Think often about the accuracy of assessing the abilities and inclinations of your employees. Compliance with these qualities in the volume and complexity of assigned tasks is an important condition for the prevention of stress among subordinates.

Do not be annoyed if an employee refuses a given task; it is better to discuss with him the validity of the refusal.

Use a leadership style that is appropriate to your specific work situation and workforce.

When employees fail, evaluate first of all the circumstances in which the person acted, and not his personal qualities.

Do not exclude compromises, concessions, and apologies from your arsenal of means of communication with subordinates.

Periodically think about ways to relieve the stress your subordinates have already accumulated.

Keep in mind the problems of employee rest, the possibility of their emotional release, entertainment, etc.

The implementation by managers of these recommendations, which are simple in principle, can have a very significant impact on the level of stress in the team. At the same time, for the same purposes, subordinates are encouraged to take a step towards their superiors. Those suffering from stress at work are usually offered something like the following list of stress minimization methods.

Anti-stress submission.

IF you are dissatisfied with working conditions and content, wages, opportunities for promotion and other organizational factors, try to carefully analyze how realistic your organization’s capabilities are to improve these parameters (that is, first find out if there is something to fight for).

Discuss your problems with colleagues and management. Take care not to appear blaming or complaining - you just want to solve a work problem that may not only concern you.

Do not hesitate to demand complete clarity and certainty from management and colleagues about the essence of the tasks assigned to you.

When working hard, look for opportunities to briefly disconnect and rest. Experience shows that two 10-15 minute periods of relaxation per day are enough to maintain a high degree of performance.

Be sure to discharge your negative emotions, but in socially acceptable forms. Socially approved management of one's emotions

Try not to mix personal and work relationships, etc..

The recommendations listed above for preventing stress in work groups are inevitably quite general character. A specific stressful situation is always unique, since it is determined not least by the individuality of the person exposed to stress (his temperament, character, style of behavior, etc.). In addition, our susceptibility to stress at work depends to a large extent on the general background of life, that is, on how successfully we are able to get out of stressful situations generated by general social, family, age and other factors. In essence, occupational stress is just one of the many types of stress that beset us. It, of course, has its own specifics. But the physiological nature of stress is the same. Therefore, a person who is seasoned in overcoming various life barriers and troubles should obviously cope more successfully than others with professional stressful situations. Thus, one of the keys to success in overcoming work stress lies in the individual’s general life strategy, based on selected basic values and taking into account the characteristics of his personality.

§ 4. Individual strategy and tactics of stress-resistant behavior

Stress is "the flavor and taste of life" and that "total freedom from stress means death." More than seventy years of studying the phenomenon of stress has convinced specialists of the truth of these premises. It is now generally accepted that our ability to face the threat of stress with dignity and to avert it with minimal damage to the body is ultimately determined by our general attitude towards life, by what in romantic philosophy and literature was called the will to live.

Social components of stress

After all, stress is, in any case, a psychophysiological reaction of an individual, and not just an organism, as was previously thought. The social component of human behavior plays a significant role in the development of stress.

There are usually three main elements in the structure of the stress response:

assessment of a stressful event;

physiological and biochemical changes in the body;

change in human behavior.

It is clear that the first element of this triad is initially social. Assessing a stressful event is always subjective. It is influenced by both the depth of our knowledge of the “nature of things” and personal experience(positive or negative), and general sociocultural attitudes, and even our emotional state at the time of the event. False fears, erroneous interpretation of any phenomena as threatening our well-being cause completely real physiological and biochemical changes in the body.

An even closer connection with social factors is visible in the third element of the stress response - behavior. Even a person spurred on by physiological changes cannot ignore generally accepted social norms, installations, prohibitions. The personal beliefs of the individual, his worldview, habits, and ability to manage his emotions also play a fundamental role here.

Thus, the stress response is largely a social phenomenon. This means that stress can be resisted by influencing, first of all, the social components of stress reactions, which in theory should be more controllable than our physiology. Or, at least, there should be less harm from influencing them than from interfering with the functioning of our body with the help of various kinds of tranquilizers, antidepressants and other medications.

What exactly should our efforts to improve stress resistance be aimed at? An interesting answer to this question is provided by the concept of “search activity”, developed by Russian scientists B.C. Rotenberg and V.V. Arshavsky.

Negative emotions do not always unconditionally harm health. A calm and serene existence does not at all guarantee physical well-being. That is, the sign of emotion itself - positive or negative - is not a decisive factor in determining the negative consequences of stress. There must be one more, additional link in the development of a stressful situation, responsible for

one or another outcome. According to B.C. Rotenberg and V.V. Arshavsky, such a link is the type of behavior of a living creature, distinguished by the presence or absence of “search activity” in it.

In the course of numerous experiments with animals, it turned out that pathological processes in their body can slow down, even if it experiences sharply negative emotions. But this happens only if the animal demonstrates a so-called “active-defensive” reaction. But there is also passive – defensive behavior. And, probably, this is precisely the main factor that ultimately leads to psychosomatic disorders after stress reactions.

What ensures the protective effect of active-defensive behavior on health? B.C. Rotenberg and V.V. Arshavsky believe that this protective agent is a search activity aimed at changing an unfavorable situation or maintaining a favorable situation despite the influence of threatening factors or circumstances. This activity is called search because the final results are almost always unclear. The subject can never be sure that he will find a path to success.

Search activity, say the authors of this concept, is a general nonspecific factor that determines the body’s resistance to stress and harmful influences in a variety of forms of behavior.

Let us recall the three phases of the stress response identified by G. Selye. The resistance phase turns into the exhaustion phase (stress gives way to distress) precisely when the search for a way out gives way to giving up the search. Now it becomes clear why psychosomatic illnesses recede under extreme conditions (wars, blockades). The daily struggle for life and victory over the enemy is undoubtedly a manifestation of search activity.

At the same time, the body mobilizes all its resources so powerfully that ordinary “peaceful” diseases cannot take it. When people who survived the war return to a life situation that does not require extreme stress, search activity inevitably decreases, the body “demobilizes,” and ordinary psychosomatic illnesses return.

The same mechanism of drop in search activity apparently underlies the “disease of achievement.” While a person strives with all his might to achieve his desired goal, he is extremely mobilized and protected from distress. But as soon as the goal is achieved and the temptation to carefreely enjoy the fruits of victory appears, the level of search activity drops sharply and, accordingly, the danger of various ailments increases.

So, search activity has a clear stimulating effect on the body and increases its resistance to stress. A deficiency of such activity creates a predisposition to distress and all its negative consequences. The need for search activity (that is, in the very process of constant change, obtaining new information, unknown sensations, etc.) is inherent in man (and not only, by the way, in man) by nature. It has biological roots and a clearly expressed evolutionary adaptive meaning. Of course, in terms of development, any population benefits from the search behavior of its constituent individuals. Forms of behavior also fall under the influence of natural selection. And it was probably he who “linked” active-defensive behavior and stress resistance in the process of evolution. Having given such a powerful incentive to the self-development of the individual, nature thereby took care of the progress of the population as a whole.

All that remains for us is to “correspond to nature,” that is, not to drown out the need for search, but, on the contrary, to cultivate, support, and encourage it in every possible way.

Thus, the basis of a stress-resistant life strategy is search activity, manifested, of course, in a socially acceptable manner.

lem forms. This is the only way to adequately withstand the stresses of life.

There is no need to give up in front of any difficulties, no matter how insurmountable they may seem. Forget that there are hopeless situations. Look for a way out of any situation, even if it does not exist in principle. Finding a way out of a hopeless situation will be useful in any case. At least by something that will make the wait for the sad ending not so difficult.

