Some concluding thoughts

Coping with the Changing Realities of Work and Life: Receive A Copy Of This Report Contact Us
Summary Results of the Survey Who participated in the 2002 Survey Were there changes from 2000 to 2002 for women? Did Men and women respond similarly?	The Lingering Impact of 9/11 Making sense of the findings Implications: Creating a better workplace Concluding thoughts References and Authors' Note

The world we live in has built-in uncertainties, and we face the growing likelihood that frightening external events will occur. It might even be said that we are in a period of major transition--toward more globalization, more rapid change, and a reduced sense of stability and safety. At the same time, economic cycles continue. Technical innovation proceeds rapidly, and marketplace turmoil and change seem to happen ever more regularly. We ask people to travel, to move their residences, and to accept other changes without blinking or missing a step. Such demands breed stress. Thus we must do our best to find ways to protect people against stress and its physical and mental/emotional consequences.

How can we protect employees against factors that interfere with such things as satisfaction, productivity and employee retention? The following are ideas suggested by our data from 2000 and 2002:

It is useful to think of stress as being generated as the result of feeling helpless or powerless to deal with actual or potential threats. The more helpless and less able to manage situations that people feel, the more stress they experience at any given level of threat. Companies can mitigate that by helping people feel they have choices, that they can make a difference, and can influence various aspects of their environments. So empowering people, and giving them as much safety, rhythm, and predictability as possible inside the workplace will tend to protect them from stress-inducing circumstances and events.
Relationships buttress people against stress. Companies can encourage the establishment of solid, open working relationships in the work context. Such relationships are very helpful to people—and they can contribute to knowledge sharing and creative problem solving, which are good for the organization.
Because relationships are important in people’s lives, companies can encourage sensible work-life balance, and ensure that people have time and opportunity for their families and non-work social relationships.

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