Chronic Stress at Work – Common Job Stressors Among Men
Chronic job stress is common among working Americans—perhaps especially among men, who are more likely to be stressed from work than from other factors, according to a study in
Business News Daily. Stress at work can have various triggers. These work-related stressors can be short-term, such as the rush to meet a deadline or put on a presentation, but all too often, stress at work falls into the long-term (chronic) category, as a 2013 study by the American Psychological Association (APA) found. Their one-third of working Americans reported experiencing chronic job stress.
Common causes of chronic job stress can include:
- A low salary
- Too much work in too little time
- Consistently long hours and overtime
- Little control over occupational decisions
- Discord in the workplace
- Lack of social support
- On-the-job boredom or lack of stimulation
- Conflicting demands or lack of clear expectations regarding job responsibilities
- Rigid hours and work schedule
- A sense of job insecurity
The Link Between Stress at Work and Problem Drinking
Stress at work has been shown to contribute to a number of serious health issues, one of which is problem drinking. There is, in fact, “a significant relationship” between
job stress and alcohol consumption, in the words of the Mental Health Foundation. The following data (from an abundance on the subject) helps to unpack this relationship:
- Chronic stress is a known risk factor for drug abuse and addiction, according to the New York Academy of Sciences.
- In men and women, work stress is one of two major predictors of heavy drinking, according to a study in the journal, Alcohol Research & Health. (The other major predictor, work-family conflict, is also at least somewhat related to occupational stress).
- The APA has reported that work is the second biggest and most reported cause of stress among Americans, and stress—a well-known contributor to mental disorders like addiction.
How Chronic Job Stress Affects Men’s Use of Alcohol
Still other research tells the story of how chronic job stress more uniquely affects men and their use of alcohol:
- Men are reportedly more likely to experience major depression as the result of job insecurity (one common cause of work-related stress), for example; and strikingly, alcohol is involved in 70 percent of all male suicides.
- Men are also more likely than women to use alcohol as a stress coping device—engaging in stress-related binge drinking at a rate 1.5 times that for women, according to a study cited by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse.
- In another University of Vermont study, men problem drinkers were more likely to drink when they felt angry. (Job stress is one of the more obvious sources of anger and frustration.)
Men, Stress, and Addiction – Professions With Highest Rates of Alcohol Abuse
Professions with high rates of alcohol abuse also tend to be predominantly male. For instance, the (mostly male) mining and construction industries exhibited the highest rates of alcohol abuse (roughly 20 percent) when compared with other industries in a
national survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
Police and firefighters also report heavy alcohol use. In a study featured in the
Journal of Substance Abuse & Alcoholism, more than half of all male firefighters said they binge drank during the last month.