But completely hopeless situations do not occur very often in our lives. We are still able to cope with most of them. Maybe not the way we would like, but overall acceptable. And the good thing about search activity here is that in most cases it brings useful results regardless of whether the final goal of our efforts is achieved. The very striving for a goal (more precisely, the search for means to achieve it) turns out to be beneficial.

So, search activity in any situation should become the core of our stress-resistant life strategy. This is the main way to adapt to the modern rapidly changing world and at the same time the main means of improving ourselves (and, along the way, our social environment

It happens that life does not turn out the way we would like (and this happens all the time), if we fail to live up to the generally accepted model of a successful and prosperous person, a certain irritation inevitably begins to accumulate, and claims against the outside world and ourselves grow. In such a situation, it can be useful to carefully analyze how rational our initial beliefs about how the surrounding social world should be structured are.

The discrepancy between what should be (what should be) and what is (what is) is characteristic not only of the reality around us, but also of ourselves. Here

An impressive source of stress reactions also originates. It has two poles: overly inflated ideas about oneself and, conversely, low self-esteem. By the way, it’s interesting: what is more common, an overestimated or underestimated assessment of our own abilities and capabilities? As shown by numerous psychological research On this topic, most of us have some kind of unconscious predisposition in favor of our Self. We, as a rule, evaluate ourselves in almost all respects not as an average person, but somewhat higher. But can we all be above average at the same time? It is clear that this is an illusion. It helps us maintain an optimistic view of the world and our own place in it, but sometimes it also causes trouble in the form of stress from “inflated expectations” or “collapsed hope.” And the famous “midlife crisis” has one of its reasons for the same inflated self-esteem.

There is the famous “formula of self-respect” by W. James, from which it follows that the degree of self-respect depends on the ratio of levels of success (numerator) and aspirations (denominator). IF the result of such “dividing” is low, it may be useful to think about lowering the level of your claims.

However, you shouldn’t underestimate your claims too much. This can lead to the same stress, but for a different reason - due to low self-esteem. The feeling of one’s own disadvantage, bad luck, resentment against the villainous fate and unfavorable circumstances are no less stressful than inflated claims. Therefore, taking care of increasing your self-esteem is one of the means to prevent stress.

bodily - take care of your health, diet, appearance etc.;

emotional - look for emotionally comfortable situations for yourself, ensure yourself at least a little tangible success in some activity, create small holidays for yourself and others, etc.;

rational - accept and love yourself for who you are! It's about feeling the value and uniqueness of your own life. After all, knowing the shortcomings of our children or parents does not prevent us from loving them. Why can’t you approach yourself with the same standards?

All this is so simple and obvious that one can only wonder: where do we have so much stress associated with low self-esteem? The answer, however, is no less obvious: the same inertia, laziness, and lack of belief that serious results can be achieved with fairly simple means are to blame. But numerous examples of people who “made,” as the Americans put it, “self-made men,” indicate that it is possible and necessary to achieve changes that are favorable to us through perseverance, methodology, and perseverance. After all, even the inertia of our life is a great force. Remember the first law of classical physics (law of inertia):

If no forces act on a body, then it is either at rest or maintains a state of uniform rectilinear motion. As applied to the issues discussed here, this means that if we do not make any effort to improve our affairs, then they will not improve on their own. But as soon as we start working on ourselves or circumstances, the same force of inertia will begin to support our efforts, maintain their energy and constancy. The activity of overcoming difficult life problems and resilience do not come naturally. Sparing no effort to develop them in yourself is, in fact, the whole “secret” of gaining stress resistance.

CONCLUSION

Is it possible to live without stress? No, living without stress is impossible and even harmful. It is much more difficult to try to solve the problem: “How to live under stress?” However, stressors are different: a stressor is a friend that brings great benefits to our health, stimulates creative activity; a stressor - which you can easily brush aside and after an hour or two simply forget or remember with a grin and a feeling of some dissatisfaction. But a stressor occurs (and much more often than we would like) - an enemy that deals terrible blows to the most vital organs.

As a result of studying this chapter, students should:

know

physiological and biochemical nature of stress;
difference between stress and distress;
representatives of which professions are at risk of “burnout syndrome”;
what is “search activity” and what is its role in the dynamics of stress;

be able to

explain the main causes of professional stress;
prevent stress in business communications;

own

Knowledge of individual strategies and tactics of stress-resistant behavior.

As evidenced by the contents of the previous chapter, it is almost impossible to avoid conflicts in the field of business communications. Stress is an essential accompaniment of any conflict. Its unpleasant signs (increased excitability, inability to concentrate, a feeling of unreasonable fatigue, etc.) appear instantly and are visible, as they say, to the naked eye. “Don’t be nervous”, “relax” - those around us advise us. Yes, we would be glad not to be nervous, but often this does not work out. A stressful situation grabs hold of us and does not let go: unpleasant thoughts “climb” into our heads, harsh words come out of our mouths of their own accord... So, we are not far from a serious illness. Can anything be done about this? It is possible, but only under three indispensable conditions: a) a clear understanding of the nature of stress and the stages of its development; b) a clear understanding of the limits of possible influence on the course of a stressful situation; c) readiness for active efforts to achieve stress resistance. We will talk about how to fulfill these conditions in this chapter.

Concept and nature of stress

The word "stress" translated from English means "tension". This term was introduced into scientific circulation in 1936 by the outstanding Canadian physiologist Hans Selye (1907–1982), who developed the general concept of stress as an adaptive reaction of the body to the influence of extreme factors (stressogens). The extraordinary popularity of both the concept itself and its leading concept is apparently explained by the fact that with its help many phenomena in our ordinary, everyday life can easily be explained: reactions to emerging difficulties, conflict situations, unexpected events, etc.

According to the classical definition of G. Selye, stress is a nonspecific response of the body to any demand presented to it, and this response represents the tension of the body, aimed at overcoming emerging difficulties and adapting to increased demands. The term “nonspecific” in this case means something common to all adaptive reactions of the body. In the cold, for example, we try to move more to increase the amount of heat generated by the body, and the blood vessels on the surface of the skin narrow, reducing heat transfer. On a hot summer day, the body, on the contrary, reflexively releases sweat, increasing heat transfer, etc. These are specific reactions that respond to specific environmental requirements for the body. But in any case, it is necessary to adapt to the environment and restore a normal state. The general need to rebuild the body and adapt to any external influence is the essence of stress. It does not matter whether the situation we are faced with is pleasant or unpleasant. Oddly enough, cold, heat, sadness, joy, and medications, according to G. Selye, cause the same biochemical changes in the body. Something similar exists in our electrical household appliances: a refrigerator, heater, lamp, bell change the physical environment in different ways (cold, heat, light, sound), but their work is determined by a single factor - electricity. In the same way, the stressor effect from external influences does not depend on the type of specific adaptive responses to them. The essence of such answers is the same.

Prevention of stress in business communication

We experience a significant portion of stress as a result of conflicts generated by various work situations. In this case, in any case, the “vertical” of business relations is affected: manager - subordinate. After all, even if ordinary employees are in conflict with each other, the manager cannot help but interfere in the process of resolving the conflict. Therefore, recommendations for the prevention of stress, formulated by managerial psychology, are deployed, as it were, on two “fronts”: managers, whose responsibilities are charged with reducing the level of stress among employees, and subordinates, who are asked to protect themselves from stress and not serve as stressors for others.

To minimize the level of stress in the team without reducing productivity, the manager should listen to the following recommendations.

The implementation by managers of these recommendations, which are simple in principle, can have a very significant impact on the level of stress in the team.

