Training & Development
Are you Type A or Type B?
Can you choose your response to workplace stress?
Turfcare sector trainer and conference speaker Frank Newberry reports that most of us can actually ‘choose’ how we respond to stress in the workplace - and we can all learn how to respond better (to stressful situations) than we do now
In her excellent book ‘Words That Change Minds’ (Kendall Hunt Publishing ISBN 13: 9780 7872 34799), Shelle Rose Charvet discloses some interesting research results - particularly her research into how people respond to stress.
In answer to the question: Under stress, approximately how many people can keep their feelings under control?, the answers, shown in percentages, were as follows:
15% of people under stress gave a ‘feelings’ response, i.e. they found it hard to keep their feelings (anger, distress, ‘fight or flight’) under control.
15% of people under stress gave a ‘thinking’ response, i.e. they found that they could (given a few moments) respond in a rational and objective way to the stresses of life.
But, by far the majority, 70% of people under stress, gave either a ‘feelings’ or a ‘thinking’ response, i.e. they found that they could choose one or the other!
This, to me, suggests that, to a certain extent, 85% of people can actually choose a rational response and only 15% have problems responding to stress. I take 15% to be one person in a team of 6 or 7 people. Not too bad considering, but I imagine that, under extreme stress, these numbers might well change.
How big is the problem of stress at work?
For some years now, Government agencies (like the HSE) and respected professional bodies (like ACAS and the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) have been reporting that stress is the most common cause of long-term sickness absence for both manual and non-manual workers.
In 2014/15, stress accounted for 35% of all work related ill health cases and 43% of all working days lost due to ill health.
Two gentlemen - Meyer Friedman and Ray Rosenman (both cardiologists) - coined the term ‘Type A and Type B’ people. Very soon
148 I PC OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2016
after they published their work, it became popular to divide people and their behaviour into two groups and to suggest that one group was much more prone to stress and, therefore, stress related illness and sick absence. I wonder if you can guess which group is more stress-prone from the key word descriptions below:
Type A ambitious
authoritarian perfectionist
highly energetic dominant aggressive workaholic task-centred volatile
Type B relaxed serene
laid back untroubled
non-ambitious philosophical
non-work oriented person-centred self-aware
sense of urgency feelings centred
Perhaps you would like to quickly count up how many of these words are true of you?
How many did you choose in the Type A column and how many in the Type B column?
Are you predominantly Type A or mainly Type B?
Looking at your total for each column - are you predominantly Type A (I used to be) or are you mainly Type B? I am a Type B now. You may even be that rare person whose totals are split equally.
Type A people are interested in high achievement, they are competitive, aggressive and, in contrast to the more laid back, more relaxed Type B, they have twice the rate of heart attacks and higher rates of other illnesses.
Type A people say they enjoy challenge and demands, but it seems, in high stress situations, they become over-stimulated, have high blood pressure, cholesterol levels and so on. They also put less effort into family and social networks and, therefore, have less sources of personal support.
Of course, no-one is a pure Type A or B but we tend towards one type rather than the other. Type B people are less at risk from stress, so it is sensible to consciously adopt Type B behaviour.
The Personality Characteristic of Hardiness
You may, like many before you, be as tough as old boots! People do differ in what psychologists call ‘hardiness’. Hardiness appears to be a characteristic of people who are not made ill by stress. It is made up of the following beliefs:
Commitment
You believe in yourself and what you are doing and, as a consequence, you seem to possess the ability to involve yourself fully in life’s adventure - without feeling unduly stressed.
Internal control
You believe (rightly or wrongly) that you have control over events in your own life.
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