At the same time, for the same purposes, subordinates are encouraged to take a step towards their superiors. Those suffering from stress at work are usually offered something like the following list of stress minimization methods.

Anti-stress submission

Try to establish an effective working relationship with your manager. Assess the scale of his problems and help him understand yours. Managers, as a rule, need feedback, but are not always able to provide it.

If you feel that the amount of work assigned to you is clearly beyond your capabilities, find the strength to say “no.” Take care to provide a balanced and thorough justification for your refusal. But don’t “slam the doors”: explain that you are not at all against new tasks. if only you are allowed to free yourself from some of the old ones.

If a production “role conflict” arises, that is, there is a deliberate contradiction in the requirements (for example, you were assigned to draw up an important report, but were not relieved of the responsibility to answer incessant phone calls from clients), do not bring the matter to a sad conclusion when you have to justify yourself for not doing it or other task. Bring up the problem of incompatibility of tasks assigned to you for discussion right away, focusing management’s attention on the fact that in the end it will be the business that will suffer, and not you personally.

It is also useful to remember that failures at work are rarely fatal. When analyzing their reasons, it is better to compare yourself not with a tightrope walker, who has no room for error, but, say, with a football forward, in whom, out of dozens of attempts to beat defenders, at most one or two are successful, but even that number is sometimes enough. Gaining experience from your own mistakes is your natural right (although not written in the Constitution).

Be sure to discharge your negative emotions, but in socially acceptable forms. Socially approved management of one's emotions does not consist in suppressing them, but in the ability to find suitable channels for channeling or releasing them. If you are very irritated, do not slam the door or shout at your colleagues, but find ways to take out your anger on something neutral: break a couple of pencils or start tearing up old papers, which, as a rule, are available in considerable quantities in any organization. Finally, wait until the evening or weekend and give yourself any physical activity- better is one where you have to hit something (football, volleyball, tennis, at worst, beating carpets will do).

Abstract - Stress. Gaining stress resistance in business communication

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It is almost impossible to avoid conflicts in business communication. An obligatory companion of almost any conflict is stress. Its unpleasant signs (increased excitability, inability to concentrate, a feeling of unreasonable fatigue, etc.) appear instantly and are visible, as they say, to the naked eye. “Don’t be nervous”, “relax” - those around us advise us. Yes, we would be glad not to be nervous, but for the most part it doesn’t work out. A stressful situation grabs hold of us and does not let go: unpleasant thoughts “climb” into our heads, harsh words come out of our mouths of their own accord.

So it’s not far from a serious illness. Can anything be done about this? It is possible, but only under three essential conditions:

1) a clear understanding of the nature of stress and the stages of its development;

2) a clear understanding of the limits of possible influence on the course of a stressful situation;

3) readiness for active efforts to achieve stress resistance.

This work will address issues such as:

Concept and nature of stress;

Causes and sources of stress;

Prevention of stress in business communication;

Individual strategy and tactics of stress-resistant behavior.

§ 1. Concept and nature of stress

In the dynamics of the stress response, G. Selye sees three phases:

1) an anxiety reaction, manifested in the urgent mobilization of the body’s defenses and resources;

2) the resistance phase, which allows the body to successfully cope with the stress-causing influences;

3) the phase of exhaustion, if too prolonged and too intense a struggle leads to a decrease in the adaptive capabilities of the body and its ability to resist various diseases.

The physiological and biochemical nature of stress has been studied quite well to date. Schematically, the physiological “underside” of the stress response looks something like this. Under the influence of any stress factor (conflict, unexpected event, etc.), an intense, persistent focus of excitation is formed in the human cerebral cortex - the so-called “dominant”. Its appearance triggers a kind of chain reaction: one of the most important structures of the diencephalon, the hypothalamus, is also excited, which in turn activates the closely related leading endocrine gland, the pituitary gland. The latter releases a portion of a special hormone into the blood, under the influence of which the adrenal glands secrete adrenaline and other physiologically active substances (stress hormones), which ultimately give a well-known picture of a stressful state: the heartbeat increases, breathing quickens, blood pressure rises, etc. .

Biochemical changes during stress are the body’s defensive reaction to an external threat, formed in the process of long-term evolution. Unused hormones circulate through our blood, agitating the body and preventing the nervous system from calming down. If they were immediately spent on some kind of physical activity, stress would not have destructive consequences. But a person leading a modern lifestyle has few such opportunities. Therefore, his body falls into a kind of stress trap: an emergency release of stress hormones into the blood depletes their supply in the adrenal cortex, which immediately begins to intensively restore them. That is why, even with relatively weak repeated emotional arousal, the body reflexively reacts with an increased release of hormones. This is the biochemical nature of stress, which “stands behind the scenes” of nervous, inappropriate human behavior.

§ 2. Causes and sources of stress

The list of causes of stress is endless. International conflicts, instability of the political situation in the country, and socio-economic crises can act as stressors.

overload or too little workload;

role conflict (occurs if an employee is presented with conflicting demands);

role ambiguity (the employee is not sure what is expected of him);

poor physical conditions (noise, cold, etc.);

incorrect relationship between authority and responsibility;

poor channels of information exchange in the organization, etc.

Organizational and personal factors

fear of not being able to cope with work;

fear of making a mistake;

fear of being left out by others;

fear of losing your job;

fear of losing one's own self.

Organizational and production factors

An unfavorable moral and psychological climate in a team, unresolved conflicts, lack of social support, etc. are also stressful.

§ 3. Prevention of stress in business communication

Do not be annoyed if an employee refuses a given task; it is better to discuss with him the validity of the refusal.

Use a leadership style that is appropriate to your specific work situation and workforce.

When employees fail, evaluate first of all the circumstances in which the person acted, and not his personal qualities.

Do not exclude compromises, concessions, and apologies from your arsenal of means of communication with subordinates.

Periodically think about ways to relieve the stress your subordinates have already accumulated.

Keep in mind the problems of employee rest, the possibility of their emotional release, entertainment, etc.

Discuss your problems with colleagues and management. Take care not to come off as blaming or complaining—you're just trying to solve a work problem that may not be your only concern.

Do not hesitate to demand complete clarity and certainty from management and colleagues about the essence of the tasks assigned to you.

When working hard, look for opportunities to briefly disconnect and rest. Experience shows that two 10-15 minute periods of relaxation per day are enough to maintain a high degree of performance.

Be sure to discharge your negative emotions, but in socially acceptable forms. Socially approved management of one's emotions

Try not to mix personal and professional relationships, etc.

The recommendations listed above for preventing stress in work groups are inevitably quite general. A specific stressful situation is always unique, since it is determined not least by the individuality of the person exposed to stress (his temperament, character, style of behavior, etc.). In addition, our susceptibility to stress at work depends to a large extent on the general background of life, that is, on how successfully we are able to get out of stressful situations generated by general social, family, age and other factors. In essence, occupational stress is just one of the many types of stress that beset us. It, of course, has its own specifics. But the physiological nature of stress is the same. Therefore, a person who is seasoned in overcoming various life barriers and troubles should obviously cope more successfully than others with professional stressful situations. Thus, one of the keys to success in overcoming work stress lies in the individual’s general life strategy, based on selected basic values and taking into account the characteristics of his personality.

STRESS AND STRESS RESISTANCE IN BUSINESS COMMUNICATIONS

As a result of studying this chapter, students should:

know

physiological and biochemical nature of stress;

Distinction between stress and distress;

Representatives of which professions are at risk of “burnout syndrome”;

What is “search activity” and what is its role in the dynamics of stress;

be able to

Explain the main causes of occupational stress;

Prevent stress in business communications;

own

Knowledge of individual strategies and tactics of stress-resistant behavior.

As evidenced by the contents of the previous chapter, it is almost impossible to avoid conflicts in the field of business communications. Stress is an essential accompaniment of any conflict. Its unpleasant signs (increased excitability, inability to concentrate, a feeling of unreasonable fatigue, etc.) appear instantly and are visible, as they say, to the naked eye. “Don’t be nervous”, “relax” - those around us advise us. Yes, we would be glad not to be nervous, but often this does not work out. A stressful situation grabs hold of us and does not let go: unpleasant thoughts “climb” into our heads, harsh words come out of our mouths of their own accord. So it’s not far from a serious illness. Can anything be done about this? It is possible, but only under three indispensable conditions: a) a clear understanding of the nature of stress and the stages of its development; b) a clear understanding of the limits of possible influence on the course of a stressful situation; c) readiness for active efforts to achieve stress resistance. We will talk about how to fulfill these conditions in this chapter.

Concept and nature of stress

The word “stress” translated from English means “tension”. This term was introduced into scientific circulation in 1936 by the outstanding Canadian physiologist Hans Selye (1907–1982), who developed the general concept of stress as an adaptive reaction of the body to the influence of extreme factors (stressogens). The extraordinary popularity of both the concept itself and its leading concept is apparently explained by the fact that with its help many phenomena in our ordinary, everyday life can easily be explained: reactions to emerging difficulties, conflict situations, unexpected events, etc.

Cm.: Selye G. Stress without distress. M.: Progress, 1979.

Topic 15. Professional stress

Professional stress– this is a tense state of an employee that arises when exposed to emotionally negative and extreme factors associated with the professional activity performed.

Types of professional stress: informational, emotional and communicative.

Information stress occurs when an employee cannot cope with the task that has arisen in front of him due to information overload (uncertainty, lack or excess of information) and does not have time to make an important decision.

Emotional stress occurs when there is a real or perceived danger of experiencing humiliation, guilt, resentment, anger, or in conflict relationships with superiors, subordinates and colleagues.

Communication stress is associated with real problems of professional communication, which manifest themselves in increased irritability, inability to defend against communicative aggression, inability to formulate a refusal, and protection from manipulation.

Dynamics of professional stress

1. An increase in tension, which outwardly manifests itself in the disappearance of psychological contact in professional and interpersonal communication, alienation appears in relationships, self-control weakens.

2. There is a loss of effective and conscious self-control, feeling empty and tired.

3. There is a return to the previous state, often accompanied by a feeling of guilt.

Each employee has his own individual scenario of stress behavior, which is characterized by the frequency and form of manifestation of stress reactions. A stressful scenario is characterized by:

· frequency and form of behavior and communication;

· direction of aggression (at oneself, at others);

You can regulate your own state under conditions of professional stress by mastering the psychotechnics of personal self-regulation.

Rules of self-regulation under conditions of professional stress.

1. Know your strengths and weaknesses, learn to fix in your mind the states and mood in the first stage of stress.

2. It is necessary to look for ways to stop yourself: take a break in communication with employees, leave the room, move to another part of the room.

3. Transfer your energy into another form of activity, which will make it possible to relieve tension: make tea, talk to a nice employee, put your palms in cold water and etc.

4. Set aside time every day for activities that bring satisfaction and joy.

3. PLANS FOR CONDUCTING SEMINAR AND PRACTICAL LESSONS.

Lesson 1. Introduction to the subject of E&PPD.

1. Subject, tasks, main categories of E&PPD.

2. The principles that guide general psychology and its branches in the study of the human psyche.

3. The concept of personality.

4. Personality structure.

Lesson 2. General views about the psyche.

1. What difficulties exist in defining the concept of psyche?

2. Specific properties and characteristics of the psyche.

3. Functions of the psyche.

4. The totality of mental phenomena studied in psychology.

Lesson 3. Structure of mental phenomena.

1. Define a mental process, property, state.

2. What mental processes does psychology study?

3. What mental states does psychology study?

4. Define temperament, character, abilities and personality orientation.

Lesson 3. Study of mnestic and intellectual abilities of students.

1. Study of immediate voluntary memory.

2. Completing tasks to study the processes of generalization, analysis, synthesis.

Lesson 4. Communication and interpersonal relationships.

1. Definition of communication, communication models.

2. Communication as communication.

3. Communication as perception and understanding.

4. Communication as interaction.

Lesson 5. Communication and interpersonal relationships.

Performing a number of exercises to develop communication skills:

· exercise “Qualities that are most important for communication.”

Lesson 6. Communication barriers and motives of behavior.

Performing exercises to develop attraction (the art of pleasing people):

· exercise “What’s in your name”...;

· exercise “How to ask so as not to be refused.”

Lesson 7. Psychology of verbal and nonverbal behavior.

Performing exercises on transmitting and receiving verbal and nonverbal information:

· exercise “Transmitting text along a chain”;

Lesson 8. Psychological and ethical features of conducting business conversations and negotiations.

Business game "Negotiations"

Lesson 9. Business communication in a work group.

1. Social and psychological characteristics of the work group.

2. Professional maturity of the working group.

3. Restrictions that create obstacles to the effective work of the team.

4. Types of relationships in the team.

5. Classification of psychological personality types in a team (according to V.M. Shepel).

1. Krasnikova E.A. Ethics and psychology of professional activity: Textbook. – M.: FORUM:INFRA-M, 2003.

2. Psychology and ethics of business communication: Textbook for universities / V.Yu. Doroshenko and others; Ed. prof. V.N. Lavrinenko. – 2nd ed., revised. and additional – M.: Culture and Sports, UNITY, 1999.

Lesson 10. Factors and mechanisms of conflict resolution.

1. Perform exercises to use various types behavior in conflict:

· exercise “Subject positions”;

· exercise “Phase structure of the discussion process.”

2. Test to assess the level of personality conflict.

Lesson 11. Social and psychological problems of leadership.

1. The role of the leader in the formation of the team.

2. Informal relations between a manager and a subordinate.

3. Leadership styles.

4. Basic functions of leadership.

Lesson 12. Professional ethics: concepts and principles.

1. Morality, its functions.

2. Ethics is the doctrine of morality.

4. Business etiquette.

3. Krasnikova E.A. Ethics and psychology of professional activity: Textbook. – M.: FORUM:INFRA-M, 2003.

4. Psychology and ethics of business communication: Textbook for universities / V.Yu. Doroshenko and others; Ed. prof. V.N. Lavrinenko. – 2nd ed., revised. and additional – M.: Culture and Sports, UNITY, 1999.

5. Psychology of professional activity. 2nd ed./N. Samoukina. – St. Petersburg: Peter, 2003 pp. 62-71).

Lesson 13. Ethics of relationships with clients, colleagues and superiors in professional activities.

1. Golden Rule ethics of communication.

2. Top-down business communication ethics.

3. Bottom-up business communication ethics.

4. Ethics of business communication “horizontally”.

5. Ethics of telephone communication.

5. Ethics of business correspondence.

1. Psychology and ethics of business communication: Textbook for universities / V.Yu. Doroshenko and others; Ed. prof. V.N. Lavrinenko. – 2nd ed., revised. and additional – M.: Culture and Sports, UNITY, 1999.

2. Koblikov A.S. Legal ethics. Textbook for universities. – M.: Publishing group NORMA – INFRA M, 1999.

Lesson 14. Professional stress. Technologies of self-regulation in conditions of professional stress.

3. The concept of professional stress.

4. Dynamics of professional stress.

5. Stressful scenarios.

6. Professional stress of achievement, competition, success, submission.

– this is a factor that simply cannot be avoided. Not only do two or more different personalities collide in business, but also each of them pursues its own benefits and goals, which may contradict the principles of the opponent.

Causes of stress

- This is a universal “means” of defense of the nervous system. It arises and manifests itself for standard reasons, regardless of the type of “irritant”. If we transfer this postulate to the sphere of business communication, we can identify the following “provocateurs” of stress:

Conflicting requirements.

Role uncertainty (when a person does not understand what is required of him).

Apathy towards work (if professional activity is uninteresting, then it causes a constant nervous state).

Violation of physical conditions (working in a noisy environment, in the cold, etc.).

Conflicting demands are one of the key triggers of stress.

In addition, psychologists identify additional stress factors that have no less impact on psychological stability in the business sphere:

Fear of doing the job poorly.
Fear of making a mistake (especially one that cannot be corrected).
Fear of being worse than others.
Fear for reputation.

Stress resistance strategy

As G. Selye’s concept says, stress is the real “taste” and “aroma” of life, and complete freedom from it is death. It is impossible to avoid it all the time, but it is quite possible to build your own strategy for stress resistance, to adequately meet and resist psychological threats. This is fraught with minimal harm to health.

It has been scientifically proven that the strength of the stress reaction directly depends on the general attitude towards life and satisfaction with the current state of affairs. To make the reaction to “irritants” less pronounced or not occur at all (for example, in situations that are not of serious, if not any significance), try to adhere to the following rules:

Plan ahead possible options outcome of the event/negotiation. Anticipate what your opponent might say and think about how best to respond. Mentally build a dialogue and draw potentially possible directions development of the meeting. Prepare for any option by turning Special attention to negative. Subconsciously, you will already experience the situation, which will reduce the effect of it, even if it happens.
Always have several plans in stock. If you can’t do “A”, go to “B”; If “B” fails, you will have “C”. Often stress arises due to confusion, when something urgently needs to be done and started to move, but the person does not know where or how. By making plans in advance, you will protect yourself from such troubles.
Regularly give yourself psychological fasting days recreation. In the absence of this, stress will become chronic, and nervous system will be depleted.

Regularly arrange psychologically fasting days of rest for yourself.

These are three universal pieces of advice that can be given to absolutely anyone, from a schoolchild to a business manager who wants to confidently control himself.

Anti-stress guide

To reduce stress levels in your team, you can follow the recommendations below. Think more often about the adequacy of your own assessments of the professional qualities of your subordinates. The manager should not have favorites, and all responsibilities should be distributed in accordance with the position held. Employees subtly sense injustice and will answer you in kind.

Show your subordinates concern and support them. Make it clear that everyone is human and everyone can make mistakes. If someone made a mistake, analyze why this happened, and only then decide on a further reaction.

When criticizing a subordinate, do not get personal and do not humiliate the person. Stick to it and don’t go beyond what is permitted.

Know how to admit your mistakes to your subordinates. This has a positive effect on both sides. Firstly, you will raise your status in the eyes of the staff, because not every manager is capable of this. Secondly, employees will be less afraid of making mistakes themselves and will approach the performance of their work duties with less stress. As practice shows, the absence of fear of error reduces the number of mistakes to a minimum, and vice versa.

As practice shows, the absence of fear of error reduces the number of mistakes to a minimum.

When communicating with subordinates, do not allow yourself to use sarcasm, irony and humor, which can offend a person from the team.

Anti-stress submission

Do not hesitate to ask your manager to explain more precisely what exactly he expects from you when giving this or that task. In any case, when the primary formulation of the problem allows for a dual understanding. It is even better if all orders are given in writing.

If you feel that there are too many things to do on you and this is interfering with the fulfillment of your duties, say a motivated “no”. This is not an indicator of weakness, but a healthy assessment of one’s capabilities. Trying to accomplish something that is a priori impossible is fraught with mistakes and, as a result, stress and a nervous breakdown.

If you are not satisfied with the working conditions that can be adjusted, or the pay, talk to management and offer your ideas for improvement. If the measures are rejected, you should consider changing your place of work to a more comfortable one.

Even with high levels physical and mental stress, find 10-15 minutes to rest. It has been proven that this time is enough to increase your productivity.

Regularly give yourself psychological relief. This could be taking up a favorite hobby or going to the gym. An outburst of negative emotions is definitely necessary, or they will “eat” you from the inside.

Do not interfere with personal and business relationships. Even if you work or are constantly in contact with your wife/husband/friend/relative regarding work processes, agree in advance that relationships are relationships and work is work. The situation and situation in one area should not intersect in any way with another.

You need to deal with stress when it has not yet arrived - this is much more effective. Conduct an internal dialogue with yourself, avoid the “excellent student” syndrome, and rest properly and on time. But if you feel that you can’t cope on your own, contact a professional psychologist. There is nothing shameful in this; his task is to set the patient up to move in a creative and productive direction, and not to classify you as a “psychopath”.

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Posted on http://www.allbest.ru/

Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation

Novosibirsk State University of Economics and Management "NINKh"

Department of Social Communications and Sociology of Management

Stress and its impact on the process of business communication

Academic discipline:

“Speech culture and business communication”

Student: Soldatkina Anastasia Andreevna

Novosibirsk 2015

Introduction

1. Concept and nature of stress

2. Causes of stress

3. Signs of stress

4. Phases of stress

7. Devastation syndrome

8. Ways to overcome stress in business communication

Conclusion

Bibliography

Introduction

stress sensitivity irritant

Any person is subject to stress, regardless of his social status and material level. In Russia, today, there are no exact statistics, but according to rough estimates, 70% of Russians are constantly in a state of stress, and a third of the entire population is in a state of severe stress.

The reasons for this phenomenon are always heterogeneous. For some, severe stress may be caused by the loss of a loved one, and for others, by entering a new educational institution.

Also, do not forget that the concept of “stress resistance,” which implies a person’s ability to overcome difficulties and suppress their emotions in certain life situations, is very individual and fickle.

Based on the reasoning of scientists, we can conclude that stress “in small doses” is even beneficial and has a positive effect on a person. It is necessary for survival, as it increases performance and enhances brain activity. Also, short-term stress triggers the body's defense response and increases the activity of immune cells, which help the body fight its ailments. The rapid wave of the phenomenon in question is a kind of vaccination, forcing the body to work more efficiently and be resistant to subsequent potential shocks. Another positive result of stress is its effect on a person's memory. In 2009, research was conducted on this subject at the University at Buffalo, which showed that rats that were forced to swim (which put them in a state of stress) remembered their path in a maze better than their “brothers” who were not subjected to such an experiment.

But still, when stress is mentioned, negative associations appear in every person’s head on a subconscious level, which undoubtedly justifies itself. Stress is often called the “silent killer.” People who are constantly under stress may not notice how they develop various types of diseases, most often associated with the cardiovascular system. If a person is exposed to stress, the likelihood of his death from heart disease, cancer, lung disease, and cirrhosis of the liver is highest. Accidents most often occur with such people, and they often commit suicide. At the same time, artificially lowering the level of sensitivity to various kinds of external stimuli in some cases can lead to callousness, lack of strong emotions and indifference—that is, properties that, in turn, also lead to negative results in the social and family life of an individual. Once again we can come to the conclusion that in everything you need to know when to stop.

Of course, a person under stress can hardly be called an effective worker. In addition to the fact that he wreaks chaos and destruction in his wake, he is a certain external factor influencing the condition of the people around him, which leads to the emergence of numerous conflicts. Returning to the concept of “stress resistance,” let us remember that this word is most often found in job advertisements. This concept in the vacancy text allows the future employee to identify what difficulties he will have to face, and the employer to understand what the employee is capable of. Stress in business communication is an element that is almost impossible to avoid, since everyone, one way or another, has to deal with conflict situations generated by industrial relations. In this case, the vertical of business communication between the manager and the subordinate is also affected. In order to ensure that stress arising in business communication does not become the reason for the formation of two warring parties, managers must take care of their subordinates and not act as this factor influencing the emergence of stress among employees, and employees, in turn, must respond in this way stress resistance requirements depending on the type of their activity.

Let's figure out what stress is and how it affects business communication between people, and also try to understand what methods most effectively help to avoid the phenomenon in question.

1. Concept and nature of stress

Stress (from English stress - tension) is a state mental stress, due to the performance of activities in particularly difficult conditions. The author of the concept of stress is the Canadian pathologist and endocrinologist G. Selye (1907-1982). He introduced the concept of “stress” in 1936 when describing the adaptation syndrome.

The first mention of stress, as we know, can be found in Homer’s “Iliad” (a monument of ancient Greek literature, 8th century BC): the hero of the poem, Achilles, complained of emotional decline and thoughts of suicide arising in his head. As mentioned earlier, stress can have both a positive and negative impact on human activity (until it is completely disorganized). Experiencing and managing stress is central to many human problems. Stress has been called the disease of the 20th century.

At its core, stress is a way to achieve the body's resistance in response to a negative factor. According to the classical definition of G. Selye, stress is a nonspecific response of the body to any demand presented to it, and this response represents the body’s tension aimed at overcoming emerging difficulties and adapting to increased demands.

Modern life situations lead to a sharp increase in psychological stress on a person. An important prerequisite for the creation of the doctrine of stress was the need to solve the problem of protecting humans from the effects of adverse factors.

Further study of stress by G. Selye's followers was devoted to the psychological mechanisms of stress, as well as their role in the development of diseases resulting from emotional overstrain.

2. Causes of stress

Most people identify factors that cause stress with unpleasant events, such as a difficult work schedule, or the loss of something important and valuable. Such factors should also include positive situations - receiving an award, marriage, salary increase, etc. These are good moments, but despite this, they still determine the causes of stress. Positive or negative stress factors cause it to the extent that a person perceives this factor. If our attitude towards marriage is calm, we perceive stress to a lesser extent, unlike the case when marriage is the most long-awaited event in life. If a person perceives failures as a life experience from which he can learn something new, then stress will manifest itself in the form of a little excitement. If failure is taken too seriously, then stress is fraught with serious problems for the health of the body, including depression and changes in consciousness, so the causes of stress are relative and individual for each person.

The causes of stress can be internal and external. External are life's ups and downs and changes that are under our control. Internal reasons are found in our minds and are largely a figment of the imagination. This division is conditional, it is made only for the convenience of understanding the reasons under consideration.

External causes of stress:

* Dramatic changes in a person’s life.

* Difficulties in relationships with people.

* Material problems.

* High employment.

* Personal life (family and children).

Internal causes of stress:

* Inability to make a decision, uncertainty.

* Pessimism.

* Negative self-talk.

* Unrealistic expectations.

* Lack of diligence and persistence.

* Perfectionism.

There are ten most common stress factors:

* Death of a spouse.

* Divorce from spouse.

* Breaking up with a partner.

* Imprisonment.

* Illness or death of a loved one.

* Illness or injury.

* Dismissal from work.

* Marriage.

* Reconciliation of spouses in marriage.

* Retirement.

Main causes of stress

Finance. Many researchers believe that the main causes of stress are financial relationships. For example, purchasing a car or house, loss of money as a result of theft, loss, debts to third parties, etc.

Job. Due to the fact that work is directly related to a person’s financial relationships, it can be called the second on the list of main sources of stress. Sometimes it seems that career and work are constant causes of stress. Many people make maintaining their own employment their main priority in life.

Health and safety. Problems with health and safety have always been painful for people, since these problems pose an indirect threat to life.

Family. Strained relationships with family members can be very stressful for a person. Such stress can drag on for many years and result in a serious illness.

Personal relationships. Relationships with friends, co-workers and even strangers always have an emotional overtone and often give rise to causes of stress.

Personal problems. Man has always wanted to have control over his own life, and some over the lives of others. However, when such self-control weakens, we experience stress, since it is human nature to control ourselves and others.

Death. Even the death of a pet is stressful for its owner, not to mention the tragedy of the death of a loved one. Anticipation of death is also a great source of stress.

Impossibility of self-expression. Every person strives to express himself and represent something, but not everyone succeeds.

3. Signs of stress

Signs of stress can be divided into 3 categories: physical, emotional and behavioral.

There are a huge number of physical signs, but we will list the main ones: loss of appetite, insomnia, pain in the chest, stomach, back, neck, constant hunger, high blood pressure, dizziness, constant drowsiness, nausea, vomiting, frequent colds, cold feet or hands, etc.

Emotional signs: excessive aggressiveness, increased excitability, depression, anger, thoughts of suicide, neurotic behavior, hysterics, panic attacks, nightmares, a feeling of loss of control over oneself or over the current situation, irritability, bad mood, constant concern, etc.

Behavioral signs: alcohol abuse, excessive suspiciousness about one’s physical condition, loss of interest in one’s appearance, the habit of fiddling with one’s hair, the habit of aimlessly walking around the room, in circles, touching things and immediately forgetting about them, a sudden change social behavior, teeth grinding, chronic tardiness, etc.

It is worth remembering that not all of these signs are characteristic of every person during a period of stress. All of them are very subjective and ambiguous, but if you discover certain signs in yourself in the aggregate, you should not ignore such “urges” of the body.

4. Phases of stress

Stress is characterized by three phases: anxiety, resistance and exhaustion. People with a stable emotional psyche are able to overcome the anxiety phase. Emotionally unstable people are immediately seized by anxiety, which then turns into fear. Then such people experience exhaustion, taking the form of doom and despair.

Resistance to stress factors can be achieved in two ways: emotional training and careful training using replaying difficult situations, etc.

People's psychological reserves lie in their psyche and, above all, in the emotional sphere. Emotion is understood as a person’s experience of his personal relationship to the actions of other people and to himself.

A person lives in a world of positive and negative emotions, depending on life situations.

In life, emotions are created various shapes emotional states that differ in duration and intensity. They are moods, passions and affects. The mood is characterized by sufficient intensity, duration of occurrence, as well as ambiguity and “unaccountability” of experiences. Unlike mood, passion is a stronger, deeper and longer-lasting emotional state. Passion mobilizes a person to achieve his goals. It can have a positive effect on human personality, but can also destroy personality.

Affect is a peculiar emotional state that occurs with great and pronounced intensity. The peculiarities of his condition are that the affect has a violent external manifestation, is characterized by short duration, and the behavior is unconscious in nature. Any emotions can, under certain conditions, reach the point of passion. Negative affective states usually lead to adverse consequences for the human body.

According to available scientific data, the negative effects of stress are claiming more and more lives these days.

Stress can arise not only under the influence of one strong irritant, but during the manifestation of small constant negative influences that cause a person to feel threatened, anxious, resentful, or dangerous.

The effect of stress is accompanied by various reactions: from a state of increased activity to depression. People's personalities matter in the manifestation of stress. No two people have exactly the same response to stress. Most stress in a person's life is initiated and reproduced by himself.

Even G. Selye noted that what happens to you, but how you perceive it. This directly relates to stress. Even in ancient times, the philosopher Epictetus said that “people are not upset by events, but by the way they look at them.” Cognitive and affective reactions related to stimuli play a role in turning most stimuli into stressors. If the stimulus is not interpreted as a threat or challenge towards the individual, then the stress reaction does not occur at all.

5. Types of professional stress

Professional stress is a tense state of an employee that arises when exposed to emotionally negative and extreme factors associated with the professional activity performed. There are several types of professional stress:

1) information stress - stress that arises due to information overload, when an employee cannot cope with the task that has arisen before him and does not have time to make an important decision under strict time constraints.

2) emotional stress - acute feelings due to the destruction of the employee’s deep attitudes and values associated with his profession; occurs in cases of real or perceived danger, feelings of humiliation, guilt, anger, resentment, in cases of contradictions or severance of business relationships with work colleagues or conflict with management.

3) communicative stress - stress associated with real problems of business communication, manifested in increased irritability, inability to defend against communicative aggression, inability to formulate a refusal where necessary, ignorance of special techniques for protecting against manipulation, and discrepancies in the pace of communication.

4) achievement stress, which occurs when an employee does not have the internal resources to achieve the level of professional success that he plans, as a result of which he becomes depressed. Let's say he wants to be a famous composer or writer, but has no musical or literary abilities. There may also be external barriers: non-recognition of talent by society, inconsistency with historical times, unfavorable life circumstances.

5) competitive stress, based on the fear of being incompetent and losing in the competition. A person begins to see, first of all, competitors in the people around him, even in friends and relatives, and is jealous of the success of even strangers; is afraid to be natural and, in order to be considered successful, embellishes his achievements and begins to live a life that is not his own; he chooses a job not by inclination, but in accordance with prestige, he is surrounded only by the “right” people, and has neither time nor energy for friends, next to him is often a “top model”, whose appearance meets European standards, and not just any woman; In the end, he falls into the “trap of competition”: years of hard work, and as a result - disappointment, envy of people and loneliness.

6)stress of success - stress that overtakes a person at the moment of greatest success; is expressed in the fact that after the completion of a significant event, he experiences a state of “meaninglessness” of what has happened: apathy, indifference develop, the person feels that he did not receive what he deserved with his hard work, and he becomes depressed, despondent or gets sick ; healing is achieved by new active actions and directing the energy of the individual to achieve new goals.

It should also be noted that in addition to stressful professions, which initially imply stress, stressful situations occur in almost any job. The most common ones are:

1) conflict with the boss or colleagues, lack of support from management

2) disorganization and, as a result, incorrect distribution of time, lack of time to complete any tasks, rush

3) insufficient qualifications or inability to apply one’s skills

4) boredom or vice versa, feeling overloaded with work, overwork

5) too high or too low responsibility - inconsistency with temperament, self-awareness, abilities and ambition.

6) inability to adapt to changes in work order.

A stressful situation often arises when a person is forced to change jobs - even if he voluntarily moved to another place, received a promotion, etc.

As soon as the realities come to light new job and the difficulties associated with them, enthusiasm and the desire to give all the best disappear all at once. And if expectations, which, as it turned out, largely exceeded reality, do not come into line with reality over time, people begin to experience the stress of inflated expectations.

6. What is stress resistance and how to develop it?

Stress resistance - the ability to overcome difficulties, suppress one’s emotions, understand human moods, showing restraint and tact.

Stress resistance is determined by a set of personal qualities that allow a person to endure significant intellectual, volitional and emotional stress due to the characteristics of professional activity, without any particular harmful consequences for the activity, others and one’s health.

Benefits of stress resistance:

1) Calm harmonious life. Peace within contributes to peace around.

2) Physical health. Thanks to mental stability, we are less susceptible to neuroses, which means that one of the factors that adversely affects the immune system is excluded.

3) Creation, not destruction. When you are not overcome by depression, insomnia, hysterical states, or physical ailments, you can direct your energy not to fighting these unpleasant consequences of stress, but to creating something new, important, meaningful, or simply pleasant. Awareness of your own importance always gives you self-confidence, which means it adds another brick to the construction of a wall called stress resistance.

4) Positive vision of the world

The stress tolerance theory divides people into 4 groups:

1) Stress-resistant. These include people who are more susceptible to stress than others. The problem is that they do not know how to adapt to external events and are not inclined to change their behavior.

2) Stress-trained. People who are ready for changes, but not radical ones, but calm ones. This is the type of person who agrees only to gradual transformations, but more assertive intervention can lead to depression and nervous breakdowns.

3) Stress inhibitors. This is a type who is quite principled in his life positions and quite loyal to external changes. Unlike the previous type, he would rather agree to rapid changes than to gradual transformation. At the same time, the peculiarity is that if stress follows a long series, it significantly undermines people belonging to this type. They begin to lose spirit and lash out at negative emotions.

4) Stress-resistant. People who are maximally resistant to the negative manifestations of the environment. Their psyche is protected from destruction.

IN modern world a person constantly finds himself in stressful situations. Urgent work pressures, tight deadlines, a huge amount of information received during the day and lack of time for rest leave their mark on well-being and mental stability. There are eight time-tested ways to cope with stress that will allow you to respond more calmly to everyday difficulties, as well as develop your stress resistance, which employers mention so much.

1) Order disciplines a person. Order in the surrounding space allows you not to waste time looking for everything you need. It also creates a feeling of stability and confidence. If you lay out documents on the desktop, sort out things in the closet and put letters into folders in mailbox, one of the factors influencing the development of stress will disappear by itself. Even if you have to spend a lot of time putting things in order at first, it will pay off.

2) Set priorities. When others want everything at once, it is important to have a clear idea of what to do first. All incoming tasks should be recorded and completed according to importance and urgency, then small tasks will not distract from more important matters.

3) Rest. The best way relieve stress - get proper rest. Seven to eight hours of sleep a day helps combat stress better than any sedative. Don’t forget about vacations, because there is no job where the absence of an employee during a planned vacation would be fraught with insoluble problems. At the same time, it is important not to take work home for the evenings and weekends, and especially not to perform work tasks while on vacation.

4) Do not abuse coffee and cigarettes. The body’s reaction to these methods of mental stimulation, which are familiar to many, is often like a pendulum; as a result, instead of the desired result, addictions arise that only aggravate the situation.

5) Don't relieve stress with alcohol. Many traditionally relax after the work week on Friday evenings, drinking in the company of friends. A small amount of wine or beer helps to make the conversation relaxed, but excess alcohol has a negative impact on health and often leads to the fact that Saturday is spent on “rest after rest.”

6) Train yourself to be disciplined. Reactions to stress factors can be cultivated in yourself, like any habit. If you “wind up” yourself, noticing all the little troubles, and then retelling them to others, the stress will be felt much stronger. Sometimes it’s enough to simply ignore someone else’s rudeness or smile at your own annoying mistake, praising yourself for this small victory, so that life seems simpler and more pleasant.

7) Protect yourself from unnecessary information. Assess how often you watch news on TV or browse news feeds on the Internet. What information is really important to you, and what just spoils your mood? Can you really change something that is causing you resentment? If watching the news has become just an unnecessary habit, perhaps it's time to get rid of it.

8) Play sports. Often, under the influence of stress, aggression accumulates, which is expressed in the desire to raise one’s voice, get into a fight, find a reason for open conflict, etc. Sometimes it feels like tension in the muscles, which causes painful stiffness in the neck and back. Classes in gym or a passion for martial arts will give the muscles the release they lack, allowing them to throw out accumulated aggression.

There is no one magic remedy that will allow you to achieve Buddhist peace, but a set of measures will help you significantly improve your quality of life and less notice stress factors.

7. Devastation syndrome

If a person is unable to bring his expectations as close as possible to the actual state of affairs, they, as a rule, will never be met. Thus, by constantly receiving negative emotions, a person trains himself to perceive everything in a negative light. A habit of recording negative feelings is developed. Its consequence is devastation syndrome - a condition when a person completely loses interest in his work. As a result of this syndrome, a person often experiences moral and physical exhaustion, complete indifference to work and moves away from colleagues. Devastation is not stress itself, but rather the result of long-term exposure to stressful work conditions. Those who are especially susceptible to devastation are those who deal with people on a daily basis, those whose jobs involve repetitive or monotonous activities, who have too much responsibility to bear, or who do not receive positive feedback. The risk group consists of three professional areas - healthcare, law enforcement agencies, education. Workaholics, pedants, and idealists are most susceptible to devastation.

Devastation does not represent the opportunity to perceive reality as it really is, everything is painted in gloomy, dark tones. Apathy and hostility can make our own existence unbearable in a fairly short time, not to mention the effect it will have on those around us.

Feeling empty can be a result of any type of stress at work. If you feel betrayed or suddenly decide that you are unable to resolve a problem or conflict, the awareness of your own helplessness will cause feelings of anxiety, despair and a feeling of powerlessness. These emotions can overwhelm you and prevent you from looking at the situation with different eyes if you don’t take action and stop the growing desire to feel sorry for yourself in time.

Stages of devastation:

1 - inflated expectations. Signs: enthusiastic attitude to work, dedication and passion, high work activity, positive constructive position, desire to learn a lot of new things related to the procession in order to apply knowledge in practice.

2 - pessimism and first disappointments in work. Signs: physical and mental fatigue, despair and disappointment, low morale, boredom, early signs stress.

3 - self-disengagement. Signs: avoidance of contacts with colleagues, anger and hostility, at first glance inexplicable; strong negativity towards everything related to work, depression, other emotional disturbances, inability to think and concentrate, severe mental and physical fatigue and multiple signs of stress.

4- irreversible alienation and loss of interest. Signs: very low self-esteem, chronic absenteeism, persistent negative attitude towards work, cynicism, inability to communicate, complete emotional exhaustion, pronounced signs of physical and emotional stress.

On initial stages The devastation process can be reversed - by changing work goals, attitudes and behavior.

Techniques to interrupt the devastation process:

1 - method of expressing emotions and feelings. You shouldn’t keep everything to yourself - this has a negative impact on your state of mind. Putting stress into words prevents self-isolation. Exchange of opinions with colleagues often acts as a buffer, since communication and sharing feelings with others is a unique way to relieve stress.

2 - distraction technique. You should definitely try to find something to do during the day that has nothing to do with work. Distraction is essential to keeping your work environment fresh.

3 - method of taking into account biorhythms. Each of us has certain times of energy during the working day. Knowing your high tide hours, plan inevitably stressful activities around these times.

4 - method of restriction and control. Learn to say no. Do not allow yourself to be unnecessarily burdened with additional tasks that are not mandatory. Reserving the right to choose, forcing you to reckon with yourself, you will gain a sense of control over the situation, which is necessary for resistance to stress.

8. Ways to overcome stress in business communication

In order to ensure that the stresses that arise in business communication do not become the reason for the formation of two warring parties, managers must take care of their subordinates and not act as stressors for them. You can significantly reduce the level of stress during business communication by using stress minimization methods.

Basic techniques that will help you avoid stressful situations during business communication:

1) If you believe that you are not being paid properly or that there is no opportunity for advancement, you should conduct a thorough analysis of your capabilities and the capabilities of the organization itself. It may turn out that there are simply no such people.

2) A stressful situation in business communication can be avoided if you discuss your problems with management and colleagues. To do this, you should first make sure that the conversation does not look like an accusation or a stream of complaints. Focus on solving a problem that is very important not only for you, but also for the entire team.

3) Since stress in business communication very often arises against the background of communication with the manager, you should try to establish effective relationships with him. Take a close look at the problems that are bothering him at the moment and help him deal with them. Often, a manager needs so-called “feedback,” but it is not always possible to quickly establish it.

Way out of stressful situations in business communication:

In addition to the above techniques, you should also consider your capabilities. Often, conflicts may arise in business communication due to a lack of strength to complete the assigned work.

No one can demand heroism from an employee. You need to work in moderation and without harm to your health. Don’t slam the door and try to explain to your manager that you are not against taking on new responsibilities, but this will require you to give up some of the old ones in order to get everything done.

The main thing to understand is that stress in business communication is not the norm and should be avoided by any means.

Rules of self-regulation in conditions of professional stress:

1) observe yourself. The success of building a personal program for protecting against professional stress depends on how accurately and timely a person is able to notice that he is entering a stress zone and losing self-control.

2) look for ways to stop yourself. At the first stage of stress, it is important to “take a break” and, with an effort of will, interrupt your actions: pause in communication with employees, remain silent for a few minutes, instead of responding with irritation to an unfair remark; escape from; move to another, distant part of the room.

3) do something else that will give you the opportunity to relieve stress: sort through business papers, water flowers; go out into the corridor and talk with employees on neutral topics. Such a break can be practiced as often as possible in those moments when a loss of self-control occurs. It is important that the action of “stopping yourself” becomes a habit.

4) seriously think about what moments in work help relieve stress. What makes you most happy? What do you do with passion? Try to have a little time every day for activities that bring satisfaction and joy.

Rules of conduct in an acute stressful situation:

1 - do not try to make any decisions (except for extreme situations)

2 - count to ten

3-Inhale air slowly through your nose and hold your breath for a while. Exhale gradually, also through your nose, focusing on the sensations associated with your breathing.

4 - if you are indoors, go out of it to some other place where you can be alone with yourself for some time.

5 - try to moisten your forehead, temples and arteries in your hands with cold water.

6 - look around even if the room you are in is familiar to you or looks quite ordinary. As you move your gaze from one object to another, mentally describe their appearance.

7 - look out the window. Focus on what you see.

8 - after taking water into a glass, drink it slowly, as if with concentration. Concentrate your attention on the sensations as the water flows down your throat.

Conclusion

Modern life is extremely stressful. Perhaps because the rhythm has become more dynamic, perhaps people themselves have become more ambitious and strive to be on time and achieve the maximum. To this you can also add ecology, lack of time, radiation from various types of equipment and much more. Unfortunately, the genetic code of humanity does not change as quickly as environment, and the most vulnerable in such a situation is the human psyche.

Sometimes tension reaches such a level that a person can no longer cope with it.

Stress in business communication is very important for the further advancement of ordinary employees and the company as a whole.

Most often, any stress in business communication is associated with conflicts both between the manager and subordinates, and between the subordinates themselves. At the same time, in the latter case, the manager is also drawn into the conflict and cannot ignore the conflicting parties.

Stress caused by conflict between people, as well as the individual stress state of an individual, negatively affects the core activities of the company. In the first case, the conflicting parties will direct their energy not into the work process, but exclusively into hostility between each other, which will be a huge obstacle to productive activity. In the second case, a person who has been exposed to stress and failed to stop the development of this phenomenon at a certain moment will be a kind of “anchor”, pulling himself and others back, sowing destruction around himself, instead of fulfilling his duties in an organized and timely manner.

So, having studied the phenomenon of stress, we can conclude that at least once in their life every person has experienced it themselves. It is almost impossible to avoid stress, because any, even the most minimal, changes in a person’s life entail a similar reaction from the body. It is only important to be able to control yourself during this period and not bring stress to its worst manifestations.

“It’s not stress itself that kills us, but our reaction to it.” Hans Selye.

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